Sproughton Village Sign

Lovely village ..with small community library

The village sign is to be found on a grassy mound aside the crossroads at the dead centre of Sproughton. It's nearby the bus shelter that also serves as the village's own lending library/book exchange. The sign is directly opposite The Wild Man pub, now boarded up, but the inspiration for the artist. The village folklore of a local wildman is depicted in bas-relief, together with the lettering for SPROUGHTON. The sign is unusual amongst those typically to be found in Suffolk, because it has different artwork of the wildman on either side. There's certainly truth in the folklore, although next to nothing known about the 16th Century vagrant who turned his back on polite society & went to live in the woods. However, it's believed that it was an actual man who made a lawless life for himself & not a woodland Woodwose of Greenwood legend! Whether or not this local maverick could read isn't known, but he wouldn't have recognised the village's name from the spelling on the sign. In his day it was spelt; 'SPROWTON'