Finial countdown (From Bournemouth Echo)

Finial countdown

3:47pm Tuesday 13th January 2009 in

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DORSET is blessed with distinctive traditional signposts bearing extraordinary names, like Hell Corner near Yetminster, God’s Blessing Green and Edmondsham The Stocks.

The place names pre-date the signposts and many can be found on early Ordnance Survey maps dating back to the 1890s and before though their origins can sometimes be lost in the mists of time.

The origin of the distinctive Dorset finials – bearing the place names at the top of traditional signposts – is, however, easier to trace.

Through my involvement with The Milestone Society I was contacted in May 2007 by Brian Toop from Dorchester who wanted to share his records and photographs of the Dorset Finials.

Just over 30 years ago, Brian became concerned that many of these traditional signs were being lost as new style signs were introduced and he set about researching their origin and photographing the survivors.

The design of the Dorset finial originated from Mr JJ Leeming, the county surveyor in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

He informs us that the marking of place names on signposts was not unusual at that time. In Gloucestershire and Devon it was put vertically down the post, which did not make it easy to read.

Mr Leeming decided to put the place name on the finial and the manufacturer, the Royal Label Factory at Stratford on Avon, worked out a design incorporating the name on a horizontal plate across the centre of the circular finial.

The suggestion to put the grid reference on came from a friend of Mr Leeming, Professor AN Black of Southampton University.

Mr Leeming also said, in one of his letters to Brian Toop, that his design was copied by the then West Yorkshire, who asked his permission, and Berkshire, who did not.

The Finials were manufactured by the Royal Label Factory from sand cast aluminium and were primarily used on “fingerposts and direction signs, particularly those incorporating anti-rotation devices”.

The main period of use, according to the Royal Label Factory, would probably have been about 1948-1964, when revised traffic sign regulations were introduced.

The original names were checked with Colonel Charles Drew, the curator and secretary of Dorset County Museum in Dorchester.

They decided to generally follow the names shown on the then current Ordnance Survey maps rather than go too far back in time to original spellings.

To quote Colonel Drew: “You could hardly change Swanage back to Swanwich or Powerstock to Poorstock, however desirable it may be from the viewpoint of pure English.”

The first two finials to be put in place were the ecclesiastical pairing of Hell Corner – near Yetminster – and Gods Blessing Green near Wimborne. Both of these still exist today.

Armed with Brian’s records the Dorset members of The Milestone Society set about an updated survey of the county.

Brian had recorded 260 named finials, of which 110 still exist today. We were able to add another 68 named Finials and 93 of the unnamed ones, which Brian did not record.

The greatest fascination for me throughout the