These are the standard "City Posts" which form 85% of the surviving boundary marks. They are found not only beside roads and tracks but also in some cases in field boundary fences and on open heaths far away from modern roads. The posts were cast by Henry Grissell at the Regents Canal Ironworks, Eagle Wharf Road, Hoxton. They are 2 metres high in total of which about 1 to 1.2 metres is normally above ground, though some are buried very much more deeply.
Link to Scale drawing of a Type 2 post.
The various sub-types are as follows. Most extant posts are of types 2c, 2d and 2e.
Type | Date | Maker's name | Inscription |
---|---|---|---|
2a | [none] | Four lines: front and back | 14 & 15 VICT/CAP 146 |
2b | 1859 | Oval: front only | 14 & 15 VICT/CAP 146 |
2c | 1861 | Oval: front and back | 24 VICT |
2d | 1861 | Oval: front and back | 24 & 25 VICT/CAP 42 |
2e | 1862 | Oval: back only | 24 & 25 VICT/CAP 42 |
2f | 1864 | Oval: front only | 24 & 25 VICT/CAP 42 |
2g | 1864 | Oval: front and back | 24 & 25 VICT/CAP 42 |
2h | [none] | [none] | ACT/24 & 25 VICT/CAP 42 |
2z | [none] | [none] | [none] |
2*, 2**, etc indicate posts with correction plates (see below)
The maker's name is on the base of the post and is normally just above ground level. On posts of types 2b -2g the makers name is in an oval design of the type found on many cast-iron objects. On posts of type 2a it is in four lines: HENRY GRISSELL / REGENTS CANAL / IRONWORKS / LONDON. No makers name appears on types 2h and 2z
The posts of type 2c, with the short inscription "24 VICT", were apparently made before the 1861 Act was actually passed and thus before its full regnal year and chapter number (see the explanation of Citation of Acts of Parliament) were known (see Coal and Corn and Finance Committee Minutes 25, 10th April 1861, 7). To cover up the inscriptions on types 2a, 2b and 2c these posts, and, presumably for the sake of uniformity, the posts of other castings, were fitted with correcting plates. In most cases these plates have become broken, loose, or missing. On most posts of types 2d - 2g the initial "2" and part of the "T" of "24 & 25 VICT" are missing. The most probable explanation is that these had to be removed to allow the correcting plates to be fitted, as argued by Bawtree in his 1969 article in the London archaeologist (p 30). Posts of type 2h were evidently made subsequently to the fitting of plates as they have an inscription in such a form that they resemble posts with a plate fitted. The single post of type 2z (with no shield or inscription) was presumably a prototype subsequently fitted with a correcting plate and pressed into service.
There are two types of correction plate:
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