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Help Needed to Identify Old Sign

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Lycralover

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5 Jun 2012
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Cirencester
Hello to all you railway lovers out there its good to meet you all.
I write to you today asking and beggin for your help.
Hopefully if all is well there should be two pictures attached to this post of an old stone sign. My friend and i found this deep in the under growth next to an old disused railway line. I think it might have been mounted on a wall on a bridge at one point because there are two iron bars sticking out the bottom. For some reason i cant find anything out about it either on the net or in any books. So i beg you all can anyone out there help me with ANY info on it pleeaassee.
P.S. the pics you see are the front and the back of the same sign
 
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thelem

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Is (was) the station on the border of Gloucestershire? Or near any sports clubs that would call themselves Gloucester County?

(ps your subject line isn't very helpful as it doesn't describe what's in the post. Something like "Need help to identify old stone sign" would be better)
 

Lycralover

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Cirencester
hey there thanks for responding.
I think the line might have gone across a river because it was fairly close to an old bridge that looked like it had water flowing through it at one point. Perhaps the river marked a boundary line
 

reb0118

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These are road signs. I did a google search for "glouster road sign historic" (yes I know I spelt gloucester wrongly) and was linked to an ebay site for sankey scenics 4mm scale signs for the '40s & 50's. I saw a very similar sign on the diagram but couldn't zoom in so did a new search for "sankey scenics" and found a very similar sign on page 4 after inputting "road sign" into the internal site search engine. I could zoom (sort of) on this site and it looks like a definite match for what you have found. This design looks like a generic warning sign - specific uses shewn include "Dead Slow & Slow Major Road Ahead

If I can work out a way to place a link here I will.

Cheers,

reb0118
 

Lycralover

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Cirencester
is there any chance the signs may have been adpated to say there is a station halt ahead because i notice that the sign is upside down compared to the road version. look at the second row down first one in
 

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reb0118

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I'll say again I'm no expert but I think it is an advance warning sign for a stop sign ahead. Road not rail. Most warning signs are triangular but stop signs and give way signs use an inverted triangle like the ones that you have found. The county name on that sign tells you what way up the sign should go so defo a stop/give way. There may have been an information (warning) or instruction (stop) board attached to the post at one time.

The modern stop signs are how hexagonal but their associated warning signs are still inverted triangles.
 

reb0118

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Octagonal?

No Scottish signs are hexagonal because they are just that we bit cheaper! Therefore we only pay 6/8th road pax up here in the People's Rebublic.

(Do you think I'll get away with that one? :roll:)

Of course you are right - 8 sides. I even counted them before posting.:oops:

Maybe someone put a "hex" on me?

Time for bed I think..........
 
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No Scottish signs are hexagonal because they are just that we bit cheaper! Therefore we only pay 6/8th road pax up here in the People's Rebublic.

(Do you think I'll get away with that one? :roll:)

Of course you are right - 8 sides. I even counted them before posting.:oops:

Maybe someone put a "hex" on me?

Time for bed I think..........

We like to give you discount because we spent all your North Sea gas money on High Speed rail and 12 car trains :lol:
 

DavidBrown

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North Devon
I would suggest that the sign is indeed a road sign, and a very old one at that. The versions that Lycralover linked to are know as Pre-Worboys signs, which is basically the signs that existed before the Worboys report of the 1960's and the introduction of the signs we still use today. However, even then there were standards, drawings and dimensions for signs and they were almost always made from metal similar to todays signs.
Stone signs, like the one found here, would have only been used in the very, very early days of motorised vehicles and would have only warned of significant hazards. The warning triangle would have been the main thing for this sign, with the outer circle being abandoned for the first standard drawings (apart from the HALT at major road ahead' sign). I would guess that this stone sign could date from the 1920's or 1930's. It could have been mounted on either a stone or metal pole, with the iron bars that the OP mentions being used to attatch the sign to the pole - bear in mind that the signpost would have been much more substantial compared to what is used now. Being near a railway line, it could have warned or a low bridge, a hump backed bridge or a level crossing, though this is more an assumption than anything else.

The county branding would have been standard for almost all road signs from that era - every council would have their county name engraved or, as here, moulded onto the sign. It might be worth asking over on the SABRE forums to try and get a more road-based opinion and expertees.

It is a fantastic find, though, and well worth preserving - it could even potentially be one of the oldest surviving examples of a road traffic sign out there. It's also in an unbelievably good condition - if that's original paintwork on the sign then you have a real gem there.
 
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Lycralover

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5 Jun 2012
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Cirencester
thanks for that friend that was really helpful and answering your question that is the original paint work on it as far as im aware. It was buried really deep in the undergrowth when we found it the only thing i have done to it is lightly rubbed the unpainted side to see if i could find any kind of branding markers on it.
 

Wyvern

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What fascinates me is that they would have gone to the trouble to carve it in stone when expert facilities for casting in iron or other metals existed.
 
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