Village Sign People | Questions & Answers

How do I go about designing my Sign?

Designing your own unique village sign with its composite imagery and lettering to harmonise with your local environment, is a very skilled task. However we offer a complete design package for your Village Sign, including initial design sketches through to finished colour drawings. You can research your local history for suitable symbols, pictures and drawings to incorporate into your sign (local buildings, events, people, occupations, flora and fauna, etc.) then our designer will take your ideas and put them together to form your unique Village Sign.

We will produce two initial simple pencil sketches from your initial ideas and instructions; these are completely free of charge and without any obligation. If you then wish to proceed further, we will produce a full colour detailed drawing for you, which will give you a clear impression of the finalised design before you commit to ordering your sign. A small charge of £100 will be made for this unique coloured design, but this will be deducted from the final price once you decide to go ahead. If required further alterations to the coloured design can be done by our artists, for a small nominal charge. We can also work from your own original design, but please don’t be offended if, for technical reasons, it has to be amended to suit the type of sign that you want.

How do I mount my Sign?

Generally Village Signs are mounted onto a tall oak post, and supplied along with an enamel painted, heavy duty box section socket (not a Met post!) which can be concreted directly into the ground or incorporated in a plinth by your local builder. In this way the oak post doesn’t come into contact with the soil and consequently shouldn’t rot. Other than wiping the post over with oil once or twice a year, there should be no maintenance required for very many years.

Our standard specification includes our own unique “post mounting system”; which comprises of a robust English oak post which is attractively ‘stopped chamfered’ and a heavy duty steel box section black stove enamelled socket.

How long is my Village Sign going to last?

To some extent that depends on the type of sign, Cast Aluminium & Pierced Metal Signs are probably more durable than Hand Carved Village Signs, although with a little care and attention a Hand Carved Sign can easily last well over 30 years.

Although many of our customers prefer their Hand Carved signs to be attractively painted, it must be remembered that these oak signs must be regularly checked for any deterioration of the painted surface as any cracks in the paintwork will attract moisture and the woodwork may deteriorate unseen behind the paint. On the other hand, an unpainted Hand Carved sign is likely to last longer and will of course eventually acquire the silver patina that only old oak can.

Cast Aluminium signs will benefit from being re-painted from time to time, but even then we are talking many years between re-paints. We have village signs which we made well over 20 years ago that haven’t needed re-painting; in fact we have just had one back in the workshop for a re-paint that we made over 31 years ago!!

Can I see my Village Sign before it is delivered?

Yes of course, we are always pleased to have visitors; however a phone call beforehand will always guarantee that tea or coffee will be available!

How long will it take to before we receive our Village Sign?

To make your unique village sign, through its different stages, is by its very nature, extremely labour intensive. We pride ourselves on our attention to detail, which all adds to the time taken. At the moment, because we are so busy (I’m pleased to say – although frantic is the adjective that frequently springs to mind!!) the delivery is likely to be in the region of 12/15 months from date of order. I feel we have to be totally honest with you and give you the worst outlook rather than mislead you with an earlier date I know we haven’t a hope of keeping to. On a positive note, our bulging order books should be taken as a recommendation of the quality of our products.

How much are we talking about for a Village Sign?

Cast Aluminium:

Our Aluminium Village Signs comprise a cast aluminium panel with the illustrations in low relief. They are treated with etch primer, two coats of undercoat, and are then hand painted with high quality gloss, sign writer’s enamel paint. The process produces a sign, which will have a long lasting paint finish, that won’t corrode. The panel is set into a black stove enamelled steel frame with wrought iron scrollwork, and is mounted onto an oiled finish English oak post.

A Cast Aluminium sign similar to the Methwold sign starts in the region of £5,476 for a single sided sign, including a 5” square English oak post and our unique heavy duty mounting socket.

Pierced Metal:

Our Pierced Metal signs are generally made from 4mm steel plate using a combination of traditional age-old hand forging techniques coupled with modern day laser, or water jet cutting techniques . Each sign is first cut and pierced, then the wrought iron scrollwork is added. The sign is then finished in a black stove enamel to achieve the hi-contrast silhouette design before any other colours are then added by hand. The finished sign is generally mounted onto a single oak post, but could also be mounted on a brick, or stone plinth built by your own local builder.

A simple Pierced Metal sign similar to the Grafham sign, which stands approximately 11 feet tall, would be in the region of £6,075 depending on the complexity. The price includes a 5” square English oak post and our unique heavy duty mounting socket.

Welcome Boards:

Many of our ‘Welcome’ signs are made from Cast Aluminium and then mounted on English oak posts fitted into our unique heavy duty mounting sockets.

A simple Cast Aluminium ‘Welcome’ sign similar to the Cammeringham sign (approximate size 1350 mm wide x 1250 mm tall) would be in the region of £3,734, including the 4” square English oak posts and our unique heavy duty mounting socket.