Wellingtonia Issue 6 : First Quarter 2010 FREE ISSUE! Newsletter of the Wellington History Group, Rediscovering the Past of Wellington in Shropshire
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Wellingtonia Issue 6 : First Quarter 2010 FREE ISSUE! Newsletter of the Wellington History Group, rediscovering the past of Wellington in Shropshire The front page of the site is WELCOME ... shown below; there are a couple of IN THIS ISSUE things you should know when ****************** ... to Issue Six of Wellingtonia. accessing the site. You’ll now be aware that our quest The first is: please bear in mind Page for further funding from Awards that this is our first venture into 2. The Pilgrim’s Way For All and other organisations the mysterious world of the web 3. Tanner Found site, so bear with us if not all giving grants has been 4. Wellington’s Spanish unsuccessful. We’re still trying, so functions work correctly. The if you know how we may obtain a second is that some of the content Civil War Link 1936-39 substantial donation to enable us is held in fairly large files, so may 5. Small Businesses to produce the magazine in paper take a little longer than you’re 6. Wellington Boots format, please get in touch. used to appear on your screen. 7. Washing Machines The third is that we recommend Of course, we’re most grateful 8. The Wild Moors that we were given the installing the latest version of opportunity to produce such a Adobe Reader, or you may not be 10. Take a Bath! well-received magazine and, at able to read this or other articles 12. The Impact of Beeching popular request, we hope to saved as ‘pdfs’. 13. Shropshire Market continue publishing them in Please take time to explore the Towns, 1741 site and let us know what sort of electronic form until such time as 14. Unsolved Mysteries we can pay for printing. things you’d like to see featured Although we won’t necessarily (no promises, mind!). Above all, 16. Woolies Memories be able to reach everyone we’d spread the word ... oh, and help us 18. YOUR Family History like, at least Wellingtonia is by giving us details of your own 20. Catch ’em Young publicly available, so we’d ask you family or general research and Talk Schedule copies of photographs, etc., which to pass on either electronic or Contact Details printed-off copies to friends, will help us understand more relatives and associates ... in fact, about our district’s history. anyone whom you think might be interested in discovering more about our area’s illustrious past. All is not doom and gloom ... we continue to give free-to-attend public talks: our 2010 January to June season has begun and is already proving a success, with encouraging attendance figures. We are also very pleased to announce the arrival of our dedicated web site at: www.wellingtonhistorygroup. wordpress.com We are most grateful to the two volunteers who have spent a considerable amount of time putting it all together. Visit us at www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com Estate, most of which is deciduous THE PILGRIM’S WAY George Evans woodland, and the Raby Estate, dominated by planted conifers. There are boundary markers each walk as physical exercise and time e all know people who side of the path but they’re themselves. Some are joggers of live far from our difficult to find. various kinds including the fit and Wfavourite little The next rise is to Hell’s Gate lean and others feeling the need to mountain, who seize the first (or Hell Gate if you like). It’s the burn off their excess weight. chance when they’re home to most difficult bit, where an ancient Most mountain bikers are climb The Wrekin Hill and revel in chap fell over, dented his skull and sensible folk who ride carefully the view from the top. had to be rescued by ambulance. and respect the rest of us, It’s a pilgrimage. Hell’s Gate is the first entrance to especially on the way up. A most We of the Wartime generations, the ancient Hillfort and there is a annoying few, however, come coming home on leave from war notice at the bottom by Shropshire charging down with a surfeit of zones, made a point of climbing Wildlife Trust explaining its reckless abandon, deserving the hill as soon as we had seen function. Do use your imagination accidents. family and friends. It was quite an and see it as it was two millennia Say, ‘Morning,’ or ‘Hello,’ and emotional experience. ago. almost everyone, except those A pilgrimage up The Wrekin Inside the first enclosure the plugged in to electronic gadgets, has been a local custom all my life slope is gentle again. On your will reply. The answer often tells and for many centuries before. right is a wood between Hell and you where they come from. There’s a tradition of celebrating Heaven Gates, humorously called There’s ‘Ado’ from locals, ‘All Easter, kept up by local churches. Purgatory Wood. If you don’t get right?’ from Brummies and There’s a legend that the Needle’s the joke, ask the nearest Catholic. various other versions. Eye had been formed at the same Then there’s a little climb up to At weekends the Halfway moment as the curtain of the Heaven’s Gate, after which it’s House is opened by Tom and Phil temple in Jerusalem was torn almost level to Wellington Rotary Bolger for ice cream, chocolate apart at the Crucifixion. Club’s Toposcope and the bars, tea and coffee; and very Probably, centuries before the Ordnance Survey’s concrete Trig welcome that is, especially on the Roman invasion, The Wrekin was Point, both on a small artificial way down. Tom has carved regarded as a Sacred Mountain, rise, with the Old Top to the north several seats from logs, both inside partly because of the magic near a copse of pines. the small courtyard and out along Calendar Stone, marking the Here most people stop for the the way for use when the café in Spring and Autumn Equinox and view, aided by the Toposcope, also closed. Often their dog, Junior, the east and west gateways which having a snack, take pictures and, challenges visiting dogs to play point to sunrise on the longest day if locals, drink the health of All with him. and sunset on the shortest. That Friends Round The Wrekin, before After the Halfway House must have led to a tradition of wandering back down the hill comes the ‘First Top’, followed by making the pilgrimage several again. a slight level stretch, where a times a year. Who says this shouldn’t be medieval fair used to take place Let’s go for a walk the way called The Pilgrims’ Way? nearly everyone goes ... annually until excessive We start at the big gate drunkenness persuaded the * * * opposite where the Forest Glen magistrates to ban it. This is also Edwardians take a stroll along the Pavilion used to be. On fine the boundary of the Orleton main pathway up The Wrekin. weekends we will be joined by crowds, mostly in small groups. There will be many families, some of three or even four generations. The smaller children will be running and stopping, excited and noisy; they’ll get tired later on. Some will need to be carried further up. Some families and many groups will have dogs, mostly running free, others on leads. Most dogs will be friendly; though a few puppies will want to play with other dogs and people they meet on the way. Quite a few people regard the 2 Wellingtonia: Issue 6 TANNER FOUND Allan Frost Recent work on preparing the site for Wellington’s new Civic Quarter has exposed remarkable proof of Medieval tanning in the town. It’s a major discovery. The site was once part of a on the outskirts of the town. Medieval burgage plot extending Meat was passed on to westwards from a frontage butchers at The Shambles for building on what is now Tan Bank. cutting and sale. Horns were It was separated from adjacent ‘cored’: the soft insides removed properties by ditch and sandstone so that the horns themselves could t’s hard to believe, considering boundaries (below). be sold to carvers who would how old Wellington is as a Within the plot, another pit make, for example, combs, bolt Isettlement, but I have never revealed the existence of a timber- nuts for crossbows, etc. come across any reports of lined well or cesspit (above and The hides formed the basis of significant archaeological bottom right. I presume its users the tanning trade, including hide discoveries in the town. knew its precise purpose). There preparation and dyeing in vats Many people have grumbled were also two rubbish pits before finished goods, such as about Telford & Wrekin Borough alongside the well, one of which clothing, bags, belts and saddles, Council’s plans to create a new contained Medieval pottery. were made by skilled curriers. Civic Quarter in Wellington in a Furthermore, large quantities of At some point in later much-needed quest to revive the horn-cores were also found. Horn- Medieval times, it appears that town’s business economy. I am cores are strong evidence of Walker Street itself was laid out more than grateful for this ... tanning as well as horn working. and a row of terraced houses without it, exciting discoveries Bearing in mind that the bodies of (including the eastern part of behind Edgbaston House in leather-producing beasts (mainly Edgbaston House) built on what Walker Street (above) may never cattle) had to be rendered had been the tannery plot, now have come to light.