Milestones were once a practical technology, erected by turnpike trusts or county grand juries from the eighteenth century onwards to mark distances between towns, guide travellers, and in some cases calculate tolls on improved roads. Most were simple affairs, cut from local stone and inscribed with mileage figures, place names, or both. The fact that this one has been recorded as a monument at all suggests it retains enough of its original character to be worth noting, even if the road it once served has long since been resurfaced and rerouted around it.