Milestones

The Mile Stones are made of sandstone. They share a wedge shape.  I don't know how the stones were marked with the miles. There isn't any obvious sign of a plaque or wooden board being attached in the past. 

Liverpool - Wigan Section
The older maps, 1889 edition, show the distance on the mileposts being from Liverpool to Wigan. The stones are 0.20 miles from the later mile posts on the Liverpool side. This is because the canal terminus at Old Hall Street was ~0.20 miles further towards Liverpool in the early 1800s than the Pall Mall terminus was after 1898. I have only found 4 on the Wigan to Liverpool stretch, not bad considering they were obsolete by 1898 and are quite a handy piece of sandstone. Most have a wedge/arrow shape carved on to the top surface.

Former Lancaster South section
There don't seem to have been any milestones on the Lancaster South section.  This suggests they were put in place before the Lancaster Canal and Leeds Liverpool canals merged. 

Johnson's Hillock to Leeds Section
Early maps show the distances to Johnsons Hillock and Leeds. Later ones show distances to Liverpool on this section.  The distances shown give a total of 127miles from Leeds to Liverpool. This is shorter than the 127.25 miles of the 1898 length. The stones are 0.44miles away from the metal mile posts on the Leeds side near the half mile posts.  It would seem logical that the mile stones on the Leeds to Johnson's Hillock section started in Leeds and ended at Johnson's Hillock.  Some of the milestones on this section seem to be associated  to bench marks on the County Series OS map 1892-1894. The bench mark is carved onto of the milestone.  Milestone 76 seems to be made of a different stone to the earlier ones, possibly the local limestone.

Mileposts c1898

The metal mile posts are cast iron. They are not solid but hollow with no back i.e. a V shape. They had metal plaques with the miles marked on them attached to the post with screws. They are usually painted white with black lettering, although some at the Liverpool end are the opposite. They are in varying states of preservation. Some are replacements probably from the 1980s.  Most posts have the name of the city on the side of the post nearest to that city i.e. if Liverpool is to your left then the Liverpool directions will be on the left side of the post, but some have the plaques the other way around.

Half Mile Posts are smaller than a full mile post, but bigger than a quarter mile post. they are a different shape to the other posts. They have a flat face with a ½ symbol on it.
Quarter Mile Posts are small versions of the full mile post but they lack any plaques or markings. All quarter mile posts are the same, there is no difference between the quarter and three-quarter posts. They are often mislabelled on OS maps as MP (def) when they are confused for a defaced full mile post.
 

Showed miles to Tarleton and to the Junction with Leeds & Liverpool Canal. There is no sign of half or quarter mile posts. Of the three found so far only one has a plaque, the one giving miles to the junction with the main line shown as JUNCN L&L.C. The 3 mile post is mentioned in Towpath Walks as being in the hedgerow by Rufford lock, sadly the marina development has removed this milepost and the hedge is replaced by a rather nasty new fence.

The Walton Summit Branch had mileposts similar to those on the Rufford Branch. Now the canal has gone so have the mileposts, the only one remaining is the first quarter mile post.

Other Canals

Shropshire Union Mile Post

Trent and Mersey Canal Mile Post
1977 replacement