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The centre piece of the village sign is shown at the top of all the Pymoor pages. The sign was designed by Tony Taylor. It was carved from a piece of solid oak, which cost £80, by Ian Agrel and unveiled on 28 May 1980. Photographs are available showing where it stands in the village and the various painting schemes described below. It is hung inside a rectangular frame set on top of a six foot high square section steel post. The steelwork was manufactured by Frank Saberton whose workshop is in Little Downham.
The sign is set next to the bus shelter at the cross roads in the centre of the village. The post is mounted on a low plinth, which is decorated with flints and surrounded by rose bushes and daffodils. It depicts a stylised local scene. A small plate on the back of the sign reveals that it was restored and re-painted in March 1996 by Maurice Hawes. I understand that Mr Hawes is based in the neighbouring village of Welney, though one villager did refer to "someone in Norfolk" being responsible, as if the county border was hundreds of miles away and not less then five!
Originally, the sign was completely unpainted and relied on the carving for effect. Since then it has been through two colour schemes. In the first some of the original wood still shows.
In the foreground the sign shows a dragon fly amongst bull rushes. There is also a fish and a pair of mallard ducks. A windpump is shown against the sky-line. Tony Taylor confirms that it is a windpump and it does not represent the flour mill which still stands in Pymoor Lane. Before steam engines, wind pumps were used to lift the water, using an archimedes screw, into the main rivers and cuts.
Apart from being a more complete paint job so that the "frame" is no longer left varnished, the 1996 repaint introduced a significant new feature. Stretching across the whole horizon is a huge fire. This last feature did not appear on the original sign and was added at the time of the repainting.
I have asked people who have lived in Pymoor all their lives what they believe the fire represents. There are two views. It either indicates the practice of stubble burning after harvest time (a practice banned in 1996) or it represents a fen fire. Tony Taylor spoke of a fire at Shippea Hill, which consumed over twenty acres and was eventually extinguished by digging fire break trenches with draglines and letting it burn itself out. However, he confirmed that the original design did not include a fire.
In fact, it is unlikely to represent a fen fire as these do not produce flame, at least not in any quantity. It is worthwhile reading a fuller description of fen fires.
My best guess is that the change in design records the grass fire which occured in September 1990. A bonfire in the garden of a property in Main Street got out of control in strong winds. The flames jumped the back garden fence and caught the stubble on the field behind. South Westerly winds took the fire across the field towards the bungalows on Pymoor Lane. Graham Lark, who farms in the vilage, managed to get his tractor onto the ground in front of the fire and, at some considerable risk, managed to plough a strip to act as a fire break, saving the bungalows, but not the haystack nearby. The stack burned so feircely that curtains in a house on the north side of Pymoor Lane suffered scortching in spite of being behind closed windows. Hopefully, someone will ask Maurice Hawes and tell me the real answer!
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