The scheme aims to give the signs a touch of cosmetic surgery, whilst also discovering the stories behind them and the names of locations they bear on their faces. The programme is running alongside help from Somerset County Council and Exmoor, where a lot of the work will be done.

Around 50 volunteers have been helping the process, by conducting surveys to document the signs across the park. Several groups of volunteers will have different jobs, which includes researching the history, with help from the Exmoor Society.

Charlotte Thomas, who is the Historic Signpost Project officer, comments: “We’ve had volunteers help with doing a survey—we’ve carried out a survey, hopefully across most of the national park now. The next stage is actually to clean and repaint them and then the third group of volunteers is looking at the history specifically.

“Hopefully everyone of whatever age and ability is able to help out in some way, and I’m quite keen to work with schools, because they’ll be the ones caring for the signs in the future.”

The history has already proved an interesting talking point, as the signage in Somerset comes with a fun and rebellious story. Thomas continues: “There was a policy going back […] to probably the 60s or 70s, actually it might have been more recently, in the 80s, to remove all signposts and put up all the national, modern ones, but some counties [like] Somerset and Cornwall, I think Cumbria and maybe Dorset, ignored that and kept the original ones.

“Some of them are quite old. It’s interesting, each county has its own style, they’re all slightly different and that’s what makes them so interesting.”

It is a little unclear of when the traditional signposts were erected, but they roughly date back to the 1960s, after World War II took away the original wooden waymarkers.

The scheme will roll out across Somerset as well as the Exmoor National Park

Thomas says: “Part of the project is to look into the history and we are working with The Exmoor Society who specialise in the history of Exmoor, and to be honest no one knows exactly, not much has been documented over the years.

“Originally, when we look at old photos, they would have been wooden. During the war, they took down all the signposts and put […] them into a large pile, and they were wooden ones. So, these cast-iron ones, they’re not really old, they’re after the war, 1960s, but we don’t really know for certain, so that’s part of our project to look into it.”

She continues: “We’re looking into the names, like old crossroads, and that sort of thing, and then you get a bit of a story out of the name. It’s great working with the community on that side of things, it’s often word of mouth, people will say ‘yes my grandad used to call it that’.”

The project planners are hoping that the scheme will inspire further volunteers to continue the process of looking after the county’s signs. The harsher weather on Exmoor means that the signs are more likely to rust and dilapidate more quickly than others.

Thomas finishes: “What we’re hoping, once we manage to get them all looking smart now, is that each parish council will perhaps have a volunteer to touch them up as and when needed.”

The project will run over the next two years, with a concentration on repainting the signage during the warmer summer months. Whilst the signs may be going through a makeover, they will maintain the history and stories that are associated with them, which is something that makes Exmoor and Somerset such culturally rich locations. 

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