Mounting blocks

Mounting block on
Main Street, Askrigg

This feature relates to the road network, and goes back to the period when the principal form of transport was four-legged rather than motorised. Mounting blocks can of course be seen across much of the country - wherever horses have been and continue to be ridden, it is helpful to have an easy way to get on them. Prior to the major roads being turnpiked in the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, travel was difficult for carriages, and travelling on horseback was probably the easiest (and sometimes cleanest) mode of transport. Travelling on horseback continued to be popular in the Yorkshire Dales until the twentieth century. The racing and breeding of horses continues to be of real importance in lower Wensleydale.

There are many more mounting blocks in the Yorkshire Dales than the six currently recorded within the Historic Environment Record (HER). They are usually built onto or adjacent to buildings, normally next to the road. Four of the six mounting blocks recorded are next to public houses (or former public houses) – they could have been a necessity for some patrons after an evening’s drinking! Pubs could therefore prove to be a good starting point for your search for new examples. Similarly, churches and some public buildings - those to which people would frequently travel - may also be likely locations to find mounting blocks.

Mounting block outside
The Sun Inn, Dent

The construction of mounting blocks can vary quite significantly, from formal examples made from dressed stone to other, less grand structures made from rubble or stone blocks with flagstone treads. For example, the mounting block on Main Street in Askrigg is dressed stonework that appears to have been carefully selected to match the probable nineteenth century frontage of the house, whereas the block at the front of the Sun Inn at Dent is built up of painted stone blocks.

Mounting blocks will often have steps on just one side rather than both sides as with the Askrigg example. It is also easy to mistake mounting blocks with some churn stands. Some churn stands have a step or steps, and to further complicate matters is also possible that some churn stands will have been used for mounting horses.

As mounting blocks are often found within settlements, some will consequently be protected within part of a wider designation such as a conservation area. A few will be protected because they fall within the curtilege of a listed building, but many won’t have any level of protection.