FOR more than 200 years travellers have been guided on their way by one of Herefordshire’s most important milestones, yet just a week or so into the New Year this historic marker has bitten the dust.

Passers-by have been shocked to see the Grade II listed milestone missing from its site at the busy crossroads at Mortimers Cross.

For centuries providing distances to London, Leominster, Presteigne, Hereford and Aberystwyth, the 19th century ashlar stone has since been discovered lying ingloriously in the hedge.

Landlady at the Mortimers Cross Inn, Annaly Goodwin believed the damage to this historic waymarker was caused by a motorist.

As a member of Aymestry Parish Council, she said concerns about the missing stone have been raised by local people who are anxious to see it reinstated.

“We have listed this on our agenda as a matter of interest,” said Mrs Goodwin.

“There aren’t that many old bits and bobs about in the county, a lot of them were grubbed up years ago. We don’t want this just left and not mended.”

Retired Herefordshire Council conservation officer Robert Walker, who has an interest in milestones, has been to see the damage.

“It looks as though it’s been hit by a car with the root in the ground and the top knocked off into the hedge,” he said.

“This is one of the most important in the county and obviously quite an old one showing interesting mileages.”

He felt confident it could be repaired with specialist masonry treatment.

Since the early 1800s, the stone has shown key distances for travellers: London 146 miles, Aberystwyth 75, Hereford 19, Presteigne, 8, Leominster 6, Ludlow 10, Tenbury 13.