Oxford boundary markers: Warneford Lane, Headington (1667)
H E R E
E N D E T H
O X F O R D
M I L E H Y
W A Y
1 6 6 7
This mileway stone stands on the north side of Warneford Lane, roughly half-way between Cheney Lane and Gipsy Lane.
Grade II listed:
List Entry No 1369693
This was part of the main route to London which ran up Cheney Lane and along the present Warneford Lane and Old Road. The present London Road was only cut through fields at the end of the eighteenth century.
One use of the word “mileway” was unique to the city of Oxford, and the Oxford English Dictionary definition 3 for that word reads: “Any of the roads lying within a mile of the centre of Oxford, which were maintained with a contribution from local villages”.
This stone was was erected on the Old London Road in 1667. The present London Road did not then exist, and the main highway to London was via Cheney Lane, Old Road, and Shotover, so this stone was on a major road out of Oxford. .
This stone is one mile from Magdalen Bridge, rather than from the East Gate of the city, which was not taken down until 1771.
There is also a benchmark on this stone