DURING the 125th Celebrations of the 1895 formation of Sandford Parish Council, the Parish Clerk Malcolm Vallance made a suggestion that Sandford Beat the Bounds.

Mike Brett, from Sandford Heritage Group, then started researching the location of the Sandford boundary stones and was able to identify their locations on an 1880 Map.

Following this Joe and Shuana Miles travelled around the Parish to see if they could locate them.

Sadly none could be located so it was back to the drawing board.

In the meantime parishioner, and local architect, Ben Huggins has offered his expertise and enthusiasm to the project and offered to make a mould and re-create the missing boundary stones.

It is hoped that the neighbouring parishes will be interested in getting involved. It is also planned to erect a new Boundary Stone at Pedlarspool on the boundary between Sandford and Crediton.

Coronavirus, and the lockdown arrived, and the the project went into mothballs, although the enthusiasm to replace the missing boundary stones, and Beat the Sandford Bounds, did not go away!

A long time ago if you travelled the road between Sandford and Kennerleigh you would not have travelled along the road, and over the sturdy Bridge, below Welland Down, which is now in use.?You would have travelled along nothing more than a country lane and crossed over the ford over the stream at this location.?Much later there was talk of a train line from Crediton to Witheridge for use by Lloyd Maunder, as was a line from Witheridge to Tiverton.

A new sturdy Sandford Bridge was built, capable of taking the train line, but Lloyd Maunder pulled out of Witheridge and this became the new road. The bridge seen from the stream is impressive.?Time then moved on and Joe Miles heard from Derek Conibear, who lives in the Parish, that he had found a Boundary Stone on the edge of the stream at the bottom of Welland Down.

Derek had been out shooting in the woods and a shot pigeon fell to the ground and when he went off to find it, low and behold at the edge of the stream, on what would have been the old ford, he found a Sandford Boundary Stone!

This was also news to the Lee family who own the land at this location.?The history of the proposed train line, and the old and new road to Kennerleigh, hopefully is something that the Sandford Heritage Group will be able to pursue in the Sandford and Devon Archives.

So the Beating of the Bounds, with the new Boundary Stones, hopefully will take place in 2021, over two days, maybe at Easter time.?In the meantime the official procedure, of replacing Boundary Stones off the Highway in their original locations, is being explored with the Devon County Council Public Rights of Way Department and the National Milestones Organisation.

MJV