Railway boundary marker, Fleetwood Preston & West Riding Junction Railway, about 1850. Dressed stone, inscribed "F P W R J R". Incomplete, as only the very top of the stone remains.

Fleetwood, Preston & West Riding Junction Railway boundary stone from about 1850.

Boundary markers like this were used to clearly identify the limits of railway land and to distinguish them from adjacent property. Stones or posts were typically used where it was difficult to install a fence or hedge, where there was a risk of encroachment by other landowners, or where there had been a dispute over land ownership. They also delineated one railway company’s territory from another’s, for instance to make it clear who was responsible for maintaining a particular stretch of line.

This stone is broken. Originally it would have been much longer, with the lower part deeply buried in the ground. All that survives is the top part, with the company’s initials “FPWRJR” carved on the face.

The Fleetwood, Preston & West Riding Junction Railway opened in January 1850. It ran 15.5 miles (25km) between Preston and Clitheroe in Lancashire. The company directors’ original intention was to connect with lines running to Leeds and Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1867 the Railway was jointly taken over by two much larger companies, the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway and the London & North Western Railway and was combined with their networks. The original company was dissolved.