Redcliff Gate from Pill
Mile 5

5
MILES
TO
BRISTOL
BRISTOL

National Grid Reference: 353150, 174750

Location: Pill Road, Ham Green, at the end of a lane just north of the junction with the A369 Haberfield Hill.

Date recorded: Sunday, 30 March 2008

Type of milestone: Inscribed Stone

Notes: Yes, this milestone really does say "BRISTOL" twice! The lower instance is inscribed with larger, rougher letters than the rest of the inscription, which might indicate graffiti, but it could just as easily have been left over if the stone had been refaced and the entire inscription recut smaller. The only other remaining milestone on this route seems to support this latter theory.

On 16th May 1985 this milestone featured in an article in The Surveyor magazine, the full text of which is reproduced below. Many thanks to Dennis 'Kip' Cape for bringing this to my attention.

A milestone in Light's life
Back in 1941, Edgar Light, who was a road man for the Somersetshire County Council, was told to bury an old milestone as part of the wartime measures to deny information to any invading enemy. After the war, he tried to find it again; it was somewhere along the verge of the Pill Road at Ham Green, near Bristol. No luck... until the other day when Avon County workmen came across it when they were laying a pavement. With Avon highways engineer, Kip Cape, Edgar (now 84) was on the scene to see it put back in its original position.

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