Santa’s Little Helpers have been out and about in Paulton in recent weeks, cleaning and scrubbing and sanding and painting.

They have been renovating the cast iron fingerposts to help guide Santa on a starry Christmas Eve to the homes of all the good little girls and boys in the area.

There are four of these signs of highway heritage in the parish. As their maintenance is no longer a priority for B&NES Highways, a group of eight volunteers from Pride in Paulton (PiP) have worked when the weather is fine to refurbish them. The brushes and paint have been provided by the B&NES Communities Team.

Fingerposts were introduced in the late 17th century to mark mileages to help stagecoach and mail service time-keeping and to inform travellers of distances to nearby towns. Mandatory standards were introduced in 1933 to colour most black, white, grey or a combination. The shape of the finials was left to local authorities and a great variety included discs, balls and pyramids. Signposts were removed across much of the country during World War II, lest enemy forces used them for navigation and were replaced in the late 1940s. Traffic Signs Regulations (1964) introduced new signage and encouraged the removal of the older fingerposts. Somerset’s approach to this was fairly relaxed, and so locally, many fingerposts still survive, particularly in rural areas.

In Paulton, Santa’s Little Helpers will be working to have the fingerposts very shiny, glowing and so bright, to guide Santa’s sleigh at night. To Paulton’s glee, the fingerposts will go down in history.