Coal duty marker, Little Oxhey Lane
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Then
The marker is a cast-iron obelisk on a stone base, made by the Falkirk Iron Company, and one of the posts that marked where a tax was charged on coal coming into the London area. Historic England dates it to 1851, but the North Mymms History Project lists it with a type of post put up under the Act of 1861. From 1861 the duty boundary followed the edge of the Metropolitan Police District, and the tax ended in 1889. Our Oxhey reads the lettering as Act 24 and 25 Vict. Cap. 42, the London Coal and Wine Duties Act of 1861, and says the money went to a bridge building fund that helped pay for Tower Bridge.5,46,47,48
Now
It stands beside the railway, south of Little Oxhey Lane, on what is still the boundary between Hertfordshire and Greater London, and has been listed Grade II since 1985. Older photographs show it painted white, on an embankment kept clear of undergrowth to stop fires in steam days. Secure fencing now makes it hard to reach, and the old way to it was the footpath beside Sir James Altham School. Smaller coal duty posts stand in Oxhey Lane, Oxhey Drive and at Batchworth Heath.
Position from OpenStreetMap. See Sources and method.