VS #0777 - Cotton End Traditional Cache

VS #0777 - Cotton End

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 Cotton End, Cotton End is a small village and civil parish on the outskirts of Bedford. It has a population of around 840. It is on the A600, south of Shortstown. The village has a primary school, a Baptist church, a village hall and a pub. Ordnance Survey maps from the 1880s show its name as 'Cardington Cotton End'.

The cache is a 2ml tube.

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.