Mystery behind the shaping of modern Wales

Researcher John Price is on the trail of a missing milestone. It might be in someone's back garden... Can you help? Andrew Forgrave reports

- Andrew Forgrave

STILL standing proudly, if slightly neglected, are 82 monoliths along a road that helped mark the birth of modern Wales.

Thomas Telford's A5 trunk road was a masterpiece of engineering crowned by the world's first major suspension bridge, linking Anglesey and Gwynedd.

While the bridge's 200th anniversary will be celebrated in style next year, other elements of the road have faded into genteel obscurity.

Among them are its silent sentinels, the stone markers that counted off the 243 miles between London and Holyhead.

Less charismatic than bridges, staging inns or tollhouses, they were nevertheless vital components of a modernised transport system that suddenly made the UK a much smaller place.

In north Wales, an exhaustive study by a retired college lecturer has confirmed that 82 Telford milestones are still standing today. There's just one problem - there should be 83.

The mystery of the missing milestone has taxed the patience of 76-year-old John Price.

Having spent six years researching Telford's Wales milestones, he's been left frustrated by the absence of one that should be standing in Holyhead, Anglesey.

"This stone can't have just vanished," he said. "It weighs over 250lb and measures about 6ft long. These historic markers, placed during Thomas Telford's construction of the London to Holyhead road, are protected by law and serve as tangible reminders of our rich past."

Prior to retirement, Mr Price, from Glan Conwy, was chief design engineer at Quinton Hazel Automotive in Mochdre. Before that, he was senior lecturer in computing technology at Coleg Menai Bangor.

Both specialisms were harnessed in his pursuit of Telford's A5 milestones and others across Wales.

It began when he spotted Milestone No.45 in Betws-y-Coed, Conwy.