A WORCESTER resident has been honoured for her dedication to local heritage with a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the New Year’s Honours.
Jan Scrine was handed the honour in the list revealed on Friday evening (December 30) for ‘services to roadside heritage’.
Jan is a founder member of the Milestone Society, a registered charity with more than 400 members throughout the UK which was established in 2000 in Worcestershire.
The society has no paid staff and Jan has served as honorary treasurer for twelve years and as chair for two.
Together with members, the society explains that although there are earlier examples, the majority of milestones date from the Turnpike era, 1720s – 1860s, when tolls were charged to users of almost all the highways in the UK.
In Worcestershire, there were over thirty Turnpike Trusts responsible for more than six hundred miles of road.
The county has a thriving branch of the society who have located and recorded details of over two hundred remaining milestones, have restored many and have published information in ‘Finding Worcestershire Milestones’, followed by ‘Worcestershire Turnpikes and Tollhouses’.
Among those awarded honours this year were Olympic stars Andy Murray, Mo Farah who receive knighthoods and Jessica Ennis-Hill who becomes a dame.
A host of Paralympians also receive honours, including 11-times gold medallist dressage rider Lee Pearson who receives a knighthood.
Former Kinks frontman Ray Davies and opera singer Bryn Terfel receive knighthoods while actors Mark Rylance and Patricia Routledge have also been honoured with a knighthood and a damehood respectively.
A total of 1,197 people are on the list, with almost three quarters of them earning recognition for work in their local community.
