#coal posts

Although coal posts were constructed from cast iron, a material chosen for its robustness and durability, there were still bumps and scrapes and the polluted air meant that the white paint soon discoloured. James Browton, a builder and general contractor from Watford, was given the contract for repairing and repainting all the boundary markers from 1863 until his death in 1870 when the contract…

With the expansion of the railway network offering coal merchants new routes into London, a more complex system of marking the boundary where coal duty became liable was required. In 1845 the area was established as a twenty mile radius from the General Post Office in St Martin’s Le Grand, stretching from Langley in the west to Gravesend in the east, and from Ware in the north to Redhill in the…

With the development of the railways, roads, and canals, coal posts were erected to show merchants and traders the point at which coal tax became liable. Over two hundred still remain, a vestige of a long forgotten tax. To read more about them, follow the link below to my feature for Country Life magazine. The original ULEZ-style enforcement? How the Victorians taxed all the coal coming in to…