'For the times/stiles they are a-changin'

I was delighted when I spotted this stile with it ancestor still in situ. Gloucestershire County Council does a good job with caring for its many footpaths, which I know about as I once knew the man whose job it was to look after them.

Today I walked in a completely new area and went through several of these new style sheep and cattle proof gates, which commonly are replacements for a variety of types of stiles, many of which were made of the local Cotswold limestone. I imagine these simple ironwork steps over the fence must have been built in the early twentieth century. 

I felt duty bound to blip them as a fitting record of their place in the countryside. It still looks remarkably strong and I now wish I had gone over it to mark the occasion, but my knees at the time weren't agreeing with my brain.