An usual part of the history of Radcliffe on Trent, there are four public sites where you can see Totem Poles in the village. Back in 1956, Canadian Airforce personnel moved into the village whilst working at the nearby Langar Airfield after it reopened as an air material base for the Canadian Airforce having been disused since the end of WWII. As part of the subsequent rapid expansion of numbers at the local schools, a substantial donation was made to the rebuild of the then Dayncourt School (now South Nottinghamshire Academy). To thank the Canadians for their donation, a local 17 year old, Tim Barton, carved three poles out of elm and two were erected at the front entrance to the school in 1963. Sadly by 1990 they had become unsafe and had to be taken down. Local knowledge says they had rotted at the bottom but no one knows what happened to them. The third pole was 7ft and designed to go indoors; this one was found in a store cupboard by a caretaker at the school. It was restored and is now on display inside the Junior School.
In 2013 a new pole was erected in the grounds of the Grange Hall and Park. Carved by another local man, Chris Smith who is also Canadian, it was installed in May and unveiled on 15th September by a representative from the Canadian High Commission. Chris had never carved anything before!
Placed with kind permission of the Parish Council. This location can be very busy at certain times of the day, but the Parish Office are aware of the cache and quite enjoy watching people looking for it! Cache suitable for small trackables and swaps.
For more information please see the other 3 Totem Pole caches.