Campaigners seek listed status for historic trig points that mapped Britain

Pillars at Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire, and Thorny Gale, Cumbria, bookended the project that modernised mapping

Heritage campaigners are bidding for listing status for two concrete pillars hailed as “modest obelisks of modernity in the countryside”.

These functional 120cm (4ft) stone or concrete “trig points” formed part of a 6,500-strong network of surveying posts that were vital for the development of modern mapping.