March 2004: The old sign on the right replaced by the new, on the left
Wooden sign? (a mere wooden sign...?)
20th anniversary Mini-Celebration 1.Back in the cold wet winter of 1997 the old school sign which stood on the road for many years was taken down and painted over. "Archive and Study Centre" was printed in seven sections in large letters on A4 photocopy paper using the old Atari computer and laser printer, cut up and glued to the painted board with exterior wood glue.
The Atari was the Archive's first computer, bought secondhand well before the computer wars assigned Atari to the shelves of history and Evesham Micros, from which it had originally been bought, moved from the corner of Bridge and Mill Streets in the lower side of Evesham to the Four Pools Industrial Estate on the edge (what a friendly outfit they were! servicing Ataris well after the world at large had abandoned them to obsolescence) before their final move to the new purpose built enterprise estate on the outskirts of town, from which the whole world came to know of them.
Several coats of yacht varnish over several nights while the children were in bed, and computer-printed paper became a temporary sign, designed to last perhaps a year. Bolted firmly to a post in the wake of a spate of local vandalism, the sign stood on the right hand side of the entrance drive for the next six and a half years. Replaced in March 2004 by a commercially printed metal sign, it was moved to the left of the entrance where it continued to guide people in for the next four years. Handmade, warm and reliable beyond original expectation, embodying much of the history and ethos of the Archive and Study Centre, it was finally retired, ten and a bit years after first going into temporary service, in the June of this year. 2008.