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Chris Lloyd looks at the history behind a weatherworn milestone found in a gravel quarry. The Latin inscription on the sandstone reveals the identity of a Roman emperor who rose to power after starting life as a peasant herdsman HERE'S the granddaddy of them all, the oldest milestone of the district. It stands more than 4ft tall and now occupies a corner of Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle. It was found in 1953 in a gravel quarry near Piercebridge, north of the A67 from Darlington to Barnard Castle.Piercebridge is, of course, the site of a Roman crossing of the Tees, and the milestone was found more than 500 yards to the west of the Roman road of Dere Street.Whether it was once part of the furniture of Dere Street, which was thrown aside when the Romans left, or whether it came from a by-road, is unknown. A couple of similar stones - fashioned rather phallicly from a buff sandstone that was probably quarried near the Roman fort at Binchester - were once found beside the A66 as it crossed over Stainmore.The weatherworn Piercebridge stone has the remains of a crude inscription at its top: "MPCGallVall Maximiano el".This fragment of Latin apparently translates as: "For the Emperor Caesar Galerius Valerius Maximianus Pius Felix".Galerius was born a Bulgarian peasant herdsman in about 250AD. But he did will in the Roman army and, by 293AD, he was appointed a junior emperor of Turkey, fighting against Goths and Persians.In 305AD he rose to rule the whole of the Roman Empire - but his was not a happy reign.There was rebellion in Rome, which forced him into a semiretirement back in Bulgaria where he contracted a horrible disease: his genitals swelled up, worms infested his ulcerous body and stank so badly that some of his doctors were unable to approach him.He executed them.When his other doctors failed to save him, he executed them too.Galerius died in May 311AD, repenting on his deathbed for persecuting Christians.We can, therefore, say that the Roman milestone of Piercebridge dates from 305AD to 311AD and so may well be celebrating its 1,700th anniversary this year.With thanks to Jane Fell.BACK to the mysterious cast iron mileposts that ring the centre of Darlington. We know where seven of them are, and are actively pursuing an eighth, and we know that a further six have disappeared. But we still do not know whether these late Victorian oddities say CPO or GPO.CPO would stand for the Crown or Central Post Office, and they do appear to radiate from the old head post office in Northgate. GPO would stand for General Post Office, the title of the post office since Oliver Cromwell's day.Eric Shuttleworth writes:"For what it is worth, in the 1930s and 1940s, it was common parlance in our house to say 'I'm just going down to the General to post a letter or buy a stamp'. The expression GPO was the norm. I never heard anyone talk about the Central Post Office."Bill Wardle sends in a picture of the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Works, in Neasham Road, being demolished in the mid-1980s.Cleveland Bridge was built on the strawberry patch of Polam Hall in the late 1870s. And what is there outside its old front door? A post office milepost.Do you think the great big jaws of Digger No 220 were able to distinguish between the unwanted brickwork of the Bridge (the lower half of which appears to have been camouflaged, leaving the top half unprotected against the German bombers) and a cute little milepost?IF Cleveland Bridge was built on a strawberry patch, Durham Road was built on an asparagus plot.Durham Road is now one of the main ways into Bishop Auckland, but before it was built in 1930 traffic had to climb out of the Gaunless Valley by negotiating Gib Chare and Durham Chare (a "chare" is a north country word for "a narrow street").Durham Road was built on the Bishop of Durham's southfacing asparagus plot - land that was expensive to buy because it was ideal for growing this luxury legume - by Joe Dixon, a builder from Shildon.Joe also built a bridge over the Gaunless at South Church and a stand for Shildon Football Club. His grandson, Mike Pedelty, of Darlington, has kindly lent the pictures printed opposite of the construction of Durham Road.CONTINUING the transport theme, Tony Cooper, of Darlington builders Bussey and Armstrong (formed in 1902 by William Bussey and Alfred Banting Armstrong), has recently come across a picture of a wonderful homemade tipper truck, probably from the 1920s. This vehicle would have helped the construction of homes in Brinkburn, Sandriggs, Cleveland Avenue, North Road, Bowen Road and Pendleton Road, which, according to a brochure found alongside the picture, were "planned by a competent architect to suit all tastes and means, the prices ranging from 400 to 1,200".THEN, in a rare outbreak of tidiness on the Echo Memories' desk, we rediscovered an incendiary picture sent in by Edith Davison, of Ferryhill.Copperplate handwriting at the bottom of the picture explains:"Motor mail wrecked by fire, 9pm, July 16th, 1908 at Willow Bridge near Barton."The Northern Echo of July 18, 1908, explained that the fire was caused by leaking petrol:"In a very short time the motor was completely wrecked, only the chassis and the charred framework of the van remaining. The car was running as a relief at the time and contained no mail."Willow Bridge is a curious corner on the turnpike road, which was built in 1832 from Scotch Corner into Darlington, when Blackwell Bridge over the River Tees was completed.Willow Bridge itself spans Clow Beck - and the original bridge, presumably built by the turnpike trustees in 1832, can still be seen unused beside the modern bridge.TO complete the cornucopia of transport delights, the same outbreak of tidiness revealed a picture of a magnificent Pickfords truck leaving Darlington Forge.When? We'd guess at about the start of the 1920s, but may be hopelessly wrong.Can you add any dates or titbits on any of the wagons, milestones, roadsigns or bridges featured in this week's Echo Memories? Email chris. lloyd@nne. co. uk, write to Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, or call 01325-505062.DAVID Nodding of Staindrop is the last of the milestone painters. He was made redundant by Durham County Council about 12 years ago, having spent 25 years painting the roadsigns, snowposts and milestones of south and west Durham."I don't like to see those stones, which are part of our heritage, left in the state they are in, " he said."Also the old steel finger signs are now just red rusty." Many of the milestones are Grade-II listed buildings. We have asked various councils for the policies on protecting and repairing the stones and will print their replies.