Following on from a previous post, progress has not been quick but advances have been made.

The Parish Council has accepted a quote from Saul Harvey, at Ham Hill, to make a village name stone for the northern end of the village. This will match the existing stone at the southern entrance to North Perrott. He is currently keeping an eye out for something that will match our existing stone for size and shape.

In the meantime, there has been some discussion about what form the wooden gates will take. An Oak tree has been felled and milled and Gordon Hall has kindly offered to construct “gates” or “hurdles” that will accentuate the entrance to the village at both ends. The idea is to make sure that vehicles realise they are entering an historic village and that they are required to slow down and pay attention to the safety of both life and our historic buidings that abutt the main road. This will be a permanent replacement to the 20 is plenty banners that were put up a few years ago.

The Parish Council has approved the idea in principle and the new stone will be engraved with the words “NORTH PERROTT” in painted letters. The gates or hurdles will be in natural oak. However, deciding on a esthetic and functionial design has not been so easy, because of limited space available at both locations. Gordon has kindly come up with a series of designs that he thinks led him to what we think might be the most appropriate solution for what we have in mind.

The original thought was to have a conventional wooden gate behind the stone, but picture 1 shows how this might look. The gateway would be partially masked by the stone and this configuration would compromise the impact of the design and might confuse the message that we are trying to convey.

Pictures 2 & 3 are an evolution of using vertical hurdles, one from picket fencing and the other as if wings of a showjump. These accetuate the shape of the existing stone and give the design an appearance of it being of one purpose, rather than an afterthought. It also provides more space to add an extra message, should it be required permanently or from time to time.

Gordon’s final design, picture 4, takes his ideas from 2 & 3 and progresses them back to the design of a gate, with horizontal bars and cross braces. This gives a more traditional form and makes the design visually wider than those with vertical uprights.

Constructive feedback from village residents would be most welcome, either here or directly with Gordon. Any ideas or comments will be taken into account before construction commences and there will be a chance to discuss his designs at the next Parish Council Meeting (and perhaps again in September, although we hope to have something in place by the end of summer).

There is no room at the southern location for a hurdle on the oposite side of the road but in the new location at the northern end, the stone will be closer to the road and one hurdle placed between the stone and the hedge and the other hurdle will be on the other side of the road, in a more standard Village Gateway format.