A campaign has been launched to protect neglected milestones in the Bradford district, some 250 years old.

The five-year-old Milestone Society Yorkshire Region has been granted £12,000 by English Heritage to kick-start the project. It will fund a website detailing the region's 1,200 waystones, complete with photographs and locations.

The grant will also pay for an architect to draw up a good-practice guide on the repair and maintenance of the stones.

A number of guidestones - also known as guidestoops - have already been identified in the Aire Valley as being in need of protection and possible restoration.

They include the ancient stone waymark in Spring Gardens Lane, Keighley, at its junction with Bar House Lane and Hollins Lane.

The guidestone is believed to be about 250 years old. It has hands pointing to Skipton and Keighley and is located on the old Keighley to Kendal turnpike which was adopted in 1733.

Others include a guidepost on top of a wall in Otley Road, Baildon, near Hollings Hill garage. Its left face is inscribed "To Otley 5 miles" and the right face "To Bradford 5 miles".

And highlighted on the society's colour promotional postcard is the guidestoop at Cracoe, near Skipton, pointing to Grassington on the old crossroads.

The website is due to go live at the end of April, but meanwhile Yorkshire members are to meet in Hebden village hall, near Skipton, on Sunday when the initiative will be on the agenda.

Jan Scrine, the society's national treasurer, said: "Guideposts are fast disappearing and the Government is encouraging local authorities to take more interest in them. They first began to appear in the mid-1600s when local justices ordered that they had to be put up, especially where tracks crossed. The Cracoe post is a good example.

"We are very lucky to have so many milestones and other waymarkers left in the region. Mostly cast in iron or local stone, they are at risk from road chemicals, mechanical grass cutters and vandalism."

Joining the support bandwagon is local historian and Keighley town councillor Laurence Brocklesby. He said: "These posts are a significant part of our history. Imagine how many people have passed here over the centuries. They are definitely worth protecting."

Keighley town councillor Graham Mitchell said the council was keen to preserve the district's heritage and he would be tabling the issue with the transport and watch committee at its next meeting A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said money was available from a number of sources, including the heritage budget, to help finance preservation.

"Milestone are part of our heritage - they are as British as black taxis and red telephone boxes," he said.

Trevor Mitchell, an English Heritage historic buildings inspector, said: "Until now too many have been literally passed by and their contribution to our historic landscape not fully appreciated."