The Sign
The sign was unveiled on the 13th July 2002, the day of the village carnival. I believe it was made by Brian Gaze, probably made of cast aluminium. The ideas for the elements of the sign came from ideas from the village residents.

Text taken from Peter Miller and Colin Bird from the village website:

Side 1: As you approach the sign from Thorns Corner, All Saints Church is easily recognisable on the top panel. The mill, which no longer exists, represents those which were in Mill Lane and at Thorns Corner and the thatched cottage one of many such in the village. The harvester represents the arable content of most of the village farms and the waterway, with its wildlife including a kingfisher and what looks like an egret, the village stream and the many ponds that there used to be and the few that are left. It’s interesting to note that the specific reason for the Kingfisher being present, was that at the time there was an almost daily sighting of one of these brilliant little birds, practicing the fishing technique at The Wash, and was written about at the time in the Scene. This was a significant event because it meant that there must have been an abundance of food in the brook, which itself indicated pollution free water. On the bottom panel, the house in the background represents the manor houses of the village and the playing field our eleven village greens with the cricket team which, although not active at the moment, dates back to the 1800’s. The gentleman with the top hat and pint probably represents the the mole catcher, with his mole traps – some of his unfortunate victims can be seen hanging from his staff. Even the tree he is sitting under is representative of the walnut tree that gave its name to the Walnut Tree public house at Attleton Green, also known then as The Sizzler – the very tree that can be seen on the cover photo of John Bean’s excellent book – School. The mole catcher himself once lived in a house in the lane that has since become known as – of course – Mole Hill.  The bar between the panels depicts the leaves and fruit of the trees common to the village and the important role that Justin Brooke's fruit farms played in the development of the village, with, at its centre, stonemasonry which can be seen in the church. Finally the masks of comedy and tragedy at the top of the sign represent Wickhambrook’s tradition of pantomime.

Side 2: On the other side the top panel shows two of the village crafts, bakery and thatching, and the two pubs, The Greyhound and The Cloak, the latter having closed its doors to the public in 1989, with the oak tree between them representing the memory of the avenue of ancient oaks that once swept down to the rear, and to the lesser extent to the front of Badmondisfield Hall. The bottom panel depicts the School with the children, particularly the one with the hoop, indicating the school’s Victorian heritage. The post box, dating from 1859 and the only one of its kind in the British Isles, is still to be seen at Boyden End although, unlike the one on the sign, it is no longer in use. The centre bar repeats the tree theme and the crown at the top represents the visit of Princess Anne to the village in 1979 to the Riding for the disabled establishment, but it also commemorates the visit to the School of King George V in 1912, an event of huge magnitude at the time.

The Name and Population
The village was called Wicham in 1086 and Wichambrok in 1254.The name means homestead or village associated with a vicus, that is an earlier Romano-British settlement taken from Old English, with a broc being a brook or stream. A large Roman villa has been discovered at nearby Lidgate. The population at the 2021 census was 1,237.

Other Points of Interest

Wickhambrook is the largest village by area in the county of Suffolk. The parish contains a number of hamlets and eleven village greens: Ashfield Green, Attleton Green, Baxter's Green, Boyden End, Clopton Green, Coltsfoot Green, Farley Green, Genesis Green, Lady's Green, Malting End, Meeting Green, Moor Green, Nunnery Green, Park Gate and Wickham Street (Wikipedia). Has Lady's Green become part of Ousden yet!

The village has three places of worship: All Saints' Church – Anglican  on Church Road near the B1063 road; the United Reformed Church, at Meeting Green on Cemetery Road; and the Methodist Chapel at the intersection of Shop Hill (B1063) and Cemetery Road. In former times there was a Free Chapel in the grounds of Badmondisfield Hall; its date of closure is unrecorded.

Bullock's Mill was a post mill built at Thorns about 1830. It was demolished about 1914; some remains can be seen. Another mill stood on the road towards Hargrave until 1920. A third mill dating from the 18th century, stood in the south of the parish near Denston until 1969.

Justin Brooke had quite a significant impact on Wickhambrook. Back in the 1920’s the village suffered from low employment, however Devonian Justin Brooke was the man who reversed the villagers’ economic misfortunes following his arrival in Wickhambrook with his wife Edith. The acquisition of Clopton Hall and several hundred acres of farmland opened up many opportunities for locals to become involved in fruit farming and his acres soon became west Suffolk’s leading producers of soft fruit and apples. The dairy herd, dairy and milk delivery service, travelling as far as Cambridge, provided even more jobs for which local families were grateful in the recession-hit thirties. Justin Brooke started farming here in May 1928. His intention was to grow fruit, planting on north-facing slopes in a cold district in order to avoid the damaging effects of late frost. (more information can be found on the village website)