Today the fabulous new Eye village sign was installed. After 40 plus years and one renovation in 2008, the Parish Council decided it was time for a new village sign and depict another chapter in the history of Eye. The previous sign dated from the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.

The new sign pictured with Chairman of the Parish council Andy Short, Parish Councillor Andrew Smith and Vice Chairman of the Parish Council, Adrian Martin.

While it has been quite a long process getting the new sign to this stage we hope you agree with us that the final result has been worth it, and we now have a sign that everyone can be proud of.

Andy Short, chairman of Eye Parish Council said: “It’s fantastic to see the new sign up at last. The Parish Council have been working on getting the sign to this stage for some time after the previous sign was damaged in poor weather in 2020. Former chair of the parish council Michael Holmes who sadly died in April 2022 was actively involved in the project and we hope he would of been pleased with the outcome. Thank you to everyone who was involved, we hope it will be a great feature for the village for many years to come.”

Andrew Smith, Eye Parish councillor said: “The Parish council looked at lots of historical photographs and narrowed it down to some of the industrial aspects that have impacted the village alongside the beauty that was and has since been preserved, for example the Church and the brick pits and their reinvention. Finding a traditional sign maker these days is quite a challenge but a husband and wife team near Thetford in Norfolk agreed to take a look. The deputy chair of the parish council, Adrian Martin and myself paid them a visit and afterwards we all agreed these were the people to use. The sign was cast in a hand crafted mould and the final result was achieved by an artist who hand painted the scenes.”

Adam Miller who came up with the design said “I sent my design to the Parish Council when I heard they where looking at installing a new sign. It’s only one part of the process but I was pleasantly surprised when they decided to use it. Having lived in the village for the majority of my life I was really happy the Parish Council wanted to capture some of the recent history of the village in the new design. The railway was something I’ve always been interested in, even though it closed some time before I was born. I also wanted to capture the swans and the nature reserve as they’ve become such an integral part of today’s village.”

You can read more about the sign here.

Thank you for to Dale McKean for the photos.