City Corporation Coal-Tax post, by the Great North Road, Little Heath, Potters Bar
Introduction
The photograph on this page of City Corporation Coal-Tax post, by the Great North Road, Little Heath, Potters Bar by Stefan Czapski as part of the Geograph project.
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City Corporation Coal-Tax post, by the Great North Road, Little Heath, Potters Bar
Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 11 Aug 2013
The Coal Duties Act of 1851 gave the Corporation of the City of London the power to tax coal and other goods (including wine and spirits) entering the Metropolitan area. The boundary of the area - for this purpose - was marked by posts or other markers. So once upon a time there must have been a ring of posts encircling London. My impression is that these days they are more noticeable in Hertfordshire - for whatever reason - than in the other Home Counties. This one stands by the old Great North Road, while a second post can be found just round the corner in Church Road. For links to sites documenting the history of these posts see Ian Capper's Image
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.703665
Longitude
-0.176857