Posting public notices has a long history. It's mentioned in the Bible when King Nebuchadnezzar got his warning in the notice that appeared on the wall during a feast. No Robin Hood film is complete without the reward notice for the capture of the outlaw being nailed to a tree by the evil Sheriff’s men, the 'wanted' poster is an essential element in all cowboy films. In later times, in Barlick during the 19th century shopkeepers advertised their wares by painting notices on the shop window using thick whitewash and everything from lost dogs to theatrical performances was advertised on public billboards. There used to be a faded notice on a barn door in Horton in Craven informing the reader that 'All Stray Dogs Will Be Shot'. Another class of public notice is the signpost giving road directions or more specific ones used by the railway companies in particular informing travellers that the bridge they were about to cross was adequate only for 'The usual Traffic of the District'. These were cast iron signs and I can remember one on a telegraph pole on High Lane near Wood End Farm that read 'It is an offence to throw stones at the telegraphs', this referred to the breaking of the pot insulators that were used to support the wires, evidently young lads like to see if they could hit them. As time went on the signs proliferated, have you ever noticed the small signs at pavement level that identify fire hydrants and gas and water mains. Some of them were quite enigmatic, like the small posts with yellow markers on that you will occasionally see out in the countryside in hedgerows. These mark the track of the underground pipelines which were put in all over the country during the 1950s. Others are a puzzle like the famous one that appeared all over the country reading 'It is an Offence to Throw Stones at this Notice', I've never got a definitive answer to this one but the favourite explanation is that it was a joke perpetrated by bored workers at the Royal Label Factory at Stratford on Avon.
You'd think that in these modern times when there are so many ways of advertising and communicating that the public notice would be in decline but as I'm sure you have noticed, there are more than ever. Many of these are of course road signs but even in the centre of town we have seen a proliferation in recent years of peculiarly useless signposts pointing the way to Tourist Information or the Library. I have to admit I have never quite understood why we need these. Surely any lost tourists would simply ask a local? Perhaps it's time we thinned the notices out a bit and reduced the clutter!
The stray dogs notice in Horton.
