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Wellingtonia Issue 15 : Second Half 2013 Only £2.00 Newsletter of the Wellington History Group, rediscovering the past of Wellington in

HISTORY’S HOT! IN THIS ISSUE ****************** he History game seems to Page be more popular now than 2. Call Out The Yeomanry it ever was when I was at - Part Two Tschool. Perhaps the fact that 3. Wrekin MPs increasing numbers of folk are taking an interest in their 4. Harry Hampton ancestors – and want to know 5. Notice Board more about their lives and the 6. Dickson Monument places in which they lived – has 7. Local Author’s something to do with it. Centenary This has undoubtedly led to a greater interest being taken in 8. Wellington Town FC television documentaries (and 10. Art Deco & Modernism even ‘docusoaps’), history 12. Dothill Park magazines and, of course, books, The Art Deco Trail 14. The Wellington Gibbet especially those with local interest. See page 10. 15. Plaque ‘Trigged’ But we mustn’t forget the wealth of knowledge revealed in The Wrekin Constituency 16. 50 Years Ago: 1963 old newspapers and maps, and was created in 1918. 18. Workhouse or Wellington Library is a good place How many of its Members of Almshouse? to spend a few hours gleaning Parliament can you name? 20. More 1963 Images fascinating details from books, as See page 3. well as newspapers on microfilm. The latest additions comprise rare (probably unique) maps relating to Wellington and its surrounding area, including some from the Lord Forester Collection, all of which have been digitised at our request by Shropshire Archives. These are now available for viewing on one of the library’s computers. Ask a librarian to show you how to access them. They’re an important addition to the community history section. If Dothill House wasn’t ‘Dothill House’, what was it? (this extract from 1944 Sale Particulars gives a clue.) See page 12.

Visit us at www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com resignation in 1827, the year before CALL OUT THE YEOMANRY! PART TWO Neil Clarke his death. His role was acknowledged on the inscription on his monument he Yeomanry volunteer in Wrockwardine Church: movement began in response to the French threat to this country He served his country for many years T in the capacities of a magistrate and at the end of the 18th century, but Yeomanry troops were actually soldier, in the latter commanding the deployed in dealing with outbreaks of South Shropshire Regiment of domestic civil unrest during the early Yeomanry Cavalry with distinguished nineteenth century. How was the zeal and ability, and in both rendering Yeomanry organised in this area and important benefits to his neighbourhood in times of difficulty who made up its personnel? and danger. From its beginning the officers of the Yeomanry came mostly Other members of the Cludde from the landed gentry, and in this family and relatives who served in area that meant from the Cluddes, the Yeomanry were William’s son the Eytons, the Leekes, the Edward, son-in-law William Lacon Foresters and the Charltons. These Childe and cousin Thomas families also provided the county Pemberton. magistrates, who played a leading Edward Cludde (1783-1840), role in keeping the peace. Some who succeeded his father at prominent local industrialists also Orleton in 1828, had become an became officers in the Yeomanry in officer in the second Wellington its early years. William Cludde in uniform (painting troop in 1803, and the celebration The rank-and-file members in Shropshire Regimental Museum) of his 21st birthday at a Yeomanry were tenant farmers and workers in 1785, on condition that he gathering was recorded in the on the landed estates. All members changed his name. In the year he following newspaper report: of the Yeomanry were expected to was mayor of , William May 2nd 1804. On Thursday, being undergo a period of training each raised the first voluntary corps in the 21st birthday of Major [sic] year, to attend an annual camp Shropshire, as described by a later Cludde, great celebrations took place at and to parade in full dress Lieutenant-Colonel of the Orleton, Wellington. The Wellington uniform. The officers wore a regiment: Volunteers had a grand field day and scarlet tunic, turned up with black 1795 – On March 6th, a meeting was after marching into town fired three velvet and gold lace, white sash held at the Pheasant Inn, Wellington, volleys. Afterwards the Corps was and breeches, a helmet, and were over which Mr Cludde of Orleton was entertained to dinner by their armed with a sabre and pistols. requested to preside, and in a very Commander Colonel [sic] Eyton. With the reorganisation of 1814, impressive speech laid down the William Lacon Childe of the two Wellington troops (jointly necessity of every man coming forward Wrockwardine had married commanded by a major since to assist in defending a glorious William Cludde’s daughter, 1798) became part of the South Constitution against the meditated Harriet, in 1807 and two years Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry attack of foreign foes...It was resolved later took over from Thomas Regiment, commanded by a that a Corps of 80 men should be Eyton as captain of the second Lieutenant-Colonel. Within the enrolled, and Mr Cludde was Wellington troop. He continued as regiment, each troop was unanimously chosen to be Captain. It captain in the South Shropshire commanded by a captain and was also decided that the troop should Yeomanry Cavalry until his below him, in order of rank, were be called ‘The Wrekin Co. of Shropshire resignation in 1826, soon after lieutenant and cornet (who carried Yeomanry Cavalry’. the colours); and in the ranks succeeding his father at Kinlet When a second Wellington Hall (near Cleobury Mortimer). usually two sergeants, two troop was formed in 1798, William Thomas Pemberton of trumpeters and about 90 men. Cludde became Major Wrockwardine Hall, William Commandant of the two combined THE CLUDDES Cludde’s cousin, served as troops, termed ‘The First Corps of The most prominent figures in the lieutenant in the first Wellington the Shropshire Gentlemen and early years of the Yeomanry in this troop from 1795 to 1798. area were members of the Cludde Yeomanry’; and with the family and their relatives. amalgamation of five local troops OTHER GENTRY William, son of Edward in the southern half of the county Thomas Eyton, whose residence Pemberton of Wrockwardine, in 1814 he became Lieutenant- was ‘The Mansion’ in the Crescent inherited the Orleton estate on the Colonel of the South Shropshire Road area of Wellington, formed death of his uncle Edward Cludde Yeomanry Cavalry. This was a the second Wellington troop in position he held until his 1798 and remained its captain

