Ashwellthorpe – Village Sign

As another one of my random asides, I thought that this was one of the more interesting and creative village signs that I’ve seen. Village signs became popular in the early twentieth century when King Edward VII saw a sign in Norfolk that he liked and he thought that they were a marvellous idea, so the numbers spread quickly.

I thought that this was all rather modern in how it looked.

However, the sign was created back in 1977 to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and it appears to be well ahead of its time. The current sign is some sort of more plastic replacement for the original which seems to have somehow fallen apart in the 1990s, but the design was kept exactly the same (I think).

All Saints Church stands behind the village sign.

This depicts the tombs of Sir Edmund de Thorpe and Lady Joan de Thorpe (and dogs at their feet), located in the church.

A reference to the Knyvett Letters, which included correspondence from Oliver Cromwell.

And perhaps my favourite, the dragon door knocker thing (that’ll have to do as my technical explanation) from inside the church.

And here’s the real one. Unfortunately, the church was locked so I couldn’t get photos of the tombs.

Definitely a very creative village sign, with the style of font (I mean in terms of printing, not the font in the church) still feeling modern.

Also, whilst trying to search for more information about this sign, I found an article from the Sunday Mirror in 1978 which noted:

“Farmer Cyril Muskett has dropped plans for a US trip by Concorde and is giving the money to his local parish church at Ashwellthorpe in Norwich for their church repairs”.

What a very admirable decision.