A question of stile (part one): stiles as heritage

When The Countryside Code: advice for land managers was published by Natural England in February this year, it included guidance to “create gaps or put up accessible self-closing gates instead of stiles where there is public access, if possible” to enhance ease of access “for visitors with different abilities and needs”. Alongside many comments welcoming moves to widen access to public rights of way, some took a more conservative stance. Two reactions reported by The Telegraph (8 February 2022) describe stiles as “an integral part of the English countryside” and “part of our heritage”.  This tension between heritage value and access is something noted by The Open Space Society, and one I will pick up in a separate blog-post. In this post I want to explore the idea of stiles as heritage features.

Styles of stiles

Squeeze your body through
the fat man’s agony, catch
yourself in scissors

Stiles are a common feature of paths in English and Welsh urban and rural landscapes. Their varied forms allow (some) people to move over or through boundary structures (walls, hedgerows and fences) whilst restricting the movement of livestock and other animals.  

The word ‘stile’ is thought to derive from the Old English stigel, and Germanic stig meaning a ladder or ‘to climb’. However, not all stiles require climbing. In his book Gates and Stiles, Michael Roberts describes three main types of stiles: those that allow people to pass through a boundary (gap, grid and squeeze stiles); over it (slab, step and ladder stiles); or, those with moving parts (clapper, lift-up, and scissor stiles).

Examples of ‘through’ (offset squeeze stile near Edale, Derbyshire), ‘over’ (wooden step stile in Sheffield), and ‘moving’ (clapper) stiles. Clapper stile image by MetaGrrrl (CC BY-NC 2.0)

These categories are not mutually exclusive. Stiles may combine elements from different types or incorporate gates and separate lift-up hatches, to allow canine companions to pass through. Stiles may reflect the skills of local craftspeople and locally available materials, or standard models ordered from merchants.

Images of step stiles and cover from the 1926 Complete Fencing Catalogue, Harry Hebditch Ltd. Used with kind permission from The Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading. Catalogue ref: TR HEB P2/A35

Elsewhere in this catalogue, the text implies that footpath structures were appreciated for their look, as well as function: the design of a combined carriage and footpath gate is described as “of simple but pleasing appearance”.

Earlier this year, use of the hashtag #StileCup2022 on twitter provided a light-hearted opportunity for people to share and vote for their favourite stiles and showcase the range of different structures from across the UK. Clearly, people continue to feel affection for and attachment to stiles.

Stiles in the National Heritage List for England

Kissing-gates and stiles
listed with halls and bridges
material worlds

To consider if and how stiles are considered as heritage features, I explored whether these structures are included in the National Heritage List for England (NHLE). The NHLE is an official “register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England” including “listed buildings, scheduled monuments, protected wrecks, registered parks and gardens, and battlefields”. Whilst not the sole arbiter of what counts as heritage, it seemed like a good place to start.

Filtering through the many hundreds of entries returned from a search for ‘stile’, just over 100 appear to relate to stiles associated with (potentially public) paths and tracks. Where the age of stiles is indicated, the earliest are from the seventeenth century, but the majority from the nineteenth century, demonstrating a long history of pedestrian use. The majority are listed under the ‘Listed Building’ category, 85% are made of stone – unsurprising as these would be more likely to survive than wooden structures – and tend to be ‘over’ or ‘through’ types. 

Although the entries don’t always give a reason, I suggest three emerging themes as to why these features were listed.

The first is where stiles are listed as part of larger structures such as gates and walls, buildings, or bridges. Often, the stile is not the focus here and there is limited information about it.

The second is where stiles relate to a wider, historically significant, landscape. For instance, individual stiles along footpaths through an ancient coastal field system are listed from Cornwall, and those linked to late enclosure grazing land at Braunton Marsh in Devon.

The third theme is where stiles have distinctive heritage value in their own right. Some of these reflect local traditions of stile construction, such as Cornish grid styles (a precursor to the modern cattle grid) and Gloucestershire stone stiles (also the topic of a local volunteer-led recording project), or are unusual forms, such as a wooden clapper stile from Cambridgeshire (NHLE 1331164). Finally, some are listed as they re-use older material. For example, a medieval coffin slab is set in a brick wall and used as a stile in Cambridgeshire (NHLE 1157761) and a Devon stile was constructed from fragments of the sixteenth century Columbjohn Mansion (NHLE 1333661).

A Cornish grid stile, photo taken by Paul Stephenson (CC BY 2.0)

Stiles as heritage features

From this brief exploration, I suggest that stiles are valued features of landscape and built cultural heritage. This value is associated with the materiality and age of their construction, their role in helping us understand the wider historic significance, use and re-use of landscapes, and – as intangible heritage – reflecting local traditions and craft of stile construction, and as sites of meaning and place attachment that continue into the present.

However, the consideration of stiles as heritage features, and the way this is formally and informally recorded, also prompts further questions. Some of these, I, and other members of the IAOF team, will explore in future blogs. In the meantime, we welcome your thoughts and comments via twitter to @allfootsteps.

●        How is the heritage value of stiles acknowledged now, and managed, whilst ensuring that public rights of way are accessible to everyone?

●        Why have some stiles been formally registered in the National Heritage List and not others?

●        What are the implications, and interactions, of different ways of formally registering and protecting paths and their structures? For example, where listed stiles lie on recognised public rights of way.