2 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 until his resignation in 1809. Following his disgrace and suicide WREKIN MPS in 1816 [see Wellingtonia issue 11], his son moved back to Eyton Hall C=Conservative; IC=Independent and played no part in the Conservative; I=Independent; Yeomanry; but his grandson, L=Labour; Li=Liberal; U=Unionist Thomas Campbell Eyton became Sir Charles Solomon Henry (Li) cornet (1830), then lieutenant (1860 - 1919) (1838) in the South Salopian Dec 14, 1918 - Dec 27, 1919 Yeomanry Cavalry until his Charles Frederick Palmer (I) resignation in 1859. (1869 - 1920) Thomas Leeke of Longford Feb, 20 to Oct 25, 1920 Hall became a lieutenant in the Major-General Sir Charles second Wellington troop in 1822. Townshend His uncle, Egerton Leeke, who had (IC) (1861 - 1924) been a captain in the same troop in Nov 20, 1920 - Nov 15, 1922 1803, lived at the family’s original Mr Howard Stransom Button (L) home at ‘The Vineyard’, (1873 - 1943) Wellington. Thomas’s son, Ralph Henry Williams (above, photo Nov 15,1922 - Dec 6, 1923 Merrick Leeke, became captain of courtesy of Paul Luter), local canal Mr Henry Nixon (L) (1874 - 1939) the new Newport & Shifnal troop engineer and ironmaster, was a Dec 6, 1923 - Oct 29, 1924 in 1834. lieutenant in the second Mr Thomas Oakley (U) Wellington troop in 1798. A John George Weld-Forester, (1879 - 1936) partner in the and Lawley whose family seat had been Oct 29, 1924 - May 30, 1929 Dothill Park until the move to ironworks, he lived at Ketley Hall Willey Park in the mid-18th from 1818 until his death in 1842. Miss Edith Picton-Turbervill (L) (1872 - 1960) century following marriage, William Anstice of Madeley May 30, 1929- Oct 27, 1931 became 2nd Baron Forester in Wood Hall inherited a share in the 1828. He had become a lieutenant Madeley Wood Company from his Colonel James Baldwin-Webb (C) in the South Shropshire Yeomanry uncle, William Reynolds, in 1803, (1894 - 1940) Cavalry in 1825 and captain the the same year that he became a Oct 27, 1931 - Sept 17, 1940 following year. He remained in the captain in the second Wellington Mr William Arthur Co!egate (C) Yeomanry until his resignation in troop. (1884 - 1956) 1859. Thomas Jukes Collier, a Sept 26, 1941 - July 5, 1945 St John William Chiverton Wellington wine merchant with Mr Ivor Owen Thomas (L) Charlton, who succeeded to the interests in the coal and iron trade (1898 - 1982) Apley Castle estate in 1838, was an in the Wombridge area, became July 5, 1945 - May 26, 1955 officer in the Dragoon Guards lieutenant in the first Wellington before becoming a lieutenant in troop in 1804. He was later in Mr WilliamYates (C) (1921 - 2010) the South Salopian Yeomanry business in Newport. May26, 1955 - March 31, 1966 Cavalry in 1859 and captain two Joseph Reynolds, half-brother Mr Gerald Fowler (L) years later, a position he held until of William, was a partner in (1935 - 1993) his death in 1864. Wellington’s first bank in 1805 and March 31, 1966 - June 18, 1970 His uncle, Philip Charlton of manager of Ketley ironworks until Dr Anthony Trafford (C) Wytheford Hall, had been a cornet 1816. He became a cornet in the (1932 - 1989) (1822) in the Shrewsbury South Shropshire Yeomanry June 18, 1970 - F eb 28, 1974 Yeomanry Cavalry and lieutenant Cavalry in 1822, resigning when it Mr Gerald Fowler (L) (1835) in the South Salopian underwent amalgamation in 1828. (1935 - 1993) Yeomanry Cavalry. - . - . - Feb 28, 1974 - May 3, 1979 With the setting up of police forces INDUSTRIALISTS Mr Warren Hawks!ey (C) across the whole country by the Richard Emery of Burcot House, (1943 - ?) middle of the nineteenth century, Wellington nailmaker and lessee of May 3, 1979 - June 11, 1987 the Steeraway limeworks, was the need to ‘call out the Yeomanry’ Mr Bruce Grocott (L) (1940 - ?) promoted within the officer ranks no longer existed. The last time June 11, 1987 - May 1, 1997 of the first Wellington troop – that the two Shropshire Yeomanry cornet in 1795, lieutenant in 1798 Cavalry regiments were called out Mr Peter Bradley (L) (1953 - ?) and captain in 1804. He continued was in 1842, to deal with May 1, 1997 - May 5, 2005 suspected Chartist agitation. The as captain in the South Shropshire Mr Mark Pritchard (C) regiments were amalgamated to Yeomanry Cavalry until 1828, the (1966 - ?) form one county regiment in 1872. year before his death. May 5, 2005 - www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 3 HARRY HAMPTON Dave Weston

