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Military boundary stones

There has long been a strong military presence across the city and the military erected their own boundary stones. These markers vary in materials and design, although the Government ‘Broad Arrow’ often features. Many are inscribed ‘A’ or ‘BA’ for Admiralty, often with the fouled anchor motif. Most are inscribed ‘WD’ for War Department. You will also find early stones inscribed ‘BO’ (Board of Ordnance) and much later ones installed by the MOD (Ministry of Defence).

Please note that some of the surviving military stones are on private property and some examples are sited in still secure military establishments.

The database prefix codes used for cataloguing these stones first refers to the stone owner and originator. 

You can use the glossary links in the PDFs to target the online records of stones in a specific location. Otherwise, please click the links below to view records by type.

It should be noted that some locations have a mix of Admiralty / Board of Ordnance / War Department / War Office / MOD stones. This is believed to indicate boundary changes, changed ownership responsibilities and /or stone replacement.

Factsheets are available providing further information about selected locations: