Destination signage

If you were from the UK – and possibly Europe – and someone mentioned the English ‘town with the crooked church spire’ many people would immediately recognize that as Chesterfield. Even Wikipedia says “is most known for its twisted spire; an architectural phenomenon which has led to the church being given the common byname of the Crooked Spire.”

And there’s a lovely story, typically English, that says that the spire was so shocked that a virgin was getting married in the church that it bent down to have a closer look, thus twisting it irrevocably. The saying goes on that if ever a virgin gets married there again, the spire will straighten itself out

Which is beside the point – the reason I have put pen to paper (finger to keyboard, rather) is that the local citizenry is outraged by the latest wayfinding signage that has been installed. “Where is our spire?” they say.

And, this is the very best part, the town’s destination manager was quoted as saying  “The swirl is a reconstruction of the Crooked Spire looking through Chesterfield through modern eyes. The idea was to have a modern awakening by using historic aspects while looking forward with modern developments.” Nice try.

One commentator responded thus: “The last time I looked the Spire was majestically standing skyward and not resting on its back swirling around (maybe he’d been out for a night in town?)”.

Like it.