During May 2012 Peter Gatenby was journeying through the counties of Norfolk and Lincolnshire and noticed how nearly every village had a descriptive and colourful sign welcoming you and showing you some feature you would find in that village or displaying some historical event that took place there;. Thus as you enter Needham in Norfolk you find an elaborate sign erected to celebrate the millennium of a three-part shield showing the church the coat of arms and the mill and mill stream. The next day arriving at Beccles you have a couple of carved figures showing the First Portreeve John Baas who was in effect the leader of the town council, being handed a charter outlining his authority and powers by Queen Elizabeth I. Then continuing through South Lincolnshire where every village seems to have some saint or saints included in it’s name such as Tilney St Lawrence; Terrington St John and Walpole St Peter, further descriptive signs were found. Back in Somersetshire there are very few if any village signs and thus Peter was minded to investigate whether some signs might be erected.. Thus when the journey to the 4 cardinal points had been completed the subject was raised to see if it would have a favourable response to have our own village sign in Henton.
Thus a few years later in 2016 in the February edition of the church magazine ‘The Triangle’, which is delivered to all residents in the civil parish of Wookey, there was an invitation to meet over coffee and cakes to discuss the idea of village signs. This took place at Henton Village hall on Saturday 9th April 1916 and the response was very enthusiastic with people from all the villages in the civil parish of Wookey coming forward to form a committee, and £147 was collected towards future costs. There were many ideas put forward for what should appear on the signs but the most popular was a Mill.
At this time a committee was formed from volunteers from each village and under the title The Mill Stream Villages Association it established a constitution and rules.
Several meetings of the committee followed and the decison reached to have a similar sign for all the 5 villages linked by the Lower River Axe that flows close to the Wells Road the B3139 . The villages or hamlets were collectively brought together by choosing to show them all on “The Mill Stream ” that is the Lower River Axe by having a banner at the foot of each sign saying “A Mill Stream Village” with a dot indicating their posion along a line that is a decriptive idicator of this water course. Each sign shows a mill with different colours chosen for the village name and background.
The signs have all now been produced by Kings Plastics in Bristol and the all the metal frames made and erected by David Speed. The first sign was erected and unveiled on Shrove Tuesday 5th March 2019. near the Burcott Mill with the children of Wookey Primary school attending and helping with the unveiling.
Perhaps not immediately recognised was that while there are thousands of villages with their own individual design here we have produced a design that links 5 villages together. When we studied the history it was noted that there were 13 Mills on the River Axe and its leat produced by the clyse near Burcott that produces the “Lower River Axe ‘. This misnomer is strange in two respects firstly, it is not the River Axe as this flows through Wookey and out into the levels. Secondly, naming it “lower” is itself ironic since it keeps the water level above or higher than the River Axe until it finally comes back to that river just passed the place called the Marchey north west of Bleadney.
A number of fund raising events have been held including two quiz nights. We also have a number of people who support us through Mendip District Council “Shape Mendip Lottery” where you can nominate our Association to recieve 50% of each ticket purchased. Futhermore we have had a number of generous donations and have been supported throughout by the local Wookey Parish Coincil being the civil parish in which all 5 “Mill Stream Villages” are found.
Kings Plastics in Bristol produced our pictures on our signs they measure 28″ wide by 36″ deep. The metal frames and instalation of each sign has been down to David Speed.
The first sign for Wookey was erected and unvelied on Shrove Tuesday March 8th 2019. The remaining signs have now been erected as we start the new year 2020.
More recently we have become a Trust by virtue of a Trust Deed dated 10th July 2019. At this stage we are not a registered charity simply becuse we need to show we have an annual income of at least £5,000 per annum
We intend to also produce a sign for Fenny Castle and “History Board” giving background information and some history regarding the various Mills that once stood on the mill stream.