VS #588a - Blunham Multi-Cache

VS #588A Blunham

Originally, I didn't consider signs like these to be worthy of inclusion in the VS series, alongside their fancier counterparts. However, now that I know more about them, I realise their historical significance.

As part of the 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations, Bedford County Council – as was – wanted to fund five projects and the village signs was one of them. In addition, the council created a new county coat of arms, they bought Moot Hall and the village green in Elstow, bought and restored Stevington Windmill and planted 1,951 roadside trees across the county.

The signs were offered to villages at a subsidised cost of £10 (roughly £316 in today’s money) and were manufactured in the county council’s own workshop. 138 were initially made, although some are in better repair than others. Some (including this one) have an additional ‘hump’ feature to accommodate ‘best kept village’ badges.

As for Blunham, Blunham  is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, about 8 miles (13 km) east of Bedford. The village is just off the A1 road, near Great Barford and Sandy, and is near the confluence of the River Ivel with the River Great Ouse. The village also lies on Route 51 of the National Cycle Network.

At the north of village is an unusual double humpback bridge across the River Ivel and the Mill Stream which must be crossed to enter the village from the A1 road or Tempsford.

Blunham had a railway station which opened in 1862 on the Oxford to Cambridge railway line. The station shut when this line was closed in 1961, although the station buildings still exist and have been converted into two homes. 

Blunham Cricket Club hold the world record for the longest cricket marathon lasting 168 hours 22 minutes and 20 seconds from 24 to 31 August 2019.  I think I taught 13 of the particpants.

To find the cache you need to go to the published co-ords and gather the numbers:

A is the number of words on the left hand disc

B is the number of words on the central disc 

C is the number of words on the right hand disc

D is the number of letters in the shortest word on the three discs

E is the number of letters in the longest word on the three discs

N52 08.(E-B)(C-D)(BxD) W000 19.(A+B)D(B-C)

Check sum of all the digits = 49

Good Luck!

About Village Sign Caches

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This cache belongs to the Village Sign Series, a series of caches based on ornate signs that depict the heritage, history and culture of the villages that put them up (generally 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 started in Norfolk or Suffolk and has now spread across most of the country so we thought we would base a series on them!

More information, bookmarks and statistics can be found at the Village Signs Website

If anybody would like to expand the Village Sign Series, please do.
I would ask that you request a number for your cache first at www.villagesignseries.co.uk
so we can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication.