Restoration project a sign of the times
THERE has, however, been a better outcome for another Exmoor project: the restoration of hundreds of rusty cast-iron fingerposts, each one formerly an eyesore as a result of Somerset county council scrapping its repainting programme to save a few bob.
As a result of this parsimony the posts gradually became covered with mould and hence virtually illegible. Complaints poured in from parish councils, but without making the least impression at county hall. And some parish councillors who offered to do the work themselves were even warned off by the utterly predictable flurry of shroud-waving over health and safety and public liability.
To a certain extent of course, the council had brought the problem on itself, having decided to hang on to the 1,715 fingerposts in Somerset (most dating from the 1930s when family motoring really took off ) despite being advised to replace them with standardised and more easily-maintained signs in the 1960s.
But their dreadfully unkempt appearance finally proved too much for the National Park authority which applied for and won a £75,000 lottery grant to do the work.
It has now been carried out thanks to the efforts of a 100-strong army of volunteers, who are up for a special conservation award for their efforts, while some of the money will be used for research into the history of the signposts.
Indeed they do have a bit of history: in the last war they were taken down to confuse any invaders because at one point the Germans were planning a landing at Blue Anchor as one arm of a pincer movement to cut off the South West Peninsula.
Hardly less confusing for modern visitors, however, was the nearunreadable condition the posts were in – until several hundred litres of paint and several thousand voluntary man-hours restored them to their original, gleaming nick.