oseph Henry ‘Harry’ Hampton goalkeeper went off injured and (1885-1963), famous footballer there were no substitutes in those Jand International, was days. There were some strong born in Wellington. He was the tackles and Harry and another fourth child of five in Henry and player were suspended afterwards Selina Hampton’s family, which for an ‘unspecified incident’. lived in Bury Yards in 1891. His His tremendous goal-scoring father was a wood sawyer. By 1901 record at Villa was as follows: only Harry and his brother George 1904-05 28 matches 22 goals were still living at home when the helping Aston Villa win the FA family had moved to 16 and 17 Cup Glebe Street. 1905-06 35 matches 20 goals Harry became a wood turner 1906-07 30 matches 21 goals and married Kate Mary 1907-08 30 matches 19 goals Hannaford in June 1906 at West 1908-09 31 matches 9 goals Bromwich. By 1911 Harry had 1909-10 35 matches 29 goals ‘afraid of no-one, his strong, forceful, becomes a professional footballer, helping Aston Villa win the determined play was appreciated by living at 32 Anderson Road, championship plenty of fans. He was the idol of the Erdington, Birmingham with Kate 1910-11 35 matches 21 goals Villa Park faithful fans, Hampton was and daughter Beattie and a 1911-12 36 matches 28 goals robust in the extreme. He often barged servant. 1912-13 38 matches 30 goals the goalkeeper’. On one occasion he He started his footballing helping Aston Villa win the was able to barge the famous 22 career with a number of local FA Cup stone goalkeeper William Foulke clubs, including Shifnal Juniors, 1913-14 35 matches 24 goals over the goal-line. (Foulke was Hadley and Lilleshall Iron Works 1914-15 32 matches 19 goals before making his debut for born in but played for Despite his goal tally, Harry Wellington Town on 19th Sheffield United and Chelsea). was overlooked for international September 1903 (away to Walsall On February 25th 1920 he matches, perhaps due to his in a Birmingham League match, received a free transfer and signed physical style of play. However, on which Wellington lost 1-3). for Birmingham City FC in the 17th March 1913, he was selected During the 1903-04 season, he second division where again he to play for England against Wales. made 24 appearances and scored was a success. He played for two England won 4-3 with Harry 16 goals (although some records years there, scoring 31 goals in 57 scoring one of the goals. for scorers are missing for then). matches. In September 1922 he In April 1913 he scored the He transferred on a professional transferred to Newport County winning goal when England beat contract to Aston Villa for the where he played only 14 matches, Scotland 1-0. He played a further large sum of £120 in April 1904. scoring two goals. two internationals, giving him a The 1904-5 season at Aston He returned to Wellington record of 4 international caps for Villa was a great success: the club Town January 1924, playing 5 England and scoring 2 goals. The finished fourth in the first division matches and scoring five goals war interrupted his international and reached the FA Cup final at before retiring as a player. Records career but he did play in the Crystal Palace where, in front of a confirm that Harry played 29 ‘unofficial military international’ crowd of 101,117, Harry scored times for Wellington Town scoring against Scotland in May 1916 at both goals in a 2-0 win over ‘at least’ 21 goals. Goodison Park in front of 22,000 Newcastle United. He then took coaching when England beat Scotland 4-3 Nicknamed ‘Happy Harry’ and positions with Preston North End with Harry again scoring . ‘The Wellington Whirlwind’, in 1925 and Birmingham City in Enlisting for the Great War in Harry had a great goal scoring January 1926. After completely 1915, Harry served in the Somme record at Aston Villa and to this retiring from football, he moved to and suffered from the effects of day he still remains the top scorer Rhyl where he ran the Carlton mustard gas poisoning which of all time with 242 goals in 372 café.and died, age 77, in 1963. damaged his lungs. He was never matches. He also played in the Sadly, there is no memorial in the same player after the war. His 1913 FA Cup final for Villa when Wellington to this great footballer goal tally was: Sunderland was beaten 1-0 in ... but he is still remembered at front of a crowd of 121,919. 1918-19 3 matches 5 goals Aston Villa. 1919-20 7 matches 0 goals Harry was a ‘physical’ centre [With thanks to Maurice Barker, forward but in this match he had The Who’s Who of Aston Villa official historian to AFC to play in defence after the Villa book describes Harry Hampton as United, for his help.]

4 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 NOTICE BOARD OUR PUBLIC TALKS 2013–2014 All talks begin promptly at 7:30 and are held in Wellington Library WELLINGTON unless otherwise advised. Admission is free but donations are invited. PUBS APPEAL * * * Wednesday November 20th Allan Frost is writing a book JIM COOPER: JOHN SLANEY, WELLINGTON WINE MERCHANT on Wellington’s Pubs and * * * Hotels. Please get in touch with him if you have any 2014 historical information, price Wednesday January 15th lists or other paper TOBY NEAL: WELLINGTON IN THE NEWS memorabilia such as photos of * * * pub scenes and events – inside Wednesday February 19th and out – like sports from Speaker and subject TO BE ANNOUNCED darts and dominoes to boxing * * * Saturday March 1st and football. MARKET CHARTER DAY His contact details are Watch local Press for details of how this toll-levying Charter email: [email protected] will be commemorated in Market Square. ‘phone: 01952 299699; address: 1 Buttermere Drive, * * * Wednesday March 19th Priorslee, Telford, TF2 9RE. BRIAN NELSON: SHREWSBURY–NEWPORT CANALS TRUST All items sent will be returned * * * ... Every little helps! Wednesday April 16th PAUL LUTER: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF KETLEY * * * HELP US – PLEASE! Wednesday May 21st We know from experience that folk like RICHARD LANGTON: POLICING IN WELLINGTON you have old photos, event programmes, town directories and * * * Saturday June 14th even school, club and society Visit our stall from 10 o’clock onwards in All Saints parish magazines and newsletters hidden away in the darkest recesses of their churchyard at WELLINGTON’S MIDSUMMER FAYRE homes. We also know that, unless when we hope to sell the latest Wellingtonia magazine copies are taken now, there’s a danger * * * that they will be thrown away or Wednesday June 18th destroyed ... and lost forever. ALLAN FROST: A VISUAL CRAWL AROUND OLD PUBS Please help us preserve whatever piece * * * of Wellington’s history you happen to Wednesday July 16th have by letting us borrow it (or them) PETE JACKSON: HISTORY OF WELLINGTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB for a few days so that we can take 7:30 at the Buck’s Head Football Ground Learning Centre copies. Rest assured, your originals Donations after this talk will go to the football club’s current will be returned to you unharmed. charity appeal rather than for History Group funds. Our secretary (details below) awaits your call or email ... * * *

HISTORY GROUP CONTACT DETAILS Other officers of the Wellington History Group committee are: President: George Evans. Please address all correspondence to: Chairman: Geoff Harrison. WHG Secretary: Joy Rebello, 6 Barnfield Crescent, Wellington, Telford, Shropshire, TF1 2ES. Treasurer: Wendy Palin. Tel: 01952 402459. email: [email protected] Wellingtonia Editor: Allan Frost. DISCLAIMER: Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press. Wellington History Group cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, nor do opinions expressed necessarily reflect the official view of the Group. All articles and photographs are copyright of the authors or members of the Group and must not be reproduced without prior permission and due credit. www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 5 DICKSON MONUMENT Phoebe Farrell

e’re blessed in this area Wales at the time. There is no and around the country inscription of his death on the Wwith historic churches of monument but he appears on the all shapes and sizes which I’m parish burial records of 1892 as sure many of us enjoy. But how does his wife in 1895, so it is many of us wander round the sensible to assume that they were churchyard and cemeteries? Not both buried alongside their me. Or not until I completed an children and other family assignment for my Masters to members who are named on the analyse the decay of a stone monument. monument in All Saints parish church in Wellington. The one I chose to investigate was the Dickson family monument located behind the water that has weakened some church. It is one of the few stones, causing them to crumble remaining large scale monuments and de-stabilise the base, as would in the churchyard after a clear up dismantling it on numerous was done in the 1950s when it was occasions to allow bodies to be converted into a Garden of Rest Its current condition is fairly inserted into the vault below. and handed over to the Urban poor, although most of the District Council. During this decoration survives. The base in conversion, headstones were particular is in a bad state, with moved and re-erected around the several bits of stone missing and perimeter and ‘where possible’ what appears to be a section from notice was served on the owners a railway track sticking out at of the larger vaults and either end. It would be nice to monuments. This was common think that this is a ‘nod’ to practice across the country due to Dickson’s link with the railway changing attitudes after the Great industry, but it’s more likely to There are no steps or other War that dismissed the previous have been inserted due to the close visible method of getting into the approach of celebrating death and proximity of the station and used vault, and it was not uncommon building ostentatious monuments to help support the monument. to disassemble the whole structure and commemorations. when bodies were added. This Consequently, churchyards have movement would gradually create been ‘tidied up’ in recent years, larger gaps. Another contributing reflecting a modernist rejection of factor could be from the Victorian aesthetics and an movement of ground and possible embracing of an American From indents in the base stone, subsidence when the churchyard influenced lawn design. it appears to have once had was transformed. John Dickson was a railings which were popular There seems to be no record of distinguished member of the through the 1800s. Metal still exactly when the monument was Victorian community of remains in the recesses which may constructed as the earliest death Wellington, a railway contractor have been removed for scrap inscription date may not match and local businessman as well as recycling during WWII. when it was erected. The Diocesan being a close friend of Alfred Conservation-wise, along with Office has confirmed that there are Darby I. His company ‘John obvious signs of old age – no original drawings as there was Dickson & Co.’ owned the discolouration, peeling paint, no need at that time for a ‘faculty’ Shropshire Works and employed lichens and moss – there are also (permission) to be obtained – you 150 men according to the 1851 some serious structural issues. bought your family plot and that census. He built several railway There is a complete loss of mortar was that. lines around Shropshire, the in the joints, huge pieces of stone Conserving these monuments Midlands and later Wales, often are broken or missing, roots seem in a sensible way is just as using his own money, to be growing through the gaps important as conserving old consequentially being declared and the base stones are uneven. buildings, although sadly not bankrupt twice in his career. There could be a combination of many people think that; hence the Dickson died at the age of 73 and reasons, including the general lack of maintenance and was living in Mumbles, South decay of the stone, and ingress of continuing decay.

