Came across these naval stones on dog walk what are they

[arantxa]

Walking dig at Herstmonceux Cadtle sussex these were in the woods what are they 

[arantxa]

[Lawryleslie]

How many are there, how high are they and how far apart? At first glance I would say they are land boundary markers, possibly military but not necessarily. The NO possibly initials of land owner?

Edited 22 November , 2020 by Lawryleslie

[CharlesPeter]

Herstmonceux as part of the Royal Observatory was under the control of the Admiralty from 1946 and the land boundary markers almost certainly date from then with the anchor indicating which branch of the services controlled the land. You can find similar at many naval establishments.

 

CPK

[PhilB]

48 minutes ago, Lawryleslie said:

How many are there, how high are they and how far apart? At first glance I would say they are land boundary markers, possibly military but not necessarily. The NO possibly initials of land owner?

Possibly Naval Ordnance (1891 till 1958)

[Lawryleslie]

53 minutes ago, CharlesPeter said:

Herstmonceux as part of the Royal Observatory was under the control of the Admiralty from 1946 and the land boundary markers almost certainly date from then with the anchor indicating which branch of the services controlled the land. You can find similar at many naval establishments.

 

CPK

Yes of course Charles makes complete sense. Around here the old Royal Naval sea firing range at Wembury Point has similar boundary stones marked  "WP" 

[caulkheader]

We have them around at least 2 sites here on the Island, both sites previously coastal battery’s. Ours are numbered and marked ‘WD’ and the crows foot.

T

[arantxa]

Gosh thank you how interesting 

[NigelS]

On 22/11/2020 at 12:55, caulkheader said:

We have them around at least 2 sites here on the Island, both sites previously coastal battery’s. Ours are numbered and marked ‘WD’ and the crows foot.

T

 

There's a small group with the anchor around the site that used  be occupied by the Admiralty signal station on Culver Down (now mainly a car park)  near the Yarborough Monument  on the IOW, as well as many with the more familiar broad arrow mark in the same area.

Living near Aldershot, Pirbright & Deepcut you can't go far in this area without encountering the broad arrow type  with some being more noticeable than others. 

Although not the case with Herstmonceux Castle,  they can quite often be found marked - although not to be confused with the similarly arrow marked survey 'benchmarks' - on the large scale (6 & 25") OS Maps . These are  the 1907 revisions for  Culver Down (the 25" version even gives the stones' numbers):

   6" https://maps.nls.uk/view/101442387 (coastline centre) 
 25" https://maps.nls.uk/view/105990772 (bottom right)

 

An interesting feature of these maps, or rather non-feature - almost certainly for security reasons - is that although the giveaway boundary stones are shown,  Bembridge Fort (A Palmerston Fort dating back to the 1860s)  & the nearby Culver Battery (dating back to 1902) aren't.  (compare with the 1960's https://maps.nls.uk/view/189249665  map on which the fort is clearly marked, and although not identified as such, the battery & its ancillary buildings, which were no longer active by then, can be found at the eastern end of the track above the 'Culver Down' legend.)

 

NigelS

 

 

[caulkheader]

Some of our local examples.

First 2 from area around Fort Victoria, near Yarmouth.

3rd from Culver Down [Bembridge Fort] area.

[NigelS]

Unless I'm mistaken, the first is the one on the Coastal Path a little to the east of the Bouldnor Battery;  I've walked past this one many times  but hadn't notice the 'BOUNDRY' misspelling until now.

 

NigelS

[caulkheader]

8 hours ago, NigelS said:

Unless I'm mistaken, the first is the one on the Coastal Path a little to the east of the Bouldnor Battery;  I've walked past this one many times  but hadn't notice the 'BOUNDRY' misspelling until now.

 

NigelS

You are quite correct, we had to do a fair bit of ‘gardening’ (cutting back the grass and a hard brush of the stone) before we took the shot.

 

We always joke that the mason ran out of space when carving boundary!

[BOSEB]

The gun emplacements on Steep Holm Island in the Bristol Channel have similar markers to show the extent of WD land around them. They were not really needed as the island is only about half a mile long and the whole place was basically WD property.