Marking the boundary of one’s own village or town was something most people took part in for centuries. Cutting back brambles, hacking at bracken, creating a sure fire delineation between one place and another. As a species we have tended to get rather hot under the collar with boundaries over our entire existence, so a simple marker is never to be taken lightly.
So why? Well, like most things in England that date back well over 1000 years, bureaucracy dictates that to know the limits of your own space helps with what you’re expected to pay for. Your garden, the football pitch or a neighbouring country, it all adds up. So it makes good sense to know it well, because you wouldn’t want to pay for the upkeep of next door’s strip of land, so a well marked boundary will always help.
And so, every year the inhabitants of each village, up and down the land, would mark or beat (with a stick) the bounds, or boundary to their parish.
This sumptuous market stone tells the traveler and more importantly the government, that Maidenhead borough starts and ends here, just as the next parish Cookham does the same.