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Follow the Brown Signs Blog - March, 2012
Sun storms and our tenuous grasp on a (boring) technological society
March 26, 2012
After a weekend of brown-signing at Britain's oldest brewery (more on that in the next blog) and working all hours at the restaurant I flopped into bed after work last night exhausted with my glass of wine, boyfriend and BBC Horizon on iPlayer (now that's what I call living the dream). I love programmes about all things space, hardcore physics and other mind boggling concepts, I'll never truly understand them but I still find them absolutely fascinating. The episode I was eager to watch was about sun storms. A sun...Read more >>
How did I not know about this Magic Roundabout?!
March 14, 2012
Look at this! Drawn to my attention by a chap called Rob who thought I would appreciate this roundabout (which clearly I do!) it is a true celebration of the humble brown sign if ever I saw one. The roundabout is in Cardiff and was designed by a Frenchman called Pierre Vivant who won a competition in 1992 to exhibit his work in this rather different but at least highly visible urban space.
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Apparently the sculptures were originally hollow but were later sealed up because a local tramp took to living in one of them....
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Brown signing in the Philippines
March 12, 2012
So this is me a few weeks ago standing under a brown sign in Vigan, Philippines, after worrying (actually worrying) that my travels this year wouldn't take me by any brown signed attractions.
One of my big things about brown signs is that they don't just exist in Britain and Europe but are also scattered around the world sitting quietly, bearing their directions to so many different and cool places, just waiting for everyone to notice and follow them. I always talk about how I love the huge diversity of places with brown...Read more >>
On bikinis and windmills
January 26, 2012
In a week I will be jetting off (on a terribly-badly-reviewed-and-cheap-for-a-reason-yes-we're-all-almost-certainly-going-to-die airline) to Singapore and The Philippines. The trip is something I've been thinking about for a long time. After years of working on my brown signs project I decided when my website was finally working and ticking over nicely I'd have a break for a month or so doing something I love but haven't had the chance to do for ages, basically a big pat on the back through the medium of travel.
So this morning, after preparing for the trip...Read more >>
A farm with 1 tenant farmer, 8,000 landlords and spades and spades of passion
January 19, 2012
While I was up in Shropshire before Christmas I was told by my boyfriend's best mate about a farm he did legal work for who were in the process of applying for a brown sign. I'm always particularly interested in new brown signed destinations because when owners are bothering to go through the lengthy process of getting and paying for their own humble brown signs more often than not they're passionate about what they do and want to share it with the world. I went straight onto their website to...Read more >>
Most mundane brown sign ever
Richard Gottfried, mini-golf King and spotter of brown signs extraordinare sent me this picture of a brown sign pointing to an overspill car park on what looks like a static caravan park in South Shields (thanks for the pics Richard, keep them coming). I'm pretty sure this wasn't what the designers of brown signs intended when they thought up a great way of helping indicate the way to the great and good attractions and facilities of Britain. Ho hum. Anyway, thought I'd share the most mundane and depressing brown sign...Read more >>
Dirty brown-signing
January 13, 2012
This photo was forwarded to me yesterday by a good friend of mine with the subject "!!" and the words "I am speechless!"
I, of course, absolutely wet myself and had to get it straight up on the blog. I read about this in the news a while ago but for some reason I didn't post it at the time, so I thought it was time to share.
This fake brown sign was erected (see what I did there?) as a tongue in cheek (and there?) poke (and there?!) at the Gloucestershire viewpoint Barrow Wake,...Read more >>
Bridges, tiles and villages that disappear into the river
January 10, 2012
After a hectic few weeks at work serving the good customers of Bromley their Christmas party food and being run off my feet doing a million other non-brown-sign related pursuits I was very happy to be able to grab a few days off before Christmas. Rather shockingly I have managed to bag myself a boyfriend (who knew?! I'd actually written myself off there for a while) so I relished the opportunity to jump on the back of his motorbike (I'm not even joking) and head up to Shropshire, where he's...Read more >>
My pursuits get a Yorskshire mention
January 6, 2012
I was very surprised but happy to get a call from a journalist yesterday (about 4 minutes before work) asking me some questions about my brown sign related pursuits and asking if it was OK for her to do a piece on me in the Yorkshire Post (I refrained from bellowing "WOO HOO!" and said instead that it would absolutely fine). We had a little chat and the very next day that little chat was in print in the paper, so here it is ladies and gents, enjoy... (OK this...Read more >>
More brown sign history unearthed
November 28, 2011
This image is taken from a supplement called "Signs of the Times 84" published by the English Tourist Board as part of their "Tourism in Action" project. It was in 1984 that the brown sign as we know it was born. These symbols were first used in Kent as an experiment and were found to be useful for directing tourists to attractions and facilities by owners and motorists alike, so after their success in Kent the Department for Transport then rolled them out across Britain. Me being from Kent and...Read more >>