CAMPAIGNERS working to preserve Worcestershire's milestones will host a conference dedicated to saving them after an initial campaign to re-establish the markers provoked an encouraging response.

Upton Civic Society was among the organisations and individuals joining a countywide Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) effort to source the milestones last October.

Worcestershire now has its own representative - Mike Davis of Malvern Hills Highway Partnership - to help with the effort to save the milestones and membership of a dedicated society continues to grow.

A conference, which aims to highlight the historical importance of milestones as an integral part of national and local heritage and look at what can be done to preserve them, has been arranged to take place at Bromsgrove's Avoncroft Museum on May 28.

"We did get a good response," said the secretary of The Milestone Society and Worcestershire co-ordinator Terry Keegan.

"We have this society we created last year with over 300 members now. We are split into counties to go for our aims to record milestones that have survived and get them preserved.

"The highway authorities are the legal owners of them but sadly they haven't got the money or enthusiasm to do anything."

He explained that he was happy to see Mr Davis appointed as a "milestone man" working on behalf of the county council but, because the county's money was tied up in other things such as road signs, said that parishes and their councils had been earmarked for "getting enthusiastic" about the campaign.

Mr Keegan has already seen some success in his home village of Clows Top.

A project which used 'rural challenge' cash has restored a 200-year-old milestone to its former glory and given it a new cast iron plate showing distances to Cleobury Mortimer and Worcester

The original was removed in World War II to avoid assisting any enemy invader.

Anyone interested in attending the 'Saving Worcestershire's Milestones' conference can ring Mr Keegan on 01299 832358. The attendance fee is £5.