VETERAN cyclist Bob Hampton turned detective when he uncovered the mystery of the missing milestone on an old turnpike road near Bromsgrove.

Now he's planning to join a campaign to help restore the wayside markers around Worcestershire.

Bob, a retired mechanical engineer from Rock Hill, was puzzled when he heard about a fifth milestone that should have been at the side of one of his favourite routes - the Bradley Green to Himbleton stretch of the Worcester turnpike.

The Worcestershire Group of the Milestone Society had found four during surveys but they hadn't been able to track down a fifth which they were sure existed.

They thought it had been moved but Bob couldn't see why such a heavy object would be shifted from the ancient wayside. So he set his handlebar computer to zero at the Shell milestone, cycled a mile and got off his bike to have a look.

"I was told about this milestone by a member of the group who thought it had been dug up," said Bob, who still covers over 12,000 miles a year on his bike. "I'd been that way many times and I hadn't seen it but it was within three or four yards of the mile I cycled. It looked almost exactly like a tree trunk and I had to scrape away ivy and hawthorn because it was completely covered."

Terry Keegan, co-ordinator of the Milestone Society's Worcestershire Group, said: "Bob's find is extremely helpful to the work we're doing to locate and return these long-forgotten wayside mementoes to their rightful place as part of our countryside heritage."

The society also wants to replace the plaques they once carried. The ones on the stretch where Bob made his discovery were all removed and destroyed in 1940 when a German invasion was feared. The Worcester United Turnpike Trust fitted the plaques on the road in about 1867 and it would have read To Worcester Cross 9 Miles.

Last week the society held a conference called Saving Worcestershire's Milestones at the Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings to bring together people interested in saving the markers, some of which date back 250 years.

"Most of them have been allowed to deteriorate so badly there is a danger they will be lost for ever," Mr Keegan said. "It's a subject dear to the hearts of many Worcestershire people. We're hoping to find a way forward."

Anyone interested can contact him on 01299 832358.