Not 'What is it' but 'WHERE is it' ?

I'm a member of AAA (USA).

The international site is:

International Clubs | AAA Exchange

If you'd like, I can intercede for you and ask.

Thanks Lyn. That is generous offer, if it is a simple enquiry, then fine. But I am reluctant to put you to a lot of trouble. It was just a long shot that someone would recognise where it might be.

I have searched for many years with no luck. Originally with maps and now with the internet. There are lots of places that end in these names but none appear to be within two miles of a village or each other.

And they might not be recognised places - just local place names that might not be in the index.

I see on the map that there are lakes near Sandhurst, Bershire.

(For what that's worth.) In the search I did, I didn't see lakes near other towns ending in -hurst.

Thanks for looking Usbport.

Yes you are right. But it might be a case of a *hurst near a *lake but with the the sign referring to local places that might not be in the index.

It is a pity that Googlr Earth cannot handle a 'partname' search to produce a list of places where I could do a street level search

I was hoping for a lucky shot and that someone might just recognise where it is.

I think that might still be difficult given that 'hurst' is an old english term for hill, there must be hundreds of them.

Do you still have the jigsaw?

...'fraid not.

Hello,

I get "Kersey", Suffolk from "The railway poster collection" as a 1000 piece jigsaw.

But I also seem to get lots of "Wokingham" with Hurst farms now around 2 miles from the town, with lakes for fishing. Remembering that a lot may have changed since the jigsaw picture was developed.

If you don't know the town anyway, just take one of these suggestions and dream that it's right.

A street level trip around Kersey looked promising but I did not recognise the 'scene' I was looking for. Wokingham will take a long time to 'drive' round - I will try anon.

Thanks for your help.

Are you sure it's not a ficticious scene just made up for the jigsaw puzzle

Cheers

Denis

The jigsaw picture puzzle was definitely from a photograph.

I'm not sure I'm getting the whole picture. This is what I see:-

There is a huge blank area in the actual picture space. If there is nothing there can you crop the original so that we get a more detailed view of the actual content.

The signpost shown is hand drawn and is a pictorial presentation of what I can recall from memory.

All we have to go on is *hurst and *lake, and horizontal aerials.

And as a PS, generally looking at an old red brick villa/mansion building, and a couple of shops nearby. I have no memory of the shop names.

If the foliage covers part of the sign, how do you know that *lake is a place name? It could just be '10M to lake'. Or even 'Take this road to East lake.' I realise you are going by memory and your graphic is probably not to scale but can you give any idea about the PROBABLE number of letters that preceded hurst?

Jim

Going by 'traditional' English signpost design, it is *hurst 2, and *lake 2, meaning 2 miles to both places from where the sign is. I guess the * is about 1 to 6 letters.

Have you thought about going through the list of towns and villages at the back of a road atlas? Only a few very small places are not listed. It would take a while, but you could note down all the *hursts and *lakes along with map references and see if you get any crossovers.

Sorry if this sounds a bit pedantic, but, was the H in Hurst really capitalised as you said in the original post? If it was it would narrow the search considerably.

Of course I realise that you may not remember.

Also did the sign point to both locations in the same direction, as shown in your picture?

Well spotted Randal, and thanks. It's all lower case. Sorry about the confusion.

The signpost was in the built-up area of the 'village'. I assume the road must fork somewhere soon, otherwise *hurst and *lake would be in the same place 2 miles away. Alternatively, the road could fork immediately (out of sight in the picture) and *hurst and *lake could be in opposite directions and 4 miles apart.

So my search over the years, by sticking pins in a wall map, and with a compass, to find *hurst and *lake within a 4 mile diameter circle, and if lucky, to find somewhere 2 miles from each. Peaslake and Ewhurst are the nearest I got, but there does not seem to be a 'village' 2 miles from each.

I have also kept a watch on ebay to see if a copy of the puzzle pops up - but no luck - it goes back to circa 1965. I was a sales engineer in those days and just out of interest, if I was in the area at the time I thought I would visit the place if I could find it.

