Post-war
The village sign has stood on the Green since 1951, and this year marks fifty years since it was first put up. It is worth looking back at how it came to be, and at the people who made it happen.
The sign was born out of the Festival of Britain, an idea of the Labour government which followed the Second World War. The Festival was meant to lift the country's spirits after the war years, and it had the backing of King George VI himself. The building we now know as the Royal Festival Hall began life simply as the Festival Hall, part of that national celebration.
Not everyone was comfortable with the politics behind the Festival. The Vicar, Mr Eyre Walker, who chaired the local Festival Committee, had his doubts about it. Others, though, threw themselves into the occasion. Phyllis Upfield could still recall the village's Festival activity years afterwards, and Lady Page was a firm supporter of the Leigh Committee. Lady Page is remembered locally for her eccentric car driving skills, which apparently caused some alarm around the lanes.
The design chosen for the sign was rich in village life. Around the main shield ran wrought iron hops, while the shield itself carried images of the Green at cricket, of Ensfield Bridge, the Pump House and of the deer park at Hall Place — where sixty deer then lived, though Alfie Houghton remembered them being liquidated twelve years on.
The commission went to the Bullingham Forge, which stood on the Green itself. Old Mr Bullingham designed the sign, but by then his son had taken charge of the Forge, and it was the younger Mr Bullingham who actually made it. The drawings and painted designs were the work of Wendy Bullingham, then a schoolgirl with a keen interest in art. Wendy still lives in the village today.
The hole for the sign was dug on a Saturday morning, and Alfie Houghton, who was Chairman of the Parish Council, stood in it for the benefit of a photographer who had come to record the occasion.
The sign has needed care over the years. Mrs Skillman repainted it in the 1970s, but by early 2000 it had begun to look neglected, and it is hoped that the Parish Council will take up the brush once more.