Crime Updates
Wanted/For Sale
Baby items for sale ... Take a look at all the items we have for sale and see if you can find yourself a bargain. You can also post requests for items you are looking for. It's free and we have sold lots of items over the years from cars to sofas!
BBC News Feeds
Quick Contacts
Resources
PDF Files
You will need the Adobe Reader to view some documents on the website. You can download it for FREE from the Adobe Website
website last updated 4 January, 2010
The Village Sign
On Saturday 13th July 2002, the day of the village carnival, the Wickhambrook Village Sign was unveiled.
The following information was written by Peter Miller - (previous Clerk to the Parish Council) and was taken from our local magazine, the Scene (September 2002) with further information provided by Colin Bird - (village Postman for many years), again taken from the Wickhambrook Scene (November 2002).
Wickhambrook Village Sign
Wickhambrook News and Events
Quiz Night at The Greyhound
Thursday 23rd February
For more information visit The Greyhound website
Village Litter Pick
Sunday 26th February
Meet at the MSC Pavilion at 10.30 am. Finish late morning with tea/coffee and biscuits. The Borough will provide refuse sacks, litter grabs, gloves, hazard jackets and collect all the rubbish. The more volunteers we have the larger the area that can be covered.
W.I. Quiz
Saturday 31st March
7 for 7.30pm in the WI Hall. Our famous annual Quiz. £7 per person in teams of four (includes Ploughman's Supper). Please book with Val Orange, 820161 or Dorothy Anderson, 820376. A deposit of £10 will be required on booking.
W.I. Spring Fayre
Saturday 10 March 2012
2.30pm onwards at the W.I. Hall. Bric-a-brac, books and toys,cakes, raffle, teas. Hall open on Saturday at 10pm for donations. Everyone welcome.
Photo of the Month - February
Village News Headlines
What will you be doing in 20 years time? What will Wickhambrook look like? What should the Council and its partners be doing to plan for the future in the rural areas?
From now until early summer 2011 St Edmundsbury Borough Council is asking what should be in a new Rural Vision 2031 document.
The Rural Vision 2031 will cover many different aspects of the rural areas and life in it, including housing, jobs, services and the facilities required in the 21st Century. It will also consider issues of deprivation and social inequality and how the provision of services can be enhanced and developed.
Council officers will be available at an informal drop in session at Wickhambrook Memorial Social Centre on Monday 16 May from 4-7pm for you to talk to us about the issues that the village is facing now and over the next 20 years.
For more information please call Planning Policy and Specialist Services on 01284 757368 or email ruralvision@stedsbc.gov.uk (view leaflet)
FIND US AGAIN
Use the Bookmark and Share tool below so you can find our website again easily
Design and Construction
On the day of the unveiling and since, I have been asked a number of times how the sign was made and what it represents.
To start with the sign maker had discussions with the Parish Council, spoke to a number of residents with historical knowledge of the area and toured the village to get a feel for it. He then produced outline drawings of his ideas for the sign.
Once there was a degree of agreement he turned the drawings into full colour paintings. A number of drawings and paintings were produced but finally a design was settled on and manufacture could start.
First the sign maker carved a full size model of the sign in plaster. This was sent to the casters who used it to form a sand mould into which molten metal was poured. Once this had cooled and hardened it was cleaned up and returned to the sign maker. He then hand-painted the sign and weather proofed it. Finally it went to the frame maker to be installed in its scrollwork frame so completing the sign ready for mounting on its post.
What does the Sign depict?
As you approach the sign from Thorns Corner, All Saints Church is easily recognisable on the top panel.
The mill, no longer with us, represents those which were in Mill Lane and at Thorns Corner and the thatched cottage one of many such in the village.
The harvester represents the arable content of most of the village farms and the waterway, with its wildlife, the village stream and the many ponds that there used to be and the few that are left.
On the bottom panel, the house in the background represents the manor houses of the village and the playing field our eleven village greens with the cricket team which, although not active at the moment, dates back to the 1800's.
Judging by the handcuffs hanging over his arm, the gentleman with the top hat and pint probably represents the local constable, the village had its own until 1973, or the beadle of the poorhouse or maybe both.
The bar between the panels depicts the leaves and fruit of the trees common to the village with, at its centre, stonemasonry which can be seen in the church. Finally the masks of comedy and tragedy at the top of the sign represent Wickhambrook's tradition of pantomime.
On the other side the top panel shows two of the village crafts, bakery and thatching, and the two pubs, The Greyhound and The Cloak, the latter having closed its doors to the public in 1989, with the tree between them representing the orchards of Justin Brooke
The bottom panel depicts the School with the children, particularly the one with the hoop, indicating the school's Victorian heritage.
The post box, dating from 1859 and the only one of its kind in the British Isles, is still to be seen at Boyden End although, unlike the one on the sign, it is no longer in use.
The centre bar repeats the tree theme and the crown at the top represents the visit of Princess Anne to the village in 1979.
I think that about covers it but the more you look at the sign the more detail you see so I have probably missed something. If you identify anything else, or if you disagree with my interpretation, please let me know via the Webmaster.
Peter Miller
More information ...
It was very interesting to read the piece in the last issue of the Scene, detailing how the new village sign was designed and manufactured. It truly is a work of art, and is something of which Wickhambrook can be justifiably proud.
As a member of the Parish Council when the project was started some years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see that in fact the original design that had been agreed upon then, had not been changed in any way, and I wondered if I might be allowed to add a few things to the then Parish Clerk's interpretation of what the sign depicts.
First of all, everything on the sign is there for a reason and was the result of a good deal of consultation and thought. Water is quite prominent because of course the Brook is inherent to our village, and is incorporated in its very name. Likewise the moated manor houses and ponds, some of which have been long filled in.
It's interesting to note that the specific reason for the Kingfisher being present, was that at the time there was an almost daily sighting of one of these brilliant little birds, practicing the fishing technique at The Wash, and was written about at the time in the Scene. This was a significant event because it meant that there must have been an abundance of food in the brook, which itself indicated pollution free water.
Now to the 'Village constable' enjoying a pint of good ale. Actually he is the mole catcher, and the 'handcuffs' are in fact mole traps - some of his unfortunate victims can be seen hanging from his staff. Even the tree he is sitting under is representative of the walnut tree that gave its name to the Walnut Tree public house at Attleton Green, also known then as The Sizzler - the very tree that can be seen on the cover photo of John Bean's excellent book - School. The mole catcher himself once lived in a house in the lane that has since become known as - of course - Mole Hill.
The friezes dividing the top and bottom scenes containing fruit, are in recognition of the very important role that Justin Brooke's fruit farms played in the development of the village.
The oak tree seen in the background between the Cloak and Greyhound pubs, is in memory of the avenue of ancient oaks that once swept down to the rear, and to the lesser extent to the front of Badmondisfield Hall. Imagine the events that those trees must have witnessed over the centuries, and what a colossal act of vandalism in their felling.
Finally the crown does indeed depict Princess Anne's visit to the Riding for the disabled establishment in 1979, but it also commemorates the visit to the School of King George V in 1912, an event of huge magnitude at the time.
Originally some of them were in favour of a unique three sided sign, which would have depicted even more of Wickhambrook's rich history. This idea was soon squashed as being too ambitious and expensive, but Alf Hicks who was enthusiastic about the idea summed it up when he referred to it as, 'An extraordinary sign, for an extraordinary village'. Ah well, we haven't done too badly!
Colin Bird