With contributions from Cirencester Archaeological & Historical Society, members & friends
From Liverpool to Cirencester – every foot counted!
- the Ordnance Survey bench mark project
Few people walking the streets of Cirencester will notice let alone remark on the esoteric marks chiselled into the stone, a little above ground level, on our churches, other buildings, walls and bridges. These features, consisting of a cross bar with an arrow beneath will however be familiar to map fanatics as Ordnance Survey (OS) bench marks (BMs).
These were used to record height above mean sea level, known as the Ordnance Datum (OD), as part of the mapping of our national landscape. OD was based on the measurement of mean sea level at Victoria Dock in Liverpool from 1844, then from 1921 at Newlyn in Cornwall. The elevation of each BM was found by measuring its variation above OD based on a national network of nearly two hundred very accurately placed fundamental bench marks (FBMs).
The bench marks that people encounter in Cirencester are, however, lower order examples, numbering in the tens of thousands across Britain. While most are cut into stone, other variants exist, for example small brass plates. Sadly, because they are no longer used for survey purposes, wear and tear, demolition and ‘refurbishment,’ many are now lost or deteriorating.
Thankfully the legacy which ties our town to the OS great national mapping project remains largely positive and many examples can still be tracked down. Check out the very well-preserved BM on Lloyds Bank (on the corner of Castle Street with Silver Street), the brass BM on the old museum doorway on the Tetbury Road, or enjoy locating another well-preserved example in Dyer Street. A few are almost lost through weathering of our relatively soft limestone, for example on the left-hand gate jamb of the old burial ground in Watermoor Road.
What really makes these features fascinating is the direct link that can sometimes be made to individuals of the OS staff, all serving military men at that time. One such individual, named on the 25-inch to the mile scale maps of Cirencester (published c. 1878), was Capt. Warren Wynne RE (Royal Engineers), who was responsible for the ‘levelling’ undertaken in 1875. One of the many BMs Wynne used has another military link, being carved into the main gate of Cirencester’s barracks on Cecily Hill and measured by Wynne as 382.8 ft above OD. The barracks were built in 1857 for the Royal North Gloucestershire Militia.
This example provides a very tangible link between our town, Wynne’s personal narrative and British imperial history. Lt. Wynne joined the OS in 1871 after a five-year posting to Gibraltar and was then responsible for levelling much of southern England, no mean task! After promotion to Capt. in 1875, unfortunately for Wynne he was then moved to overseas service (December 1878) commanding a Field Company of the Royal Engineers as part of the invasion of Zululand.
A short note from The Graphic (a British weekly newspaper) summarises his move from mapmaker to the engineer responsible for designing fortifications during the Anglo-Zulu war: “He superintended the building of Fort Tenedos, and was in command of the right at the successful battle of Inyesani. To the engineering skill in designing, and the self-sacrificing exertions which he displayed in superintending the erection of the fortifications at Ekowe [a former Norwegian mission station], the successful defence of that memorable fort is greatly due.”
The defence of Ekowe was a triumph but Wynne subsequently died of illness brought on, in part, by exhaustion. The tangible link via the Barracks BM to Wynne’s narrative is a remarkable piece of the ethnographic history of the OS. There must be many similar stories waiting to be uncovered, related to these small and unassuming relics of the OS in our landscape, marks which we need to protect and value as part of our island’s heritage.
Peter Vujakovic
Cirencester Civic Society
Support Cirencester’s principal heritage societies and their event programmes: Archaeological & Historical Society (www.cirenhistory.org.uk) and Civic Society (www.ccsoc.org.uk), which runs a programme of Town Walks in the season plus pre-booked for small groups. See the Society’s website or phone William Cooper on 01285 88 55 90.
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