C is for Coal-tax obelisk#

Thu May 30 13:13:34 2024

C is for Coal-tax obelisk

In an early example of the City of London's approach to democratic principle, they erected a series of pillars of various kinds at a 20 mile radius from London to mark the boundaries at which coal brought into London would be taxed. The tax was spent on rebuilding bits of central London (mostly churches) after the Great Fire. The practice ceased in 1890.

This particular obelisk I went to visit is in Wormley, just south of Broxbourne. It took a bit of finding, too, mostly because I saw something that I thought was it on OSM but that turned out to be a completely different coal tax marker. It is entirely possible that I also found (or at least, looked past) that marker and didn't register it because I was expecting to see something taller than I am.

• https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1296269
• https://rhaworth.net/cowi/cowitin.php?f=cowinort#TL369051

The ride there was speed-limited, first to 20/30-in-places by speed limits in Waltham Forest, and then to around 40 by the van in front of me and the solid white "no overtaking" lines in the middle of the road. It took ~ 40 minutes longer than I'd planned, most of that spent wandering around Wormley woods looking for the wrong thing in the right place.

(My other clue was http://www.coaldutyposts.org.uk/today/list.html which says "E side of railway, N side of Slipe Lane at level crossing". This is all true except for the bit about the level crossing: there is no level crossing there.)

I suppose the lesson is that if I want to do motorcycle treasure hunts for random listed monuments I should expect to spend time hunting, not juist ride there and back and tick off another box,

The ride back was straight down the A10, not a lot to say there.

Anyway, D is - unless I have a better idea by the time of my next ride - for Duck Pond, which should be a much more straightforward endeavour.

Close-ups