 Dickens is said to have been shown around the workhouse on a visit to Suffolk and to have seen a record book containing the details of a ten-year-old boy's apprenticeship.The proposal that a village sign should be made and erected at some suitable spot in the parish of Barham was agreed by the Parish Council in 1985.Following this decision, a design was worked out by the late Keith Pilling, a well-known artist and member of the council at that time.