Cast iron milepost in Grid Square TQ2747, on Brighton Road. This is made of the standard design for mileposts along this London to Brighton route. This one was built in 1816. The post shows the distances between Brighton and Westminster Bridge on both of its faces. The other ones on this route also showed the points further down the post, and the assumption is that this particular milepost is partly buried. On the top is the Parish name, in which this was situated at the time. This area is now part of the Salfords Parish.
This road is part of the main route of the Road to Brighton, which was then the fisher village called Brighthelmstone. It is measured from the south side of Westminster Bridge to the Aquarium in Brighton and measures 51½ miles. This was the prime route and there were several shorter and longer variations. Apparently, of all the isolated roads made or improved, the pride of place is the ten miles between Reigate and Crawley, which is directly where our village of Salfords sits. It was originally made as a causeway for horsemen and guarded by posts, so that wheeled traffic could not pass. This was constructed under the Act 8th William III, 1697, and was the first new road made in Surrey since the time of the Romans.
In 1787 King George IV built the Brighton Pavilion, as his seaside pleasure palace, and travelled between London and Brighton, on this very same road. #thebrightonroad #kinggeorge #mileposts #redhill
