{"id":1422,"date":"2011-01-03T05:19:25","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T05:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.onclick.co.uk\/wordpress\/?page_id=1422"},"modified":"2011-01-03T05:19:25","modified_gmt":"2011-01-03T05:19:25","slug":"mounting-blocks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/?page_id=1422","title":{"rendered":"Mounting blocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/media_library\/mstone.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-950\" style=\"border: 12px solid #d8e9da; margin: 5px; padding: 5px;\" title=\"mstone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/media_library\/mstone.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/media_library\/mstone.jpg 220w, https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/media_library\/mstone-189x300.jpg 189w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/a>On the corner of the High Street and Maidstone Road, almost opposite  the Post Office, is a vivid reminder of days gone by when the people of  Marden would have to leap on a horse, instead of taking the bus, train  or car, to travel any distance. Some people were not up to leaping and  this is where the mounting block was useful; it provided a step up into  the saddle for the elderly and inactive.<\/p>\n<p>Known locally as the Mounting Stone, the origins of Marden&#8217;s mounting  block have been lost in time, but it is believed to be of Kentish  ragstone, probably eighteenth century from Boughton Monchelsea quarries.  Many such blocks were once provided in towns and villages throughout  the country, some at public expense, others donated by the lord of the  manor. As well as the one in the middle of the village there are other  mounting blocks in the parish.<\/p>\n<p>Designs varied: some were made of bricks, sometimes incorporated into  a wall; others were composed of smaller blocks of stones; some, like  Marden&#8217;s shown here, were hewn out of a solid block. Country-wide few  now survive, having been cleared away as redundant and in the way.  Happily Marden&#8217;s has survived, perhaps the fact that it is a massive  solid block, and therefore difficult to demolish, saved it in the past.  Now it is a treasured part of village history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the corner of the High Street and Maidstone Road, almost opposite the Post Office, is a vivid reminder of days gone by when the people of Marden would have to leap on a horse, instead of taking the bus, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/?page_id=1422\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":24,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1422","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1424,"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1422\/revisions\/1424"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}