Tim Havenith, from Calne Heritage Centre, sent me the wonderful photo above asking if I knew what happened to the jubilee signpost featured. Not only do I not know but I also wasn’t aware that we used to have a jubilee signpost! The plaque on the signpost reads “Erected by public subscription in Calstone and Blackland Jubilee of Queen Victoria 1887”. Does anyone have any information about the signpost, how long it was in place and what happened to it? It looks very substantial and made of metal so it should have been there for a long time. I love the image of the old bus coming up Spray’s Hill.
The photo was taken by Jim Dunsford, probably in the 1950’s. Calne Heritage Centre were bequeathed his collection of local photos when he died. Jim Dunsford features in one of the “memories” on Calstone’s website (calstone.org). From doing a bit of research, and comparing photos of similar buses, it looks like the one in the photo is a Bedford OB bus made from 1939 to 1951
Margaret Embling recalled “On Coronation Day in June 1953 Jim Dunsford, the electrician from Quemerford, installed a television set in the Reading Room and the whole village went there to watch. Only posh people had television sets in those days.”
Following the photo being published in The Villages magazine I received some more information. Firstly from Judith Stempfer –
“About the Jubilee Signpost at Calstone, I moved to Green Lane in 1940 and have always known it to be there as I walked from Green Lane to Calstone School every day, and didn’t realise it was that old. We got married at Calstone Church in 1959 and had our reception in the Reading Room and I have a photo of my parents and in laws standing behind the sign. The bus coming up Sprays Hill is Harry Keen’s from Heddington, who ran a regular route from Calne around the villages when I lived there, used to be full of RAF from Compton Bassett in the 1950/s. He noticed a big difference when the camps closed down.”
Rob Hislop also remembered that the bus was Harry Keen’s.