Page 3 - Dave Stanley Book v1

TEYNHAM.

The story of making the sign.

During 2006 I was asked to design and make a new sign for the
village. It was to be of wrought iron construction, to replace the old
sign which had taken a battering from the elements, and was looking
very much the worse for wear.

Several designs were presented but not approved. After some
discussion, several items were identified as needing to be included
into the finished design. These were a Cherry Tree, Hops, The
Church, a Barge and the Water Pump on the A2 opposite the Dover
Castle.

After several attempts I realised that the tree could not be a
silhouette shape, as it did not offer the basis on which to attach the
other items. Many wrought iron designs contain metal that has been
rolled into a loose spiral. I used this and came up with my choice for
the shape of the tree. It gave me the structure on which I could fix
all the other shapes to be included.

Next was the Church, this seemed easy enough to sketch, but just did
not look right. I could not get the proportions to work. So I visited
the Church yard and took some photos from various angles, and
sketched the lines that I thought may help. Back at home, and a few
attempts later I had a silhouette shape that looked good to me.

My first attempt at a Barge was very much from memory, as I had
not seen any pictures or photos of barges for quite a long time. When
I presented this to the Parish Council, Mr. Ernie Spears was rather
critical, and rightly so, as he has been very much connected with
barges all his life. He very kindly arranged a meeting with me, and
explained how a barge should look and loaned me several books that
contained photos that were very helpful.