Boundary Stone at Arnold’s Point

by Doreen Mole
Published December 2012

Until last year (2003) forty-eight boundary stones were noted each year on our annual beating of the bounds, from this year the number will be forty-nine. One of the missing stones at Arnold’s Point has been found and reinstated. Owing to land reclamation, and road and railway alterations over the past fifty years several stones in this area have disappeared.

E.N.Masson Phillips in his “Boundary Stones of Plymouth” (Devonshire Association Transactions 1985) lists two missing stones that previously stood at Arnold’s Point, and a third stone standing in the allotment hedge approximately thirty yards west of the Mount Gould Junction signal box. This is the stone that has been re-erected.

During the course of the last four years, the allotments lying between the railway line and the Embankment, have been cleared and re-laid, and the stone, after some detective work, was discovered lying face down under some brambles. Following a series of very amicable telephone conversations and letters to various council departments, the stone was re-erected last November. It stands on the line of the old boundary, at the edge of the allotments, in the curve of Lanhydrock Road adjacent to the railway bridge. The stone itself is in excellent condition, engraved with A Hubbard 1869. This refers to Alexander Hubbard who was Mayor 1868-1869.

Below is an extract from the letter received from Nick Jones, Principal Parks Services Manager.

“I can confirm that we have located and re-erected the stone and that it is now in full -view of passing traffic. It so happened that we had exploratory digger work to carry out in the area and took the opportunity to use the machine to raise the stone.
Allotments playa valuable role in the local community, and it is good for them to forge links with other important community groups such as the Old Plymouth Society”.

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