6 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 With regular maintenance and some TLC this could have been LOCAL AUTHOR’S CENTENARY Neil Clarke avoided. The monument has community had grown up. The heroine, who significance, not only emotionally worked in a chemist’s shop in but also socially: many Datchet (Dawley), had a doomed inscriptions relating to the deaths relationship with the manager of of young children may indicate the ironworks at Thorpe mortality rates at the time. (Horsehay); and there were visits Then comes the issue of to the cinema in Meynell ownership – ultimately, the (Wellington) and to Happy Valley responsibility of maintenance lies (?) ...’the farther side of Datchet, with the family, but most relatives where the coal mines were hideous may be long gone or don’t want to black growths even in the darkness, take it on. and fearful girls did not venture after Does responsibilty then rest lighting-up time if they could avoid with the church or the Council? A it’. survey of the churchyard, with Following wartime service in representatives from Telford & the Women’s Royal Naval Service Wrekin Council and the Diocese Edith Pargeter was born on (WRNS), for which she was Advisory Committee, carried out 28th September 1913 at Horsehay, awarded a British Empire Medal, in 2004 highlighted the Dickson where her father was a clerk in the Edith formed links with monument as worth saving; fitting shop at the local ironworks. , translating suggestions were made to repair She was educated at Dawley literary works. it. Alas, this has not happened Church of England School and After she moved to Madeley in because of lack of finance. This is (below) High School 1956, she continued her the problem in so many for Girls. Leaving school in 1930, prodigious output of work, conservation projects, including she had a brief spell as a eventually writing over 70 books, those concerning gravestones and temporary clerk in a Labour mostly novels with historical or monuments because they are Exchange before becoming an mystery themes. considered a lesser priority than assistant and dispenser in Though she had several the fabric of the church itself. Bemrose’s, the chemist in Dawley different names as a writer, it was A great deal of work would be High Street, where she stayed for not until 1959 that she first used needed to fully repair the seven years, living in a terraced the pseudonym Ellis Peters. She monument as well as those in cottage in nearby King Street. The published the first of the Brother worse condition around the above photograph of Edith was series, the work with churchyard. taken at the chemist’s in 1936. which she is mostly associated, in After making it into a public She was an avid writer from an 1977; and she went on to write 20 space (which is full of people on early age; her first novel more stories of the medieval sunny days) it seems that the Hortensius, Friend of Nero, was sleuth of churchyard’s origins and historical published in 1936 and the before her death in 1995. structures have been neglected, background to her second novel, The previous year she was overlooked or disregarded. The Iron -bound (also published in awarded an O.B.E. in recognition grass is regularly mowed but the 1936), is set in the area where she of her services to literature. same care doesn’t extend to the (sometimes dangerous and unsafe) monuments. Fortunately, in recent years there has been an increasing number of ‘Friends of …’ churchyard and cemetery groups who help to promote the beauty of these outdoor spaces. Next time you see a church or cemetery, take time to look around and appreciate these elegant monuments. They tell their own personal stories about families, local communities, as well as showcasing the talents and styles of stone masons and changing attitudes towards death and religion. www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 7 WELLINGTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB Derrick Moore

AFC Telford United has recently become a ‘champion for dementia’, to which end the club has done work related to its history and the memories of supporters. As part of that, the following two articles appeared in the club’s programme.

PART ONE s our underlying theme is memories and the past, I thought that it would be A Wellington Town F.C. 1882-3, the season in which they won the Shropshire Senior an appropriate occasion on which Cup – their second success in the competition inaugurated in the 1877-8 season, to try and clarify a couple of when Shrewsbury Town were first holders of the trophy. Included in the team are points about our predecessor John (later Sir John) Bayley, Percy Pratchett, son of Lieutenant-Colonel Pratchett club’s very early days. who is also in the photograph. Lieut-Col. Pratchett was a keen follower of the club The first one is the connection in those days. One of the outstanding players of that time was full back Joe Wilson. between the football team of He could kick the length of the pitch, and was described by Mr. W. Roden (also a Wellington Parish Church Institute player of that time) of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, as the finest full back he had and Wellington Town Football ever seen. ‘I have never seen one to equal him since,’ he said. The names in the Club. photograph are: Back row (left to right): C. Kendrick, Billy Birch, Alf Weston, Dick The Institute was founded by Nicholls, Joe Wilson, Col. Pratchett, Alf Jones. Second row: Herbert Robinson, W. Reverend Benjamin Banning, and Roden, P. Pratchett, Harry Hodgess, Billy Meredith. Front row: John Bayley, Tom the Wellington Journal of 14th Bradshaw, George Scarratt. December 1872 reported on an inaugural meeting. a manner of speaking’, and that the point, and that relates to home Other references tell us that the Wellington team contained ‘a grounds. Institute also had cricket and number of faces’ who formerly In the first years, it seems that horticultural sections. It did not composed the ‘PCI’ team’. home fixtures were played on a take long for the footballers to However, my researches into 1879 pitch in Leegomery Road, become active, for the Journal failed to find a more definite Wellington, ‘kindly loaned for the reported that in March 1873 the connection between the two, and I occasion by Mr Shepard’; Springhill; Institute played matches (home became indebted to an article in and Admaston. There are also and away) against United Civil the Journal on the 18th May 1930 regular mentions of pitches at Service (Shrewsbury) and the Old to confirm matters. Street Lane and Haygate. Hall School. The item was a report of a Now, this is where a little The PCI team, as it became jubilee dinner to celebrate the family history comes in useful. known, continued to play matches fiftieth anniversary of Wellington My grandfather, Bill Robinson, until Wellington Town Football Town. It took place in the Ercall told me he could remember, when Club announced its presence in Assembly Room (attached to the he was still young enough to be 1879. There are references to Ercall Hotel), Wellington, and Mr wearing a smock (which I took to matches between the Town team Harold York, the president, was be a child’s country gown – the and Shrewsbury Ramblers, chairman for the evening. He said point is that he was quite young), Shrewsbury Engineers and he had been present at the first seeing his uncle Harry play for Wellington Blues. match played by Wellington Town Wellington Town on a field at Then, on the 26th November when ‘the club changed its name Barnfield Farm (opposite The Old 1879, Eddowes Journal (a from The Parish Church Institute’. Orleton). Shrewsbury weekly newspaper) That is good enough proof that the My grandfather’s memory contained a report of a game, ancestry of the club goes back to should have been accurate because played at Eyton, between the 1873. he was born and raised at Town club and Scarlet Runners, The same article in the Journal, Barnfield Farm, which was Shrewsbury. The item tells us that in fact the same speech by the owned/tenanted by his father. both teams were new, but only ‘in president, also clarifies a second My late mother could also

