Description: The caption reveals that this was the lowest the reservoirs had been for 36 years (i.e. since 1875). The inscription on the milestone reads 'From Sheffield 6m' and 'M&S' (possibly Manchester and Sheffield?).
This was formerly part of Long Causeway (sometimes Long Causey), a medieval packhorse route linking Sheffield and Hathersage via an 1100 feet ascent to Stanage Pole. Although never turnpiked, very unusually it was provided with mileposts in the 1730s due to the high volume of traffic (by this date transported using carts rather than packhorses). The traffic included 'oil, hardware goods, barrels of tar, hogsheads of treacle, glue from Manchester, lead and small grinding stones' but there was a decline by the 1760s, largely due to the completion of an alternative more southerly route through Ringinglow.
The Redmires Reservoirs (which drowned a section of Long Causeway) are a group of three reservoirs near Fulwood on the eastern fringe of Sheffield. They are fed from the Hallam Moors by various small streams including Fairthorn Clough. The three reservoirs are named Upper, Middle and Lower and date from 1836, being constructed to provide clean drinking water following the Sheffield cholera epidemic of 1832. It is thought the milestone was located at the Upper reservoir.