The Holt Society
Pictures of Holt

Our New Sign In Appleyard

The Millenium Board

Many of you will have already seen our new sign in Appleyard. It stands on the same site against a beautiful flint and brick wall, replacing the original sign erected in 2001 to commemorate the Millennium. Time and weather had taken their toll on the traditional wooden sign, designed and hand painted by local sign writer Basil Huggins.

Rather than replace it with another wood version, we decided to explore the longer lasting potential of new materials technology. We needed to find a creative and experienced designer, preferably local, who would produce a distinctive design. But equally important, he/she had to be sensitive to the heritage character of our historic Georgian town.

We were so fortunate to be recommended Tom Cox of DESIGNSIGNS who ticked all the boxes and more. Tom was trained as a graphic designer at City College Norwich and had produced other attractive and sympathetic shop signs in Holt. He recommended using a weatherproof aluminium composite board which would accommodate our choice of a matt texture and deep Georgian green colour to blend well with the flint and brick wall. The new material also enabled us to retain our distinctive lunette shape at the top of the board - a distinctive design identity which displays our Holt obelisk logo to best effect.

The original Holt Society Millennium sign was devised by local historian and Holt Society member Michael Barrett (1948-2002). It displayed information about 'Holt' being the Anglo-Saxon name for a wood and recorded the adult male population in the 1086 Domesday Book as 60. We have updated the 2015 total population of the town as 3962. We have also extended Michael's list of 'Holts in Britain' to include 'Holts around the World', listing countries including Australia, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Romania, Iceland, and the USA.

Take a stroll into Appleyard and enjoy ...

Mary Alexander