8 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 remember a field at the farm being identification to Wellington Town School on ‘a field kindly loaned for called the Football Field. I am Football Club. I think that Judy the occasion by Mr Shepard’ in confident that, as the farm is Meeson and I have Leegomery Road. opposite the southern end of (independently) come to a similar 2. In March 1874, there was a Haygate Road, this would be the conclusion. game versus the YMCA ‘on a field pitch that reports called Haygate. In Judy’s words, ‘when it no opposite Dr Rider’s.’ As to Street Lane, that was the longer remained purely an activity for 3. In February 1875 a fixture name my grandfather and my the ‘spiritual and intellectual versus Trench took place at Spring mother often gave to the section of improvement of its younger members’ Hill. Holyhead Road that lies between the club broke away from the church 4. The game against Trinity Haygate Road and Ercall Lane. and became a town-wide football (Shrewsbury) in October 1878 took Anyhow, I think that the club’. place at Street Lane. chairman’s speech in 1930 clarifies In the early years of Wellington 5. The venue for Wellington the point, because he stated that Town club, reports of attendances Town’s match against Scarlet the club had played at Haygate of upwards of a thousand are not Runners (Shrewsbury) was Eyton. (i..e. Barnfield), then at Admaston uncommon, and it would not be (A report of February 1880 tells us and later on the Red Lion ground stretching the imagination too far that a field, possibly the same one, (Street Lane). to suggest that the popularity of was ‘kindly lent by TC Eyton’). It seems to me, then, that the the PCI’s team had taken over the 6. In October 1880 a game pitches in regular use in those Institute’s original purpose. took place at Haygate – possibly days were at Eyton, Barnfield We need to bear in mind, also, Mr Taylor’s, or Barnfield Farm or Farm/Haygate, Admaston and at that the population of Wellington the Red Lion or Street Lane etc.). the Red Lion/Street Lane was much smaller than it now is, There are then frequent references (Holyhead Road). which indicates that attending to Haygate. football matches was a rather 7. Also in October 1880, an * * * * * popular pastime. away fixture was played at the PART TWO Judy Meeson’s information also home of Wellington Blues. I he recent activities in throws some light on (or, wonder whether that was the connection with historical alternatively, rather muddies the present-day Buck’s Head ground. Tmatters (as a result of which waters in relation to) the early 8. Spragg’s Recreation the club has been awarded the grounds. It records the fact that a Ground, Street Lane, is mentioned. distinction of being a champion on Mr Taylor had loaned a field at 9. September 1888 witnessed behalf of dementia-related Haygate. As my great-grandfather the move to a new ground at illnesses) have certainly stimulated Robinson owned/tenanted Admaston Spa, but it was a interest. Barnfield Farm (my grandfather change of surroundings of which As a result, I am indebted to watched his uncle Harry Robinson the Wellington Journal did not Judy Meeson, who is an archivist play for Wellington Town on a approve. It commented, ‘The field at All Saints’ parish church, for field there), it suggests that can scarcely be said to be a good one. very valuable information on the Haygate and Barnfield Farm were Not only was the grass far too long, relationship between the football different venues.* the field of play was very uneven, and team of Wellington parish church We can also throw into the mix it certainly requires a lot of levelling Institute and Wellington Town that matches were reported as before it as good a piece of ground as Football Club. having taken place at Street Lane the old one. The field was, however, The Parish Church Institute (i.e. the present-day Holyhead capitally fenced out; the spectators was accustomed to publishing a Road); Spragg’s Recreation being kept away from the touchlines’. magazine, one of which Ground, Street Lane; the Red Lion * * * * * (November 1879) states that ‘the pitch (referred to in a speech by [The photograph on the previous football club, led by Mr Walter the then chairman to page shows the Wellington Town Corbett, in addition to winning a commemorate the fiftieth team in 1882-3, with my number of matches, has placed a small anniversary of Wellington Town in grandfather’s Uncle Harry on the sum to the credit of the Institute. The 1930). extreme left of the middle row!] thanks of the Club are due to Mr It occurs to me that it is Taylor, of Haygate, for the loan of his possible that the pitches at the Red * * * * * field’. Lion and Barnfield Farm were one * Editor’s note: This statement is It seems to me that this was and the same, but that remains correct. Mr T Taylor owned (as his effectively an end-of-an-era report, conjecture at this point. family had for a substantial number of because Wellington Town Football Nevertheless, reports of the time decades by this time) the building Club had taken over the mantle of indicate that the following known as Haygate Farm. In the past, it the PCI in the same month. grounds were used: had had other names, including the Two thoughts come to mind in 1. A match took place in Royal Oak, the Haygate and the Falcon relation to this information. One March 1873 against the Old Hall Inn – several of which were closely is the reason for the change of associated with stage coach services. www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 9 ART DECO AND MODERNISM Phil Fairclough

Shropshire cannot compete with the ‘Poirot’ examples but we do have quite a collection of Deco buildings in our county.

