How did travellers find their way across unfamiliar country before maps and modern road signs? There are only two possibilities, both of which can still be found in remote parts of the world. Either a guide with local knowledge can be hired, or travellers can memorise a series of natural landmarks and man-made way marks, such as the cairns of stones still found in upland Britain.
On the route of the Derbyshire Portway many of the ancient way marks have clearly been lost, but enough survive to suggest that the whole route could have been navigated with their aid. The lower photo shows the Stapleford Cross, now in the churchyard at Stapleford, but which was earlier located elsewhere, possibly by the nearby ford over the Erewash, where the Portway crossed from Derbyshire into Nottinghamshire. Believed to date from c. 800 BCE, it is much older than the church and the oldest religious monument in the county. It may possibly be the origin of the town's name (the steeple - or post - at the ford).
The upper picture shows the standing stone in a field near the Malt Shovel pub above Wirksworth, on the Whatstandwell road. It is thought that the Portway came this way from Alport Height, looping round Wirksworth to avoid the steep descent into the town, heading for Steeple Grange. Without any carving, it is impossible to date this enigmatic stone, yet it is clearly not a gatepost or stile, and it is difficult to imagine any other function than a marker.
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