It’s a sign of the times ... bygone times.
For a road sign that was falling to bits has been restored to its original glory in Cleckheaton.
The 80-year-old fingerpost sign outside Cleckheaton Fire Station was installed when Hightown Road was built and an old photo shows it pointing the way for travellers to Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, Elland and Brighouse, surrounded by grass and flowerbeds.
Unloved, un-noticed and uncared for, in recent years it lost its fingers and became a rusty relic.
Spen Valley Civic Society had restored its ‘sister’ sign at the top of Hightown Road in 2003 and last year the Society decided to tackle this one at the junction of Hightown Road and Westgate.
Thanks to a grant from Kirklees Council’s You and Your Community funding programme, Civic Society volunteers have been able to work hard this winter. New metal letters were made to match the originals, brackets were manufactured using the one remaining original as a “pattern”, wooden finger boards were created, and the metal post has been stripped of rust and repainted with numerous coats of paint.
The restored signpost was unveiled by Jan Scrine, BEM, treasurer and founder member of the Milestone Society. Its purpose is to raise awareness of quirky old stone and iron milestones, boundary markers and fingerposts and to encourage their restoration and maintenance.
Spen Valley Civic Society chairman Max Rathmell said: “The fingerpost sign is a piece of Cleckheaton’s heritage which deserves a new life so local people can appreciate it for many years to come. These fingerpost signs are an ‘endangered species’ and we’re lucky to have more than one in Spen Valley. The timing of our project means that the restored fingerpost will be ‘on show’ to the world when the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race passes right by it along Westgate, on Sunday, April 30.”
