A12 London to Lowestoft

The A12 from London to Lowestoft was one of the old coaching roads, turnpiked¹ in 1785, and follows in sections of roads used in Roman times. As befits such a venerable route, it has many milestones and mileposts. From our survey it seemed to originally have been set with milestones of triangular cross-section. Around 1818 many of the milestones were fitted with mileposts, many of them manufactured by Jacob Garrett's iron-foundry in St Margaret's, Ipswich. A fine examples of Garrett's work stands at the junction of St Helen's Street and Woodbridge Road in Ipswich, outside The Milestone pub in St Margaret's parish.

The A12 has been extensively rerouted and towns and villages bypassed over the years, since it is one of the trunk routes upgraded to carry heavy freight from the port of Felixstowe near Ipswich to the capital. As a result some detective work is needed to trace the original course of the road, but most of the milestones seem to have survived.