Spirit of Place: Kerbstone Carvings

I had a jolt the other day when walking along a street I've walked along many times before. I spotted something I've never noticed before (on the corner of Bromsgrove Street and Lower Essex Street B5):

They may appear more clearly when turned into a negative:

But what on earth was I seeing? Those markings couldn't be graffiti: those are old stone kerbstones and I couldn't see even the most deranged stonemason getting down on all fours to carve them down there. In fact the markings, especially the arrows, looked like nothing other than mediaeval masons' marks, used to identify a particular mason's work for payment. But what on earth would they be doing on a Victorian kerbstone in Birmingham? And that was how I discovered (here, here and here) that every major city in Britain has these markings on kerbstones, with most in Glasgow and London. They are thought to have the same purpose as the mediaeval markings, or else to indicate the location of services, but apart from that theory nobody has ever identified what they mean. I'd never heard of them in Birmingham before.

The other thing I've discovered is that while walking along the street with a mask 😷 on will keep the idiots away, walking along looking at the kerb will keep everyone else away. Bliss. And sure enough I've seen more. 

On the Bristol Road outside Optimax Eye Clinic (B5 7XJ):

And on the corner of Pershore Road and Raglan Road, on the opposite corner from St Mary and St Ambrose's church (B5 7RA):

I particularly love that until you look at it in detail this one appears to say Alf.

Of course my interest has been grabbed now, particularly as they're obviously not intended to be noticeable and you have to see them out of the corner of your eye, so I'll be keeping an eye out for them.