The Traffic Cone That Became a Landmark

The cone went over a pothole outside the launderette on Marsh Road in the spring of 2011. It was an ordinary cone, orange, slightly scuffed, the kind that exists in its thousands and is noticed by nobody.

The pothole was filled two years later. The council's van came at seven in the morning, did the work in forty minutes, and left the cone standing on the fresh tarmac, presumably because moving it was not on the docket. By then people had already begun saying turn left at the cone, and the phrase had spread far enough that a taxi driver from three towns over knew what it meant.

It has been taken away four times. It has come back four times, each time within a week, and never by the same route. On the third occasion it returned two centimetres taller, and nobody has ever explained that. Somebody, at some point, painted a small white number 1 on it, in the manner of a listed building.

The launderette has closed and reopened as a bakery. The bus stop has moved. The council no longer sends anyone. Directions on Marsh Road still begin at the cone, which is now the oldest continuously occupied position on the street.