Fyfield Sign

The village sign is beside the bus stop on the junction of Queen Street and the Dunmow - Ongar road.

It is carved and painted in oak, in keeping with the East Anglian style developed by one Harry Carter who carved over a hundred village signs in Norfolk.

The sign shows the church, the roof of Fyfield Hall behind it, and on the right the river leading towards the mill. Behind the mill are five fields representing the “five hydes” from which some say the village derives its name. On the bottom right the fish is a reference to the name “Fish Head” which may have been another ancestor of the village name!

The foreground is dominated by our botanical claim to fame, The Fyfield Pea and the Essex shield completes the design.

Fyfield’s village sign began life in 1986 as a “Design a Sign” competition devised by the then parish council clerk, John Tomkins. There were only two submissions! Despite stiff competition from ten year old Oliver Hemming (who won a gift voucher), I was commissioned to carve the sign. I laboured under two handicaps; I had never carved anything before and I had a full time job - so two years later I was still chipping away after work like a nocturnal woodpecker! Late in 1988 the sign was finally unveiled by parish council chairman, Ken Percy.

Andy Smith