The Waste Ground Project Journey
THERE ARE ALWAYS “ WAYS AND MEANS”
No apology for the title of the North Crawley Historic Signage project named after my historic hero William Lowndes whose favourite saying it was.
The germ of the project arose 2 years ago in the Chequers Pub when some fierce arguments arose.(Pub Photo)
The ground in front of St Firmins Church had been known as the “Wasteground” for generations but the Parish Council had registered the land as Village Green and it was increasingly called village green or car park and Historical Society members were increasingly angry that new residents did not know about the Wasteground and the historic name would be lost. ( Land Registry Plan of ground)
Yours Truly then had the idea of a historic sign to coincide with the 250th Anniversary of the Enclosure of North Crawley in 1773. To begin with in July 2023 I contacted the Parks Trust for a recommended supplier which turned out to be Fitzpatrick Woolmer who gave a variety of types and sizes of Noticeboard.
When the idea was raised at a Parish Council meeting it was considered a good idea but there was nothing in the budget to cover such costs but would consider again if the Historical Society could contribute from their own funds.
When raised at a Historical Society committee meeting they had no available funds but suggested that it may be possible to get a grant from MK Heritage Association which they duly applied for and were surprised to get a very generous one off grant of £750 which enabled the project to begin.
Siting and ownership was the first problem. The terms of the grant was that it was to North Crawley Historical Society but they were not registered for VAT which could be a substantial part of the cost. The Land on which the historic sign was to be erected belonged to the Parish Council who would under property law own what was on their land and crucially they were registered for VAT and so enable to get a refund of any charge.
Terry approached David at a Wednesday hut meeting to see if a way could be found around this problem and it was agreed that if the Parish Council ordered and funded the project the MK Heritage Grant could be claimed by the North Crawley Historical Society by presenting the paid invoice of NCPC.
As funds were strictly limited Terry felt it was crucial to see if we could use the Artwork of a village map which had been produced by North Crawley Parish Council in 1995 in any signwork to save considerable funds. He then contacted the Artist in Edinburgh , Barbara Hillier who immediately gave permission to use any part of the artwork for the benefit of the village.
It was the wording for the sign which caused the most difficulties . Originally the sign was to explain what the Wasteground was in Medieval times and record the Enclosure of North Crawley in 1773 to coincide with the 250th Anniversary. The Historical Society picked lots of holes in Terry’s wording which ended in a meeting with John Brandon the chairman where it was agreed that the board should describe the historic centre of North Crawley and the surrounding buildings of the Wasteground.
Later a 1911 article was uncovered by Henrietta Maslin a North Crawley schoolmistress who took the train to Wolverton to work every day, who explained that the land had been used as an animal pound for drovers and also in times of drought had been dug up to source water springs where human bones had been found indicating that it may have been a part of the old churchyard.
That was the easy part of the wording agreement, there then followed very heated e-mail exchanges because the Chairman of the Parish Council insisted that the words Village Green should appear on the sign and the Chairman of the Historical insisted that it should only be Wasteground. The Parish Clerk intervened to say that this was all getting out of hand so the PC chairman at last said Terry this is your project what should it be, so we agreed that the sign should reflect merely that it was in village ownership. (Photo of sign wording)
The quality of the property images form the Parish map were not very high quality for sign reproduction, but the Parish Clerk searched records and found an acetate copy used by the original printers which Terry took to the hut on Wednesday and David helped use the 700 Hi Res Epson Scanner to create a high quality file which the Printers of the sign could use. Most importantly though this facilitated Alan to help put on the North Crawley Website a zoomable map which is fantastic to highlight detail and will be available to future generations. A link from the Parish Council Official website also connects to the map.
It was agreed that the sign itself would be a lectern size and not too intrusive to be sited a suitable distance away from the war memorial .
Because the siting was within a Conservation Area the Parish Council found that they not only had to get planning permission from MK Council and pay the fees but also have permission to erect an advertising board and to give exact measurements of the board as well as the precise position on the Wasteground.
Eventually everything was ready to upload images to Fitzpatrick Woolmer’s website and was efficiently produced and delivered in parts to my garage. The sign is printed on to an aluminium base and guaranteed not to fade for at least 10 years but with expectation of decades. (Photos of signage positioning)
The Parish Council were so impressed that they ordered separately two alumium printed maps to replace the two paper copies displayed around the village which fade very quickly in the sunshine.
Volunteer Parish Councillor Derek Harpur agreed to erect the sign on site if the Parish Council covered his material costs, which the council duly did.
The sign was covered for a few days before the big day for unveiling came on Sunday morning September 1st at 10 am , which was promoted by both the Parish Council and the Historical Society and resulted in around 40 people attending to hear Terry talk a bit of village history and how the sign came to be , while Historical Society Chairman John Brandon give a short speech before Christine Stapleton the HS Secretary unveiled the project. (photos Terry, John and Christine)
Terry had written up Historical Notes for a 3 mile circular walk around the village compiled from the village map and other sources, which was attended by around 20 people and because of the interest and lots of stops and talking did not finish until 1pm.
A very satisfying conclusion to a 15 month journey.
