By K. Hodgson

One day last year I set off in the early morning on my usual dog walk, along my daily route across the fields beyond the Roods Estate, Warton. A miserable day and raining hard but along the base stones of what had once been a wall one stone shone and glittered. It had no moss on it, unlike the others, was more shaped and seemed a different type of stone, possibly a gritstone instead of the more usual limestone. And what is more it had writing chiselled on its surface.

There appeared to be two names at the top; did the second name start with a ’J’? Was it a ’T’, a ’B’? The mind could make a lot of it but in reality it was not at all clear. However, in the middle there was, clear and definite, ‘WARTON’, and also two ‘WW’s and at the bottom two definite cross marks. It was about 18” across and 18” long. Was it ancient or modern? Would anyone bother with such a labour these days? During the summer the stone became mallow and the words much less obvious. However, this year Mr Graham Watson, the archaeologist from the Lancaster Museum, came out to inspect the stone. He rubbed the entire top surface of the stone with graphite powder, which had the effect of bringing up all the marks into clearer relief. The ‘WARTON’, the two ’Ws, and the crossmarks were, he suggested, all signs of a boundary stone. He couldn’t work out the two names above but as the chiselling was so inferior to the rest he thought these must have been put on much later and have no relevance to the first markings. His last recommendation was to look for more boundary stones. So please start looking, preferably in the pouring rain! And please let us know if you find any! …

And In The Undergrowth by J. Chatterley 1984

Stimulated by Mrs Hodgson’s discovery, and by Mr Watson’s enthusiasm, I went looking again for a stone noted on a walk many months ago. This one is an upright, shaped slab, rather like a large milestone or small grave headstone. It leans against the north wall in the undergrowth bounding a green lane which runs between a point on the minor road between Leighton Beck Bridge and Slack Head and Hazelslack Farm, at approximate grid reference 436783. This is just outside our parish boundary and the Lancashire- Cumbria boundary, and, like Mrs Hodgson’s stone, is not on a boundary of any present-day significance. The lettering is very clear:

A

S J D C

1870

No. 3

but apart from the date, conveys little. Any suggestions?