Village signs is a series of caches based on the ornate signs that depict the heritage, history and culture of the villages that put them up (normally on the village green!).
The signs can be made of different materials from fibreglass to wood, from forged steel to stone. They can depict anything from local industry to historical events. The tradition probably stated in Norfolk or Suffolk and has now spread across most of the country so we thought we would base a series on them!
The following is taken from Wikipedia. St Cross, South Elmham is a village and civil parish in the Waveney district of Suffolk in eastern England. One of the Saints, in 2010 its population was 120, increasing to 217 at the 2011 census. The population has an average age of 43 and is evenly split between genders, with 106 males and 111 females.[2] The village name is a portmanteau of the medieval parish name "Saint George Sancroft", as the village church is named St George.[3] The Sancroft part of the name comes from the sandy nature of the soil the area surrounding the church of St George.[4] The village itself is small in size and lacks many traditional features such as a village pub or shop, instead only containing a number of cottages and farms including Greshaw Farm, Weston House Farm and South Elmham Hall Farm.[5] A volunteer group known as Waveney Community Bus, provide a bus service to residents living in the St Cross area.[6] St Cross is known for its picturesque views of the English countryside and was home to the poet and writer Elizabeth Smart (Canadian author) for the last years of her life. She was buried in the graveyard of the church of St George after her death in 1986.[3] St Cross was created as a result of the merger with the lands around Homersfield in 1767. Before this it was part of the lands owned by the See of Norwich until the reign of King Henry VIII, its revenues distributed to the Church.[4] With the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540 the land was transferred back to the crown.[9] The manor and its surrounding lands were eventually given to the North family in the 17th century valued at £20.[4] After the Norths, the manor and its lands were transferred to the Tasburgh family.[4] Eventually ownership was taken over by the Durrant family in the 19th century.[4] It is unknown who owned the land of St Cross from the 17th–19th century before the Durrant family took ownership.
St Cross South Elmham is also a special place to me as my mothers family originate from here. They grew up at Church Farm. My late grandparents are buried at St George's Church and my parents were also married there.
If anybody would like to expand this series please do. I would just ask that you let Smokeypugs know first so they can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication.