Who is the mystery person who carried out a homemade street sign repair in Cwmbran?

This unusual street sign caught my eye this morning.

I was driving past the entrance to Pandy when I spotted it. Day to day I see all sorts of things that get stored (and usually forgotten) in my mind for possible future pics or stories.

A few minutes later I parked up and took a closer look. Yep, someone has ‘repaired’ it by bolting in a block of varnished wood that has Pandy ‘burned’ into it.

Google Street View from April 2023 shows the sign was faded and you could just make out ‘NDY’. The street has two signs as you enter, one of each side of the road. This pic below shows the one on the left is spotless.

a wooden street sign saying Pandy — The second sign on the entrance to Pandy. The ‘homemade’ sign used to look like this one

But it appears someone decided to do a spot of DIY and give the sign on the right a new look.

Lots of street signs are faded, battered or a bit bent from vandalism. I can’t imagine the cost of replacing or repairing all the ones across Torfaen that aren’t perfect. In this day of Google Maps, many people get around without even looking at a traditional street sign.

But they are important as shown by the mysterious person who decided to give Pandy its name back.

the back of a street sign- you can see two bolts — The wooden sign has been bolted to the frame

Google Street View

One of Google’s Street View cars recorded this image in April 2023 of the sign.