The History of Rumburgh Village Sign

By David Borer - 2020

The idea of having a village sign originated with Rumburgh Women’s Institute, who proposed this to the parish council. At their meeting in May 1985, the parish council suggested that a central village sign, located on the Pleasure Ground, might be a more practical area to look at rather than boundary signs. In November, the chairman informed the council that an offer had come from the Feoffees to contribute towards the proposed village sign, which, coupled with the help from the WI and the parish funds, would enable the project to be commenced in 1986. The clerk was asked for leaflets to be delivered to each household in the village, requesting designs to be submitted to the council for consideration at their next meeting.

 

Nine or ten entries were received, which were displayed in the village hall. The villagers were then invited to pick a winner when they voted in the local elections on 8th May 1986. The result of the survey produced a large majority vote for the design submitted by Mr. Frank Borrill, of Hatton’s Farm, a parish councillor and former woodwork teacher at Halesworth Middle School.

At the parish council meeting in May 1986, Mr. Borrill was asked to provide a quotation for producing the sign. He estimated that the total cost would be in the region of £500 and would take approximately 18 to 24 months to complete. Having received an offer of a donation from both the Feoffees and the WI and bearing in mind the length of time it would take to produce the sign, giving time for additional funds to be raised, a motion was proposed to commission Mr. Borrill to make the sign. This proposal was accepted by 4 votes for and 1 against, with one abstention.

In March 1987, Mr. Borrill reported to the council that the sign would be ready at the end of July, giving the council notice as to when arrangements for the unveiling could take place. It was agreed that a site meeting would be held to identify the location for the sign. This was carried out following the council meeting on 1st June, when it was proposed that the sign be placed 3 metres from the corner of the road and from the direction of the public house. Work was planned to start, on the erection of the sign, in July.

The sign was unveiled by Pat Lofthouse, parish clerk and president of the WI, on Sunday 16th August 1987, with the village turning out in force to witness the occasion.

 

The sign depicts, in the foreground, a man scything, flanked by a pair of elm trees (Rumburgh was once rich in elms), with the priory church of St. Michael and St. Felix in the background. The shield of the ancient Benedictine monastery is incorporated below. The sign was made of Suffolk oak, from the Thornham Magna estate.

The section of the pleasure ground boundary hedge, originally in front of the sign, was removed and later replaced with new planting behind.

The cost of the sign was £500, of which the parish council paid £300, with donations of £100 each by the WI and the Feoffees. Frank Borrill was then paid £35 annually to maintain the sign, up to December 1996, then £40 for years 1997 and 1998, the last payment. Since then, Chris Harrison, of The Old School, has repainted the sign on four occasions, with wood stain given to him by Frank Borrill. Subsequent replenishment has been paid for by the parish council.

Frank Borrill next to the sign

 

 

Acknowledgements

Graham Borrill (Frank’s son) – for providing Frank’s scrap book containing the newspaper cuttings, from which much of this information was obtained.

Parish clerk, Boyd Coote – for searching the parish council minutes of the period.

Frank Borrill – Biography

Frank Borrill was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on 15th August 1926 and died in Rumburgh on 21st May 2013.

He joined the RAF in 1943, as an aircraft mechanic, where he trained on Merlin piston engines. He was attached to a reconnaissance squadron of Mosquitoes and also Dakotas, the latter being powered by Pratt & Witney engines. He subsequently moved onto jet engines, on Meteors and Canberras. He married Sue, in 1947 and left the RAF in 1956, to work for BKS Air Transport, at Southend airport. Here he was again working on piston engine aircraft but in 1966/7, he left to become a metalwork teacher in Southend. He moved to Poplar Technical College, in the late 1960’s/1970, to teach marine engineers about engines. In 1971, he moved to Rumburgh, having bought Hatton’s Farm, while still commuting to Poplar and in 1975, became the woodwork master at Halesworth Middle School. He retired from full time teaching in the early 1980s and completely in the early 1990s.