They are found on busy road junctions, a traffic island and a petrol station forecourt and have been passed by countless numbers of walkers, runners, cyclists and drivers without a second glance.
But “hiding in plain sight” are fascinating “travellers’ rest” stones between Liverpool and Manchester that tell a largely forgotten story of 19th-century ingenuity, compassion for migrant workers and a Victorian version of crowdfunding.
Historic England has announced that two of the stones in Warrington are to be Grade II listed.
The resting stones, spaced roughly two miles apart, were installed in about 1860 to provide seats for the mainly Irish migrant workers who were travelling on foot for seasonal agricultural work.
In the 19th century there were about 30 of the stones, but most have been moved or damaged. About a dozen have survived.
Experts are unaware of them existing anywhere outside of the region in England’s north-west, although they would love to hear if people do know of them.
The travellers’ rest stones were the brainchild of a doctor from Warrington called James Kendrick, who had been inspired by the donation of drinking fountains in Liverpool by the philanthropist Charles Melly.
Kendrick wrote to his local newspaper, explaining his idea to install the resting stones between Liverpool and Manchester.
“He said he had in mind the annual migrants from Ireland who came to the Lancashire plain looking for harvest work,” said Crispin Edwards, a listing adviser at Historic England. “Kendrick proposed them and designed them and it was basically a Victorian version of crowdfunding in that he put the idea out there and invited others to do the same. By his account, plenty of people took it up.”
The designs of the stones are strikingly sophisticated, said Edwards, with Kendrick using his knowledge of biomechanics – the science of the movement of the body.
“He thought about what was the best way to rest if you had been walking and his idea was that an adult male could sit with his arms on his knees.”
The stones are more than 1.5 metres long and about 50cm high. The top was domed so that it was not always wet and there was a lower step you could put your bag on, to keep it out of the mud; or a child could sit there; or it could be used as a footrest by a mother breastfeeding her child.
The story of the resting stones has emerged after a member of the public proposed the listing of a stone at Red Bank, on a junction of the A49 at Winwick, Warrington. That led to Historic England realising there were other similar stones already listed, but which had been listed as blocks for mounting horses. These four stones will be relisted with the correct information.
They are in plain sight because the stones bear the inscription “travellers’ rest”. Some have biblical messages such as “Come unto me saith the saviour”. A stone at a petrol station that has come off worse for wear after a scrape with a lorry says “and confessed that they were strangers and/ pilgrims on the Earth”, from the book of Hebrews.
The new listings are by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.
Edwards said the story was both a Victorian one – “the philanthropy, the thinking of people who are in a tough situation” – and one that resonates today.
“The idea of putting something in the public domain and getting other people to help you follow it through does feel like a modern story,” he said.
Historic England has a project called Missing Pieces in which it invites the public to help create a more complete picture of our history. It believes there will be more to learn about the stones.
“I’m not aware of any others anywhere else although Kendrick did say in another letter to the paper something along the lines of his idea being taken up all over the place,” said Edwards. “One possibility is that they were installed and they’ve been lost or overlooked.
“It would be fantastic if people could let us know … perhaps there are pockets around the country we just don’t know about.”
