Village Sign Series

VS #1532a - Starston

The current village sign is dated 1980 but it was unveiled the following year by Katie Moore (daughter of Ralph and Sue Moore at Crane’s Watering Farm) and Sybil Lombe Taylor (at Starston Place, grandmother of Richard Lombe Taylor). The designer was Miss Miller who worked as an art teacher at the Blyth School in Norwich. It was paid for by Dr Raven Maclagan who lived at the old forge (now Blacksmith’s Cottage on The Street) and had been a physician to the Queen’s Father. He paid for it in memory of his wife, although officially it was to mark the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981. In 2004 the wooden sign was taken down and looked after by Dennis Fairweather, sculpturer and Starston resident. It was in a bad state of repair and a lot of the original design had rotted away or fallen off. Dennis built up the relief with clay and a mould was made so the sign could be cast in fibreglass resin.

About Village Sign Caches

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!