War Walks 8 on the Home Front – Wenlock’s War Hits Home

Walk directions

1. Step 1

   From the Square with the clock behind you and the museum on your left go into Wilmore Street and stop after a few yards next to the Guildhall. 

   In 1915 and 1916 right here in Much Wenlock outside the Guildhall, local people were doing their bit to support our troops in France and elsewhere.  Eggs collected by individuals and local schools were brought in boxes to the church porch, and weekly  figures were published in local newspapers to encourage other towns.  Eggs were packed in sawdust, then sent to London for onward transportation to the front.  Broken eggs were used in war hospitals in the UK.  Local fruit was also collected and bottled to send to the front.  Plants from the Abbey were sold to raise money to buy comforts for the troops.

   In the Guildhall tribunals took place on a regular basis from 1916 onwards.  The Military Service Act of 2 March 1916 (extended and modified in May 1916) made enlistment into the forces compulsory, but exemptions could be granted  by the tribunals who heard cases of possible hardship for individuals or employers if a man was forced to enlist.

   Opposite the Guildhall is an antique shop which is of particular interest

   In September 1914 the upstairs of this shop was home to some of the Belgian refugees who had fled when Germany overran their country, seeking safety in rural Shropshire.

2. Step 2

   Continue along Wilmore Street and into Sheinton Street until you come to number 8, which in 1915 was the home of Private Alfred Edwards and his wife Beatrice.

   They had eight children.  He came home on leave in the autumn of 1915, and then returned to the front.  He was killed on 20 December 1915.  His wife gave birth to his ninth child just after his death.

   Alfred Edwards’ widow and nine children lived with her father-in-law Samuel, a widower aged 83.  Despite his age, he traded as a gents’ tailor from this building throughout WWI in order to support all 11 of them – just one example of the hardship experienced by families during the war at a time before social security.

3. Step 3

   Continue along Sheinton Street until you reach the main road with a bridge abutment on your right.  Cross the main road into a narrow alley which leads behind a bungalow and on into Southfield Road.  When you reach an old railway bridge on your left, turn right up a track for 50m where there are allotments on your right.

   These allotments started just before the war and were twice the size they are now.  During WWI families struggled to grow food to feed themselves in times of shortages.

4. Step 4

   Retrace your steps to the road and turn right.  Go to the end of Southfield Road and turn left at the main road and along a raised pathway with railings until you come to a cottage called The Old Smithy.

   In 1915/16 this was a blacksmith’s, run by John Furmston, and the area was known as The Bank.  We will come to another smithy later in the walk, essential tradesmen in those days in an agricultural community like Wenlock .

5. Step 5

   Continue on along the pavement to a major road junction, and cross over to the Gaskell Arms Hotel and Restaurant to turn left along the footpath.  Follow the main road round to the right.  When you reach a filling station on the left, turn right through a gate into a wide grassy lane. This takes you into a field.  Go straight on through a kissing gate, and turn left up an old tree lined drovers track.  This opens out into a field at the top where you go straight on with a hedge on your left.  Go through a small clump of trees to where the path opens out onto a large field from which point you have a superb panoramic view of the South Shropshire countryside dominated by Brown Clee Hill.

   Much Wenlock lies behind you out of sight in a hollow.  Ahead lies the hamlet of Callaughton, again in a hollow and out of sight.  In 1914 the De Troetsel family, refugees from Antwerp, were housed on a farm in Callaughton, and remained until the end of the war in 1918.

   All this area was intensively cultivated by manual labourers in 1914, with only occasional assistance from a steam traction engine.  Horses provided most of the power for the heavy work and haulage.

   By 1915 it was becoming clear that the German army was unlikely to be defeated in a matter of weeks.  To break the deadlock of trench warfare huge reinforcements were needed.  The National Service Act of 1915 was designed to identify the numbers, ages, and trades available in the population across the nation. 

   The Derby Scheme in October 1915 asked all males between 18 and 40 to enlist or register for call-up ‘if required’.  By December 1915 over 2 million potential or actual recruits had been identified.  Most remained potential, so it took the Military Services Act of March 1916 to make enlistment into the services compulsory.  Eligible men were given two weeks notice by letter, accompanied by a rail warrant instructing them where to report for military training.

   Those who claimed exemption had to go before a tribunal of 7 men at the Guildhall representing the Military and the Agricultural Board.  Few escaped the call-up, but some were granted time to get the harvest in before leaving for war.  At the same time large numbers of horses were being requisitioned for the front, causing great difficulties for those trying to bring in the harvest.

   Farmer John Myatt ran Perkley’s Farm over on the right, throughout WWI.  He was just one farmer in the area trying to feed the nation while his work force and horses were being depleted.  The farmhouse and buildings now lie derelict.  Women began to be trained to do agricultural work, and Wenlock’s first qualified woman, Mrs Bridgwater, was presented with her armband in 1916.

6. Step 6

   Go straight on down the field until you reach a track and a stile.  Turn left along the track until you come to a lane and turn left.  Follow the lane down to the main road, and continue on along the footpath for a few yards until you come to a lychgate on the left.  Enter the cemetery.

   There are a few WWI military graves in this cemetery.  These men were not killed in action because repatriation of fallen servicemen was not permitted.  The WWI graves here are servicemen who died in training, or of illness in the UK.  Some died of wounds after they had been repatriated, but there are none here.  William Burton, who died at Paschendale, is recorded on the Tyne Cot memorial, and commemorated here on the tombstone of his mother and sister by the chapel door.  The widow and her daughter took in washing during the war years to support themselves.

7. Step 7

   Return to the lych gate and cross the main road into Racecourse Lane.  Go to the bottom of the road and turn right into St Mary’s Road.  Take the second left into St Mary’s Lane. 

   Mrs Burton and her daughter lived at number 12.  There was also another smithy in St Mary’s Lane, now converted to a house.

   Go straight on and through one of the shutts back into the Square.