Pillars at Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire, and Thorny Gale, Cumbria, bookended the project that modernised mapping
Heritage campaigners are bidding for listing status for two concrete pillars hailed as “modest obelisks of modernity in the countryside”.
These functional 120cm (4ft) stone or concrete “trig points” formed part of a 6,500-strong network of surveying posts that were vital for the development of modern mapping.
They have since been rendered obsolete by GPS and drones but are still beacons for walkers and the focal points of countless hilltop group photos and selfies. They have even sparked a niche hobby of trig-bagging for those intent on visiting all of them.
Now the Twentieth Century Society (C20), which campaigns to preserve modern architecture and design, has applied for listing status for the first and last of these posts to be used.
