The Sign

The sign was designed by a local artist and erected in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium.

In the sky above St Mary’s church are B17 Bombers or Flying Fortresses from the 388th/562nd Bomb Squadron at USAAF Nettishall and would have been a common sight in the 1940s.

The young lad playing the tin penny whistle is Robert Clarke, a farm labourer who, made his own original tin penny whistle in 1843. Robert with his son and a barrow of their belongings walked to Manchester, where he'd heard there were opportunities, making and selling whistles as he went to pay his way. When Robert reached Manchester he set up his factory in a shed and soon became a successful manufacturer. He called his tin whistles ‘Megs’, a Victorian nickname for a halfpenny, as this is how much he charged for them. He eventually made enough money that he was able to build two houses, a factory and a church in the nearby village of New Moston. He went back to Coney Weston and bought up the farm that he had previously lived in, using gold sovereigns which he carried in a Gladstone bag.

A combined harvester can be seen in the fields representing agriculture and some locals including a horse and some ducks to the right of the church.

On the horizon, behind the combined harvester, can be seen Riddlesworth Hall School, which is located in the north of the parish and was attended by Lady Diana Spencer.

The sign as a selection of local flora and fauna in the surrounds.

The Name and Population
The population was recorded as 394 at the 2011 census. It was called Cunegestone in 1051-7, Cunegestuna in 1086 and Cunewestone in 1284. The name means "The king's manor or the royal estate", from Old Scandanavian and Old English. The present development of the name has been influenced by nearby Market Weston and the word Coney, meaning rabbit.

Other Points of Interest
Peddars Way passes through the parish which also contains several 17th-century buildings.

The small church of St Mary is of the English Decorated style of the mid-14th century. Its nave roof is thatch on the original scissor truss roof. The tower fell in 1690 and was not rebuilt. It is not known for certain why the church stands a mile to the east away from the village. However, there was a tunnel from the cellar that connected the Hall to St Mary. The entrance of which can still be discerned in the brickwork under the Hall.