The volunteer 'Pointsman of Prees' who kept traffic flowing for 16 years and 'undoubtedly saved many lives'
Turn back the clock 100 years or so, and the crossroads in one Shropshire village was controlled by a local man doing his bit for the community.
Stephen Gibbons was the "Pointsman of Prees," a volunteer role which he undertook for 16 years in the 1920s and 1930s, being a familiar figure to thousands of motorists and becoming something of a local celebrity in the process.
One Prees villager, then in his 90s, recalled that Mr Gibbons had thought up the role himself, eventually receiving the approval of the police authorities who, although they could not give him any sort of uniform, gave him a cap.
Perhaps that explains why at least one photograph of him shows the cap to have the word "Pointsman" written, a little crudely, on the hatband - presumably Steven, Steve, or Stephen (spellings vary) did it to make the cap look more official.
Today anybody standing in the road to direct traffic would be taking their lives in their hands, but back then Mr Gibbons' efforts were credited with making the crossroads much safer.
