The Village Sign

The Story Behind the Village Sign

Thanks to Jean Radford for allowing the posting of this article by her which appeared in the August/September St Michael’s & All Angels Parish News

It was decided that the village sign to commemorate the millennium. The idea was put to members of the Wilmington Society who agreed with the idea and chose a design to be put forward by the Chairman, Stan Stringer. The design was drawn by local artist Keith Varvel.

The centre of the sign is a drawing of St Michael’s & All Angels Church from a pen and ink drawing by local architect Malcolm Green. This is surrounded in each corner by designs representing the history of Wilmington. The top right hand corner is a sprig of cherries representing the many cherry orchards that Wilmington was famous for. The top left hand corner there is a bunch of hops. Wilmington grew hops which supplied the Brewery in the centre of the village. In the bottom left hand corner of the sign is a Book of Knowledge celebrating the seats of learning in Wilmington with all the schools. The last corner shows the White Horse being the emblem of Kent.

The whole project was a village effort. The sign is constructed from a felled oak tree in the garden of our tree warden, Colin Wheeler. The tree was blown down during the hurricane of 1987. It was made by Stuart Webb a joiner from the village and the sign was painted by Ron Kitts.

The village sign was unveiled in 2001 on a very windy day in May.

If you want to learn more about the Parish why not visit the Heritage Centre (side of Memorial Hall) which is open on the first Thursday of the month between 9.30am and 11.30am and on the second Saturday of the month between 10.00am and midday.