A boundary stone in a Dalston railway station
WE VISIT KINGSLAND Road in London’s Dalston district frequently for several reasons: to eat Turkish food, to watch films at the Rio Cinema, and to enjoy plays at the Arcola Theatre. Using the Overground is quite a convenient way for us to reach the area. We use trains to and from Dalston Kingsland station. The station, close to the colourful Ridley Road market, was opened in 1850 as part of The North London Railway. Today, it is a busy station on the Overground Network.
Today (20th of July 2023), whilst walking along the westbound platform, I noticed something for the first time. It was a small white object a bit like a milestone standing a few feet east of the bridge that carries Boleyn Road over the western part of the station. It bears the date 1863. And below that there are the letters:
“St M. 1”
And at the bottom of the object is the following:
“JOSEPH SURR JUNr
WILLIAM HARVEY
CHARLES SAWBRIDGE”
They are all described as “Church wardens.”
I suspect that the stone is or was a parish boundary marker. On a map surveyed in 1870, there is a line marked “Parliamentary Boundary”, rather than ‘Parish Boundary’, running through the very spot where the marker stone stands today. The “St M” might refer to the local parish Church of St Marks. Although I cannot yet be certain, it is possible that the parish and parliamentary boundaries were in the same place where the stone stands today. Oddly, various searches of the Internet produced hardly any information about the stone except that one person, writing on Twitter, wondered if it had been moved to its present position from another place. This is unlikely because I have discovered that a boundary marker in exactly the same position as that which I saw today is marked on a detailed map surveyed in 1893-94.
The date “1863” is curious because the present Church of St Marks in Dalston was only constructed between 1864 and 1866. Maybe, there was an earlier parish church, or possibly the parish was only established in 1863. Who knows?
It is interesting that one small item, the boundary stone at Dalston Kingsland, can give rise to so many mysteries.
