Big Wood, Castle Covert, Ditton Enclosure, Old Lodge Coppice, The Moat, and Woolers Wood … what might have hauled the timber from these woods in Burwarton, Shropshire into the Front Line of the First World War? In 1913 90% of the nation’s timber requirements were imported. Why was wood a strategic material? It literally propped […]
From the outbreak of war in August 1914 and for its duration, knitting comforts for soldiers and sailors became a national pastime. It wasn’t just women involved either, men, children, German prisoners of war and recovering combatants in war hospitals were all encouraged to pick up knitting needles and a recipe (the name often used […]
In October 1917, the parish of Clee St Margaret asked children to collect horse chestnuts and bring them to the School. This was in response to a national appeal from the Ministry of Munitions. The purpose of this unusual request was kept secret, but in fact the conkers were to be used to make acetone […]
To the ordinary soldier, humour was as essential an armament as his rifle or his bayonet. It was a defensive weapon, vital to staving off the despair or descent to insanity … the logical reactions to the surrounding hellishness. Patrick Bishop Historian and author A HIGH EXPLOSIVE OF MIRTH On September 15th 1915 I should […]
Suspicions of German spies abounded from the moment war was declared and many innocent people fell victim to accusations of being German sympathizers. In October 1914, Miss Lillian Tart, the headteacher at the National School in Dudleston, near Ellesmere was called to account. PC Pilsbury went to investigate gossip circulating in the village that she […]
The outbreak of war is always an excuse to introduce restrictions and control. During World War I, British beer was under attack on all fronts. An odd thing; it wasn’t the Germans who menaced John Bull’s foaming pint. It was sunk by Lloyd George our own war-time Prime Minister-to-be. Opening hours were limited to 11am till […]
Belgian families fleeing the German invasion of their country began arriving in Britain very early in the war. Communities around Shropshire met to make plans to help these refugees. On 11th September 1914 at a meeting of the Relief Fund in Much Wenlock, the gentry from Wenlock Abbey offered one of their houses in the […]
Part Two: The Tracks THE LOCOMOTIVE DEPARTMENT MEMORIAL Shrewsbury Station’s own links to the First World War are equally moving. The most intimate, in that it is from their workmates, is located in the staircase of the Arriva offices. Although it is not normally accessible to the public, thanks to the untiring efforts of Philip […]
Part One: Wilfred Owen The essay for Shrewsbury Technical School merited 17/20 with the comment “You would have done better to keep to the 3rd person.” Today, it reads rather pompously from someone aged only fifteen. “The first striking impression on entering one of our large stations at a busy time is the number of […]
‘A novel way of helping our wounded tommies’ is the hand-written caption on the bottom of this photograph of Albert Brazier and Richard Davies, two of the gardeners at Wenlock Abbey. They are seen wrapping up plants grown at the Abbey to sell as part of Lady Milnes Gaskell’s efforts to raise money for the wounded […]
