Spofforth puts up 130 hand-made plaques to mark Queen’s jubilee

A chance encounter in a charity shop has led to more than 100 commemorative plaques being put up in Spofforth.

June Geddes, vice chairman of Spofforth with Stockeld Parish Council, was drafted onto the village committee to plan celebrations to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

As well as the events during the bank holiday weekend, she was hoping to put decorations around the village to mark the occasion. She said:

“Our high street is quite difficult: because of the three roads into Spofforth, it’s hard to put bunting up.

“Last November I thought, ‘what about plaques?’ There were none online, and when I went to see a local carpenter, he said it was impossible.”

Ms Geddes thought she would have to abandon the idea and focus on the celebrations instead.

However, while she was working in a charity shop in Wetherby, she got chatting to a customer, Terry Wilcox, and discovered he was a hobbyist carpenter with a workshop in his shed at home near Rotherham. After seeing some of his creations, she asked whether he might be able to create a plaque.

Terry Wilcox's Queen's Platinum Jubilee plaque for Spofforth

Terry Wilcox’s Queen’s platinum jubilee plaque.

Within a week, he had sent a prototype. Ms Geddes promptly placed an order.

“We started with 70, because I thought that’s fairly optimistic and fits in with the platinum theme and so on.”

Subsidised by the parish council, the plaques were sold for £10 each, to be put on lampposts around the village until after the jubilee, when the owners will be allowed to keep them as a souvenir.

Once they began appearing around the village, demand soared, and Ms Geddes went back to Mr Wilcox to ask for another 20.

Read more:

They soon sold out too, so a final order was placed, bringing the total number of plaques made by Mr Wilcox in his workshop to 130. Ms Geddes added:

“I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s completely individual, you won’t see them anywhere else.”

Spofforth has four days of jubilee events planned. To find out more about them, and others taking place across the Harrogate district, visit our Queen’s Platinum Jubilee What’s On Guide.