WHERE ARE THE DECO BUILDINGS LOCALLY? In the photograph above, you can see the shielded car headlight, a wartime precaution to prevent enemy aircraft spotting the car from above at night time. Glass bricks were a favourite of the 1930 Deco builders and we were fortunate to have a good ne of the most creative example in the former Boys’ periods in our architectural Grammar School (latterly Ercall and design history, O Grove Street, St Georges Wood Technology College): strangely neglected now, was The most significant collection is during the 1930s. People usually in the most surprising location, think of this time as one hard to find unless you know.. dominated by poverty, There are seven classic Deco unemployment, strikes and war houses in Grove Street, next to but it was also one of the most each other, built by George exciting time in the development England a local man who planned of new artistic styles which a further 23 houses there in the embraced new building design, same style. This would have made London Underground stations and it a site with more deco houses posters, clothing, jewellery, than anywhere else in the country, cinemas and glamorous cinema rivalling Frinton Park Estate in sets, pottery, ship, car and aircraft Essex. design. Surprisingly the Grove Street This new universal style was houses were not built in the 1930s. known at the time as ‘Moderne’ The foundations were laid in 1939, but is better known today as ‘Art only seven of the planned 30 Deco’. It was perhaps the first time houses were completed in 1947. that a single style had so much influence over such a wide range Wellington Centre The Clifton Cinema (below, of products, a few of which appear Wellington's former Rural District until recently occupied by Dunelm in the far column. Council office on Tan Bank (top of Textiles and now standing empty), Anyone who watches the next column) was built in 1939. was built in 1937. Poirot programmes on ITV3 will It was then a single story There are moves to restore it recognise the style in many of the building displaying typical Deco and create an Arts Centre for the buildings and interior decoration. windows and stepped recessed The spectacular Midland Hotel, doors, flat roof and a white pillar Morecambe, Lancashire (below) is on the classic frontage. sometimes used.

10 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 town. Let us all hope the Shelton Road, Shrewsbury have flat roofed white stucco rendered committee succeeds in this two fine examples of domestic thirties Deco buildings, but there exciting venture. houses but the most dramatic is are many features in ordinary The foyer at the front will the one next to the Catholic 1930s semis that reveal the become a cafe and could be Church in Henley Road, , a influence. redecorated in the original pink stark contrast with the Basilica 1. Sun Ray design on doors and Deco style. church next door: eaves, as on these Hadley houses:

Iron Bridge Power Station

It was not just buildings that 2. Coloured window glass, captured the excitement of the chevron design. Deco style. 3. Stepped recessed doors with canopies. 4. Sun trap window glass (curved glass at each end of window). 5. Metal ‘Crittall’ window frames, (made by Crittall The original power station was Company of Essex). completed in 1932. All excepting 6. Corner windows straddling the water pump house, was pulled two walls. down in the 1960s to make way Highly collectable pottery from 7. Port hole windows and for a much larger plant. The pump Clarice Cliffe (above), Susie rectangular windows house has some Deco features Cooper and Charlotte Rhead, all geometrically arranged. with the stepped top of the front trained at the Burslem Art College, 8. White outside render. facade (compare it with the are very sought after now by 9. Green glazed roof tiles. Wellington Spiritualist Church), private collectors. In May 2013, the geometrical pattern of two Clarice Cliffe candle sticks OPEN TO THE PUBLIC? coloured bricks and the long sold at auction in Newport, Very few major Deco houses are narrow rectangular windows. Shropshire, for £400! open to the public. The full scope It was a universal style. Radios, of the style can be seen in hotels Spiritualist Church, furniture, even the humble like the Midland in Morecambe. junction of Regent/Watling Street, vacuum cleaner were given the There are a few houses which Wellington sun ray treatment sometimes are open: decorated with shiny aluminium 1. Coleton Fishacre, Kingswear, or chrome ‘go faster’ stripes. Devon (National Trust). 2. Eltham Palace (interior), Greenwich, London (English Heritage). 3. Hoover Building, Greenford, Middlesex (a Tesco supermarket now, but front and side still have original features). Although built much later, the 4. Highcroft House, Dartington pale render on the front, the (National Trust). lettering style and the stepped top frontage follow the 1930’s style. So Dancing girl statues, like those many men were lost in the First shown above, were produced in and Second World Wars that bronze, nude or nearly so, in very people flocked to spiritualism at stylised poses. Buy them quickly if this time in an attempt to contact you see one ... they still seem to be their lost sons and husbands. shooting up in price. Other buildings of interest in the locality are in Shrewsbury and WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Ludlow. Oakfield Road and It is very easy to spot the classic www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 11 DOTHILL PARK Allan Frost

here have been a few articles about the Dothill estate Trecently in other publications. We have been asked to clarify a few aspects and provide some more illustrations. The correct name for both the estate and its principal house was always Dothill Park, not Dothill Hall or Dothill House. Dothill House was the name given to what had been known as Dothill Lodge which lay on the northern side of the road which now curves round where Whitchurch Road joins North Road. Dothill Park Farm (later just Dothill Farm) was the name given to the farm buildings which lay immediately north of the main Dothill Park residence. Dothill Manor was the name given to the pre-Conquest house and surrounding estate. The original property was enlarged at various times and parts rebuilt Grange on Red Hill had one. Full In addition to farm workers, Dothill until the Georgian-style complex or partial moats were often created Park relied on resident gardeners to seen in photographs (including around Medieval manors as a provide a steady supply of vegetables those shown here) resulted. basic form of protection against and fruit, as well as to maintain A date stone set into the south intruders. Orleton Park still has formal flower beds. Billy Little (seen facing side of the segment which the remains of one, for example. below with his wife, and opposite in sits between the highest portion Furthermore, a ditch between the photograph of the south-facing and the lowest building the flower garden and the adjacent garden wall near the Park Pool, in the (supporting the conservatory) bore field was simply a ha-ha, the late 1930s) was the last. Peaches were the date 1642, confirmed building ditch-and-bank device used to grown on the wall next to the lean-to work done at that time. separate grazing land from formal conservatory at Dothill Park itself. At no time was Dothill Park a gardens at many country houses. castle; there has never been a In 1734, Lord Forester had two licence to crenelate the former grassy hillocks created, one on manor house, as was the case at each side of one of the pools, for nearby Apley Castle. Without such spectators to watch such permission, Dothill was forbidden entertainments as water jousting. to fortify the manor house. Dothill was owned by the Lord Sometimes the existence of a Forester for many years before the moat or earthwork is cited as Groom family occupied it from the evidence but remains of an early 1890s (Richard Groom died apparent earthwork to the there in 1893, aged 75). immediate east of the house (see Some time after Ernest Groom, the 1929 map above) was probably the last of the dynasty to occupy nothing more than an enclosure the Park, died of a coronary for cattle and sheep to prevent thrombosis at the family timber them straying before being taken works on 22nd August 1944, the (for example) to market or for property was owned by the slaughter. Wrekin Brewery Coy. Ltd. Such ‘raised bank enclosures’ Wellington Urban District Council were common from Iron Age times acquired the Park in 1956 with a right through to the end of the view to building housing estates eighteenth century: Watling Street and schools. Which it did.

