Kessingland was originally two parts, the village and the beach, infilling in the 1960s linked the two parts together.
The village sign sits at the original entrance to the village from the west, before the bypass was built.
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At the top of the sign is the rising sun, depicting the fact that Kessingland is Britains' most Easterly village.
It depicts a ships wheel & bell portraying the villages long links with the sea & seamanship.
The Suffolk Humane Society, forerunner of the famous rescue group, was formed in the local pub in the village in 1806. The first lifeboat in 1870 was given by the people of Bolton, Lancashire & crewed by local people until 1936 when the advent of motorised boats meant that Lowestoft & Southwold boats could cover the area.
Back to the sign, the fish, farm implements, & horseshoe depict the rich fishing & farming in the village. In the time of the Norman Conquest the Lords extracted 22,000 herring a year from the villages fisheries & it was called 'England's Richest Village' (you might like to find the trekbuddies cache of the same name which is not far away) with 8,000 inhabitants at the time, double the present population.
Sir Henry Rider Haggard lived here & experimented with marram grass to help with cliff erosion, for which he received his knighthood. Along with the sea defences this has given us the coastland we have today. In my childhood the water came right up to the road at high tide - & often onto it!
The tower of St Edmunds Church is 96 feet high & has been a landmark locally since the time of Agincourt! The crest of St Edmunds is also on the village sign.
(Much of this content has been paraphrased from Suffolk Signs Book 1 by Shirley Addy & Maureen Long (my mother)
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<strong><font color="green">If anybody would like to expand this series please do. I would just ask that you let <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=52cc3744-888f-4b29-a97b-2b14c01b853d&wid=37b539c6-894c-42d6-bbb6-d2bbd78b220c&ds=2">Smokeypugs</a> know first so they can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication.</font></strong><br />
The cache is a smallish clear plastic cylinder with a screw top BYOP
Please replace the cache as found & camouflage well, thanks