“This milepost is in Gilling West, but I think it may have been moved as it points the wrong way to both places,” says Marion Moverley in Easingwold. “Anyway, I like it because it makes me wonder what made Lucy cross!”

Mileposts are our latest fascination, and this is a beauty on the eight-mile long Richmond & Lucy Cross turnpike road – turnpikes, you will remember, were groups of 18th Century businessmen who were allowed to take ownership of a road so they could repair it and charge travellers for using it.

The Richmond & Ripon Chronicle, now part of the Darlington & Stockton Times, advertising the annual meeting of the Richmond & Lucy Cross turnpike in February 1863

The Richmond & Lucy Cross turnpike went north from Richmond down into Gilling West then up to Gatherley Moor, over what is now the A66, down into Melsonby and then even further down into Aldbrough St John before ending up at the Lucy Cross junction on Dere Street, the old Roman road known as the B6275, which takes the traveller into Piercebridge.

There’s the Lucy Cross house, once a pub, on the junction. It has a pump and a mounting block outside, plus “TS 1763” inscribed on the lintel over what was the front door.

The dated front door, now a window, at Lucy Cross

But how does it get its name?

It could be from crossroads, but this has always been a T junction.

Some say it is because the original Lucy Cross Farm was in Aldbrough and it is cruciform in shape – this farm, once something of a model farm 200 years ago, is now called Manor Farm and the Lucy Cross name was transferred to the pub half-a-mile away.

Another suggestion is that a 10th Century boundary marker – a stone pillar known as a cross – once stood on the junction. It would have corresponded with Leg’s Cross, on the north side of the dale on Dere Street, which could have marked the boundary between Gainfordshire and Staindropshire; Lucy Cross on the south side could mark a boundary with Richmondshire.

The Gilling West milepost, complete with full stop after Lucy

Interestingly, Marion’s milepost has a definite full stop after Lucy, perhaps suggesting that there is an abbreviation.

Despite its remote location, Lucy Cross was once a sporting venue. On October 19, 1846, E Ross, the “Little Wonder” from Newcastle, took on I Ruddock of Staindrop in a walking race over 130 yards for a £20 pot.

Pedestrianism in those days was a very popular sport, not because people liked to watch two men try to walk away from each other but because they were addicted to the betting market that went alongside the race.

It was watched by a “great concourse of spectators” and despite the Little Wonder’s regional reputation, Ruddock went off as favourite with the wonderfully-named Mr Miscamble, of the Zetland Arms in Richmond, taking charge of the stakes.

“After a little dodging, Ross got the start of nearly a yard, and kept it for about half the distance, when Ruddock got up to him,” said the Sporting Chronicle newspaper, “but Ross in the latter part of the race crept away, and won cleverly by a yard and a half.”

  •  Can you tell us anymore about Lucy Cross? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk

READ MORE: MILEPOSTS AND BLACK MAN'S CORNER ON THE A167

MILEPOSTS are everywhere, and they don’t always tell the distance in miles. John Morris sends in a picture he took in Shropshire on the B4373 which runs over the famous Ironbridge, at Coalbrookdale, to Shrewsbury. The milepost records the distance to Shrewsbury as 13 miles but to Ironbridge it is zero miles but one furlong.

Elsewhere along the road is another milepost which gives the distance to Salop – the only name for Shrewsbury – as 10 miles and six furlongs.

Since the 9th Century, a furlong has been defined as one-eighth of an English mile, which is 200 yards – this may have come from the length of a furrow that a team of oxen could plough without resting.

Any other interesting mileposts? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk