AN important part of Huddersfield's history saved from destruction is returning home.

England World Cup winner Ray Wilson saved a stone milestone from being crushed when the M62 was being built in the late 1960s.

He had kept it in the garden of his Barkisland home for 32 years.

Now he's moving from there to Huddersfield and wants the milestone to go back to where it came from in Outlane.

Ray, 71, was working as a funeral director at Leeches Hill Funeral Home at the time. The business was owned by his wife Pat's father, Edward Lumb.

He said: "When the M62 was being built huge crushing machines were used to pulverise anything being dug up.

"This included huge stones and when I asked the workmen what was going to happen to the milestone they said that was going in the crusher.

"This was the 1960s where everything was focused on the new and people didn't bother about heritage.

"It was an important part of our heritage, so I asked if I could have it and they said I could as long as I shifted it before the machinery arrived."

The old Yorkshire stone marker was in the way of the westbound slip road on to the M62 at Outlane.

It dates back hundreds of years and has 3½ miles from Huddersfield engraved on one side and 3½ miles to Huddersfield engraved on the other.

Once sunk into the ground about 3ft sticks out from the surface.

It was a tough task digging the sunken post up and Ray remembers it well.

"It nearly killed me," he said. "It's just so incredibly heavy.

"We had to walk it on its corners to get it out of the way of the contractors.

"Now we are moving we don't want to take it with us and it would be great if it can be returned to its rightful place."

Mrs Wilson contacted Jan Scrine who lives at Bradley Bar in Huddersfield and is a founding member and treasurer of The Milestone Society.

She said: "We are absolutely thrilled the milestone is coming home. It's been a long time away.

She believes the milestone dates from the mid 1800s and said it was strange the milestone was marked in a half-mile.

Clive Frost, senior projects manager for Kirklees Council's highway network,

said: "The milestone was originally on what is now the slip road down to the westbound carriageway of the M62 at Outlane.

"We hope to site it on the old road at the top of New Hey Road within 300ft of where it originally stood.

"Kirklees has an ongoing project to restore milestones."

* There are 120 historic waymarkers in Kirklees.

* Most are cast iron or local stone and are at risk from road chemicals, mechanical grass- cutters and vandalism.

* Yorkshire has around 1,200 milestones.

* A charity called The Milestone Society was set up in 2001 to find and record all the milestones and waymarkers in the UK.

* Waymarkers may be roadside objects such as troughs, which have mileages etched on them.

* The society also wants to preserve and restore or replace milestones and waymarkers.

* Earlier this year English Heritage gave a £12,000 grant to The Milestone Society to create its website for Yorkshire, www.yorkshire-milestones. co.uk