Regretfully the puzzle got lost when we moved home, but the interest stayed with me.

There is a place called Hurst which is close to several lakes so it's conceivable that there is a sign 2 miles from both. Hurst is between Reading & Bracknell.

Thanks Nigh. The place is definitely (something)hurst-wild card *hurst.

But you are right. There a lots of places called *hurst where there are lakes nearby. The name *lake was worthy of identification on a signpost.

Thanks for looking for me.

Hi,

Love this challenge. A picture, no idea where it is. So get out your big map of the UK and lets start narrowing. Firstly, I'm going to challenge your photographic memory and see what else you remember.

An observation. If this is a village scene then we're looking for a village. So we're not looking for a point "2 miles from a place name ending in *Hurst, and 2 miles from a place name ending in *Lake", we're looking for a place "2 miles from a place name ending in *Hurst, and 2 miles from a place name ending in *Lake". Which kind of narrows it. Also the fact that both places are in the same direction, but not the same place, helps. We now know we're talking about a triangle of places with 'village' at one point. So we know that *hurst and *lake are within 4 miles of each other but probably closer.

I'd like to narrow it some more.

The foliage. Remember anything about it? Hops imply Kent; Fruit trees Herefordshire. Rough, I know but all part of the bag of evidence. For any identifiable foliage you can look up roughly where it grows and narrow the search.

Sticking with the foliage can you get an idea how high it is from the species represented, the scale of the leaf, that sort of thing? Also while we're still looking at the foliage what time of year does it imply? Is it in bud, in flower, failing? Hold that thought. Now, are there any shadows? If there are shadows, what direction are they in, and how are they cast from the foliage? From that we can get a (very) rough idea of orientation, narrowed by season (because the day is shorter or longer).

I know all of these things are rough but we're overlaying rough evidence over rough evidence and all the time building up an area which starts to fit lots of possibilities.

The background landscape. Anything in it? Any hills? In which direction? Any identifiable agricultural types: orchards? Arable crops? Livestock, and if so, what sort? Any identifiable breed of livestock which again can help show a regional bias.

Structures. I guess a stand-out bridge or a chimney is too much to hope for? Anything else you can think of might appear on an OS map (telephone box for example)? Any buildings that are potentially identifiable in themselves? Is there a pub (also appears on OS)? Any unusual building features that can be described in Google Images. The building material of the structures: stone implies more Northern; Brick more Southern. What's the colour of the Brick? Is it the classic London clay yellow, a pale red, a dark red? All imply geography. Any half-timber buildings? Any thatch?

The pattern of structures. Can you ID what shape would be drawn on an OS map of the edge of the village?

Talking of structures, the sign. Did it look modern-ish? Remember most of the signposts in Southern England were removed during the war in case of invasion. If it looks old, the village is probably North of the Thames / Severn.

Love the fact you remembered the aerial orientation. Use the UK transmitter guide to draw circles on the map narrowing it that way too. While we're being techie, any telegraph poles? What sort and which way are they oriented? Are they power or telecoms?

Finally, honest, the road. How wide is it? Does it have a centre line? Can you tell what class of road it is? That will help you narrow it on an OS map.

Chop chop.

Evan

Sorry, I cannot remember much from the 1970's to answer your questions, but a lot of details you ask were not in the picture; and it did not have a placename.

I thought the signpost 2 miles to *hurst and *lake would help find it. By the time I realised I could not find it - I had moved home and the puzzle was lost.

But a vague recall is a centre-piece of the picture being a dominant red brick house - or a small Georgian style villa/mansion.

It had a multi-array horizontal aerial - not the early BBC H type. No hills or livestock or such were in the picture. There were a couple of village shops; which suggests there were nearby houses, bit not visible. That is, a village built up area, rather than a couple of houses in a rural setting.

The long shot was I would be lucky and someone would recognise the place from the brief description.

I appreciate your help.

Maybe Hawkhurst in Kent ?