Frustrated residents who live in Egginton have vented their fury after a misspelt road sign left Staffordshire County Council highways bosses with egg on their faces - AGAIN.
The chairman of Egginton Parish Council has blasted a road sign error which has added an additional and unwanted ‘g’ to the name of the village, calling it a "major issue for the residents."
The misspelt sign which has left villagers tearing out their hair in frustration is on a southbound section of the A38.
Miles Nesbitt said the error was cropping up time and time again, causing confusion for visitors and frustration for villagers.
He said: "I have seen the road sign in question and this is not the first time this has happened, it happens often. The problem with the correct spelling of Egginton is a major issue for the residents who live in our wonderful village.
"Road signs, bus signs, you name it, people get it wrong and for some extraordinary reason those who are responsible for producing signage around our village and on the internet constantly make the same mistake time and time again."
Mr Nesbitt said people confused the South Derbyshire village with the village of Eggington in Bedfordshire, 93.6 miles away and around 1 hour and 45 minutes down the M1.
He said: "Even Google Maps can’t get it right. They refer to Egginton Brook as Eggington Brook and no matter how hard we try to get it changed we fail. We are proud of our village and although we have nothing against Eggington, which is a great little village near Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, we don’t want people to mix us up.
"We are many miles apart and we all have better things to do than to drive hundreds of miles out of our way and arrive in the wrong place.
"Apart from anything else it is a real waste of taxpayers money having to correct things all the time. How much will it cost to correct this latest error I wonder!! Surely it is not that difficult to get it right first time?"
John Westbury, parish councillor for Eggington in Bedfordshire, said villagers there had experienced similar problems after the village name was altered from Egginton to Eggington.
He said: "We have had the same issue for many years. In days gone by, the village where I live, was also known as Egginton (without that third g!) but some time - perhaps as late as the 19th or early 20th century - that name was altered and became Eggington.
"I personally would prefer the name to be restored to the former Egginton, to avoid confusion but sadly, I don't think we have adequate proof to be able to cause local government to acknowledge the original error and to formally change the name back to its historical root."
Misspelt signs of past and present
In October 2016, the Burton Mail reported that a housing developer was left red-faced after it erected a sign in Church Gresley which misspelt Edinburgh twice.
A sign for 'Edingborough Road' was put up to make it clearer to motorists where Edinburgh Road finished and Suffolk Way began.
Further down the road, a mistake was made on another sign nine months previously where the road was called Edinburgh Way.
This sign was taken down a month later and replaced with a correct sign.
It is not the first time designers have been left embarrassed by a road sign.
In August 2015 Derbyshire County Council put up signs near the A38 pointing motorists to 'Eggington' and a few weeks later, 'Coalvile' appeared on road signs in Mantle Lane in the town centre after an error by North West Leicestershire District Council.
The Burton Mail contacted Staffordshire County Council to alert them to the spelling mistake. Helen Fisher, cabinet member for Highways and Transport at the council, said highways teams were aware of the error on the sign and would be correcting it.
Egginton v Eggington
Egginton – or Eggington as it is now known – is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, about three miles east of Leighton Buzzard.
The village is relatively small – some 225 residents, living in approximately 120 houses; it now has an Indian restaurant, a church and a village hall, formerly the village school (which closed in 1984). The Congregational chapel was pulled down in the 1970s: the village shop also closed in that era, and the old Methodist chapel was converted to a dwelling in 1988.
Egginton village in Derbyshire is a peaceful village on the River Dove, situated eight miles south west of Derby. It has a population of approximately 600 residents and in the 17th century was owned by the Every family. They lived in an old Tudor hall, which was burnt down in 1736 and then rebuilt in 1780.
Monks Bridge in Egginton was built by the monks of Tutbury Priory in the 14th century and repair work had to be paid for by selling the local church bells.
The Trent and Mersey canal is carried over the River Dove, on a long nine arched aqueduct built to the design of James Brindley in 1777.
Egginton village has a primary school which doubles up as a parish hall in the evenings and although there is not currently a pub in the village, residents enjoyed many a drink in the Every Arms, which was about half a mile out of the village on the A38, in days gone by.
The parish church of St Wilfried dates from around the year 1300 and is built on the site of an earlier church.
A brief moment of fame came in 1644 when a Royalist force was defeated by Cromwell's force in the Battle of Egginton Heath.
