The Pillar of Salt Road Sign is a Grade II listed building in the West Suffolk local planning authority area, England. Road sign.
The Pillar of Salt Road Sign
- WRENN ID
- stony-parapet-nightshade
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- West Suffolk
- Constituency
- Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket MP: Dr Peter Prinsley (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Road sign
- Address
- The Pillar of Salt Road Sign, Angel Hill, Bury St. Edmunds
- OS grid reference
- TL 855 642
- Coordinates
- 52.24498, 0.71591
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Pillar of Salt Road Sign is a road sign located on Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds, designed in 1935 by Basil Oliver, the architect for Bury St Edmunds Town Council. Made of whitewashed concrete and metal, it showcases the International Modern style.
The sign features a large octagonal pier topped with a simple, slightly overhanging lantern. It has projecting box-framed road signs that point in three directions. The structure stands on a plinth with steps and small corner octagonal piers. Known as the 'Pillar of Salt', it is a central feature in a significant group of listed buildings and is situated near the former Abbey gatehouse.
Historically, the Town Council aimed to create a fitting sign for this important location as motor traffic increased and the need for clear signage became essential. Basil Oliver provided design advice during a time when road signs were being standardized under the 1933 Regulations. This sign is distinctive and likely unique, having received approval from the Ministry of Transport in June 1935, with a compromise on the size of the letters and numbers to meet the new standards.
Local climate
The Pillar of Salt Road Sign sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 85% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 62% of listed buildings. Of these, 19 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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