TrigpointingUK

Hi all, could someone point me in the right direction for information on the preservation of trig points? Recently read comments from a logged visit that the owner of the land would like it painted! Not sure of landowners circumstances as why they cannot do it but as I'm late to the scene wondering what the situation is? Also read about one in a sorry state, how about repairing and maintenance? Lastly (not asking for much am I ) Is there anyway to get these protection? Surely they are icons of the British landscape and deserve our respect. Understand talking to the converted here but has this any legs/been tried? Thanks in advance for your time and patience Jeff in North Wales if anyone fancy's a pint or trig walk

Regrettably these fantastic icons of hiking history have been abandoned to their own fate i.e. the elements. The OS basically relinquished upkeep of them many years ago. There was a brief period where the pillars were offered to individuals/groups to 'adopt' the upkeep of a pillar in a state fit for hikers consumption but it didn't have too much success.

It's absolutely abhorrent that such an iconic feature of walking in general/hiking/hill walking, doesn't have some sort of preservation status and most will be just left to erode away.

They need to be preserved as they are part of our UK National Heritage.

Sadly, a little beyond my lifetime (60+), I expect they're going to be a 'Big Yellow Taxi' thing.

Do pillars etc remain the property of the OS?

Yes, they do.

Where would one stand on proposing replacements for destroyed trig pillars?

I completely agree that trig points need preserving, and fast - but it seems unlikely... perhaps an independent/charitable group could be set up to maintain and repair/replace them?

Just today I visited Holt Lane and it is a prime spot for a replacement.

I certainly think that the first and last .. Cold Ashby and Thorny Gale should have preservation orders on them.

I contacted OS about their opinion on preserving or somehow preventing Cold Ashby and Thorney Gale trigs being destroyed in the future .... this was the response .....

“If either of those pillars were under threat then we would consider what steps we could take at the time to preserve them. It’s the same for any pillar – we would prefer that none of them get knocked down but we don’t own the land on which any of them stand so we don’t have a lot of control on what happens to them.”

Personally I think that by the time a trig comes “under threat” it’s too late.

Think I might see what Historic England have to say.

The trig network is a relic of industrial history. The OS use accurate GPS these days so they no longer need the trigs, so they have lost interest in them. I plan to try to get my local history societies interested in them, by offering to talk at their meetings. I'm quite lucky in that I live close the first two trigs, that were used to start the whole thing off - TP7804 and TP7816, so I can increase the local interest, but it should be possible to get history societies all over the country interested.

There's also potential to get surveying professionals interested, as the trigs can still be useful to them, in particular for calibrating accurate GPS devices. That includes the planning departments of the local councils.