WHEN amateur archeologist John Nunn stumbled across a photograph of a neglected milestone in his home village of Long Melford, it set him on a quest to find the historic piece and restore it.
Mr Nunn and fellow enthusiast Rob Simpson recently opened a heritage centre in Long Melford to house and display ancient finds unearthed in the village. Because of the pair’s widely-known love of history, they were contacted by the daughter of Tom Hewlett, who was the last policeman to live in Melford’s old police house in the 1970s.
Mr Nunn said: “He was also a keen archaeologist and his daughter thought we might like his old photograph collection. Among them was a picture of a milestone with the caption Rodbridge Hill. No-one knows its exact origin, but Tom found and restored it in 1969, and it had since disappeared.”
Mr Nunn said they rediscovered the milestone in a “very sorry state” in a hedge close to Long Melford Country Park. He added: “I think it had been knocked down by a tractor at some point and no-one knew it was there. Local engineer Simon Webb has volunteered to excavate it and pressure wash it, and county highways have agreed to let us put it back a little nearer the road this time so everyone can see it. We will also be able to exhibit pictures of it all at the heritage centre.”
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