button to main menu  Lakes Guides, topics
fingerposts, Cumbria
county:-   Cumbria
also see:-    guide stones, Cumbria
Where To Now?
Guide posts tell us where we can go next. Sometimes they actually list the place to which we want to go.

photograph
BUH17.jpg  
The old fashioned archetype is a wooden post with a board ended by the cutout shape of a pointing hand; there aren't many of those left. Many fingerposts in Cumberland are still cast iron; the county resisted a demand by the Ministry of Transport for standardised signs in the 1960s, later rescinded as it was clear that old signs do it just as well. Signs don't often get defaced, as suffered by Dr Syntax: but they still get turned round which causes bother not enjoyed by the driver, nor by the sillies who do it, they're not there to see.
Not all fingerposts are posts; the term is used in this gazetteer more generally.
evidence:-   old itinerary:- Rumney 1899
source data:-   in guide book, The Cyclist's Guide to the English Lake District, by A W Rumney, published by George Philip and Son, 32 Fleet Street, London, and Liverpool, 1899.
image
RUM1Pge.jpg
item:-  JandMN : 147
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag
source data:-   Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.
image G819B324, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1819 part 2 p.324  "Oct. 16."
"Mr. URBAN,"
"I SHOULD hope the following cursory hints are not altogether unworthy of the notice of your readers."
"Travellers can observe a great difference as to the degree of attention paid by the Magistrates and Road-surveyors to the following clause in the Highway Act, 13 Geo. III. c.78, s.26."
""The Justices at the Special Sessions shall issue their precept to the Surveyor, where several highways meet, and there is no sufficient direction-post or stone already fixed or erected; requiring him forthwith to cause to be erected or fixed, in the most convenient place where such ways meet, a stone or post, with inscriptions thereon, in large legible letters painted on each side thereof, containing the name or names of the next market-town or towns, or other considerable place or places to which the said highways lead, &c.""
"The information to be derived from hand-posts is so apparent, that it seems strange they are so much neglected!"
evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag
item:-  map
source data:-   Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.
image G825A386, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1825 part 1 p.386  "F.B. observes, "A material improvement, with little additional trouble, might be made in the common guide post, especially at important positions. It might consist of a board with a coarse map of the adjoining country, containing the boundaries, &c.""
notes:-   Celia Fiennes, the Great Journey, approaching Lancaster from the south, 1698:-
notes:-  
 "... they have one good thing in most parts of this principality (or County Palatine its rather called) that at all cross wayes there are Posts with Hands pointing to each road with the names of the great town or market towns that it leads to, which does make up for the length of the miles that strangers may not loose their road ..."
notes:-  
 "The ROADS of the County ... ... Before we quit this subject, we would most earnestly request those who have the management of the highroads, to put up guide-posts at all the cross-roads; and be vigilant in prosecuting those who destroy such useful directors."

Jollie 1811
notes:-   An engraving by Rowlandson, plate 2 illustrating 'Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque'

image
SYN202fp.jpg  
In the poem by William Combes:-
"He said,- or else he seem'd to say,-
I find that I have lost my way.
Oh! what a wide expanse I see,
Without a wood, without a tree;
No one's at hand, no house is near,
To tell the way, or give good cheer;
For now a sign would be a treat,
To tell us we might drink and eat:"
"How could I come, misguided wretch!
To where I cannot make a sketch?
Thus as he ponder'd what to do,
A guide-post rose within his view;
And, when the pleasing shape he spied,
He prick's his steed, and thither hied;
But some unheading, senseless wight,
Who to fair learning ow'd a spight,
Had ev'ry letter'd mark defac'd,
Which once its several pointers grac'd."
"..."
"Upon that bank awhile I'll sit,
And let poor Grizzle browse a bit;
But as my time shall not be lost,
I'll make a drawing of the post;
And, tho' your flimsy tastes may flout it,
There's something picturesque about it:
'Tis rude and rough, without a gloss,
And is well cover'd o'er with moss; ..."
notes:-   Engraving on p.208 of Loitering among the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, by Paul Ritter?

image
RT0107.jpg  
hearsay:-   The Justices of the Peace acting within Leath Ward, to the Surveyor of the Township of Hutton John, 1 August 1848:-
hearsay:-  
 "[You are hereby required forthwith to erect and fix in the most convenient places upon the several Highways within your Liberty, where two or more Roads meet, a Stone or Post, with proper Inscriptions on both sides thereof, in large legible Letters, not less than one inch height, and of proper and proportionate breadth, containing and denoting the names of the Towns, Villages, or Places to which the said Highways respectively lead, ...]"
notes:-   Fingerposts, along with milestones, hedges, stone walls, and verges, are important features that travellers, visitors to an area, see from their car. They are distinctive features demonstrating the character of an area; and, in the way they are cared for, the character of the local people.
CFX61.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge Abbey Cowper Farm, Abbey Cowper, NY15835060 -- Placename sign, from an old fingerpost? (photo 7.3.2017)
BMF44.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge bridge, Kirkland, NY64583248 -- (photo 2.6.2006)
BNI08.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge Crown Inn, Dalston, NY40904645 -- Across the road the fingerpost labels the Crown Inn. (photo 9.3.2007)
BJU38.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge Glassonby, NY57663884 -- Fingerpost made from a kit of cast iron parts, erected by:- (photo 26.8.2005)
BOD66.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge How Mill Station, How, NY50995654 -- Fingerpost, half a mile away. (photo 7.9.2007)
BQJ60.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge Lyneside Station, Westlinton, NY38786437 -- Directions on a guide post. (photo 11.4.2009)
BQJ61.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge Lyneside Station, Westlinton, NY38786437 -- Guide post. (photo 11.4.2009)
BWX88.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge Sedgwick Trail, Garsdale, Dent Fault, Longstone Common, SD69799127 -- This way ... (photo 22.7.2012)
BWJ83.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge toll gate, Burton-in-Kendal, SD52947610 -- with street lamp and fingerpost
CDN45.jpg thumbnail, click to enlarge Troutbeck Institute, Troutbeck, Town End, NY40730264 -- Guide sign. (photo 9.7.2015)
references:-   ... or guide posts ...

Department of Transport: 1999: History of British Traffic Signs
Department of Transport: 2005: Traditional Direction Signs &Traffic Advisory Leafley 6/05: HMSO (London)
Hands, Stuart: 2002: Road Signs: Shire Publications (Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire):: ISBN 0 7478 0531 7
Worboys, Walter, Sir (chairman): 1963: Report of the Traffic Signs Committee & Traffic Signs; HMSO &Ministry of Transport (London)
button to lakes menu  Lakes Guides menu.