
The Ministry for Transport asked the County Councils in Dorset and the West Riding of Yorkshire to experiment with the inclusion of a grid reference and these remain common in these areas. County Council coats of arms feature in counties such as West Sussex. Roundel designs can also include junction names (for example, Molly Brown's Corner, in Lytchett Matravers, Dorset) or village names.
#WHATS A SIGNPOST FULL#
The inclusion of the highway authority name took the form of raised or recessed lettering written down the poles or as part of a finial or roundel (when the centre is hollow, called an annulus) design, either in full or as initials (e.g. Whilst some elements of fingerpost design were prescribed during the period when their introduction became most widespread, there was plenty of scope for distinctive spread of designs which remains to today. Local variation in historic designs Ī typical West Riding fingerpost with the parish name and grid reference on the roundel. In the Republic of Ireland, a major review of road signage was carried out in 1977. In recent years several county councils have embarked on restoration and repair programmes for their fingerpost stock, including the Highway Heritage Project in the Quantock Hills of Somerset. Other colours should be used only when these are known to have been in use before 1940". They should be repainted every five years in traditional black and white livery.

Reacting to concern about the loss of historic fingerposts from the rural landscape, an advisory leaflet was issued by the Department for Transport and English Heritage in June 2005 which stated that "All surviving traditional fingerpost direction signs should be retained in-situ and maintained on a regular basis. Fingerpost survival is highest in rural areas and away from major roads. Whilst the 1964 regulations did not bring about a general requirement to remove all fingerposts in Great Britain (signage in Northern Ireland being treated somewhat separately), some counties appear to have been more zealous than others in eradicating them.

It is thus that new fingerposts have been required to round the previously more accurate distance measurements. Of note was that the design did not allow for mileages of over three miles to be expressed with the use of halves and quarters. Regulations did not, however, permit new fingerpost style signs to be erected until a design was permitted by the Department for the Environment in 1994 (in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions of that year). Whilst the 1964 regulations did encourage local authorities to remove and replace traditional fingerposts with the new designs, it was not made compulsory to do so.

Road signing was next comprehensively reviewed in the United Kingdom from 1961 by the government-appointed Worboys Committee and the 1964 Traffic Signs Regulations brought in the signing system largely remaining in force today. Signposts were removed across much of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland during World War II, lest enemy forces use them for navigation, and replaced in the late 1940s. Mandatory standards ( The Traffic Signs (Size, Colour and Type) Provisional Regulations) were passed for Great Britain in 1933 which required poles to painted with black and white bands and lettering to be of a different typeface. It also recommended that the name of the highway authority be included somewhere in the design. Guidance was given in a 1921 circular that road direction signs should have 2 + 1⁄ 2-or-3-inch-high (64 or 76 mm) upper case lettering on a white background and white supporting poles. The Motor Car Act 1903 passed road sign responsibilities to the relevant highway authority within the then United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, although no specifications were set. The Highways Act 1766 and Turnpike Roads Act 1773 made use of fingerposts on turnpike roads compulsory.

However, the oldest fingerpost still extant is thought to be that close to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, dated 1669 and pointing to Oxford, Warwick, Gloucester and Worcester (abbreviated to 'Gloster' and 'Woster'). Legislation was enacted in England in 1697 which enabled magistrates to place direction posts at cross-highways. 1.2 Local variation in historic designs.