12 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 Silage pit DOTHILL FARM

DOTHILL PARK FROM THE WEST

Park Pool

DOTHILL PARK

The Dovecote

DOTHILL PARK FROM THE EAST

South-facing wall and garden

Billy Little’s cottage

1642 date stone

Above: Dothill Park c.1890s. Phyllis Little (left) and May Little (right) outside their parents’ cottage (date not known). www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 13 saw the initial definition of gibbet THE WELLINGTON GIBBET Wendy Palin as ‘a gallows’ but reading on there was a second description of ‘an upright post with an arm on Similarly, Allan Frost could not which bodies of executed help, except to point out, quite criminals were left hanging as a correctly, that Wellington Courts warning or deterrent to others’. did not have the power to pass a This must have been the nature death sentence; therefore, it would of the gibbet I had been told be unnecessary to have a gibbet. about. (WHG Special Paper 2, Hangings were carried out on page 2 refers to another gibbet that the gallows at Old Heath, I calculate was somewhere near Shrewsbury until 1795 when the the Apley Arms just north of site was relocated to above the Wellington.) As the practice of Gatehouse of the prison. Public gibbeting was outlawed in hangings continued there until England in 1834 it is no surprise 1868 from which point criminals that little is known of our local met their end inside the prison gibbets. walls. My gibbet had existed at some Several years passed and I point on the road from Wellington volunteered to give a talk for the to Shrewsbury. Group about the part of my family Here is the story from James that had Wellington roots, the Turner’s Notes of the events of 1723, Turners. In the short time I have veryone likes a spooky story 290 years ago, more or less as it been working on my family tree, at Halloween and when we was written in 1872. one thing I have learned is that were young my sister and I ‘Robert and William Bolas were E families tend to be large and I were no exception. As we engaged in breaking into a barn to have often gleaned information travelled along what is now the steal some wheat which William from distant relatives or locals ‘in B5061 past Overley Hill, my Matthews and Walter Whitcombe the know’. mother would tell us of the tale of were defending on behalf of their In this vein, Jim Cooper the gibbet that stood along the masters. Robert Bolas was executed at brought a document to my Shrewsbury for the murder of the turnpike road near Uppington. attention, The Journal of James men, and was afterwards gibbeted in a The exact location was unclear Turner 1854-58. I borrowed his field abutting on the turnpike road but she was repeating what her copy and read it from cover to near Uppington. Father Thomas Turner had told cover. Sadly, this fascinating ‘Sometime after this event, some her having heard the tale when document was about a totally young men were drinking at the spending time in the village of different Turner family that was Horseshoe Inn at Uckington, when a Aston as a boy, staying with based in Wrockwardine. However, wager was made with a young man relatives. it did contain a story that present that he durst not go to the On joining Wellington History intrigued me because it referred to gibbet and ask old Bolas how he felt. Group (WHG), I told George the gibbet on the turnpike road. ‘The young man set out on his Evans the tale but he had no How could this be? errand, but another of the party, by a knowledge to back up the story. Reaching for the dictionary, I nearer road, got to the gibbet first, and The Horseshoe Inn at Uckington, as it was in 2006 concealing himself behind it, awaited the arrival of the young man, who mustered just sufficient courage to put the question, “Bolas, how are you?” when he was answered in a sepulchral and tremulous voice, “Cold and chilly.” ‘The fright of the young man on hearing, as he supposed, old Bolas speak, may be easily imagined; he set off at the top of his speed and immensely frightened, on his way back, his fright being accelerated by another of the party leaping after him from a hedge on his road home, loaded with chains. It is said that the fright was the cause of the young man losing his reason.

14 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 ‘Further detail reveals that Bolas’ body was stolen by his friends and PLAQUE ‘TRIGGED’ Allan Frost taken to the river Tern , weights were tied to it , and it was cast into a hole near Duncott, still called Bolas’s Hole, Folk walking to the but, saith report, nothing could make summit of The Wrekin Hill it sink. Ultimately the authorities had often touch the trig point near it replaced on the gibbet. the summit (the highest point is This event gave rise to a Shropshire saying “I am like Old actually a few metres to the Bolas, cold and chilly.” Heard in 1830 north east) as a sign that in Canterbury, uttered by a native of they’ve ‘made it!’ Yet few take the London area, according to The the trouble to read the two Salopian, Aug 24, 1872.’ small plaques fixed to the This story leaves me with a column sides. One plaque number of new questions about the crime and the gibbet location; simply states ‘This monument the search for answers is on-going. forms part of the Ordnance For the record, William Survey’s National GPS Network’; Matthews’ murder left a pregnant the other includes a tribute to a widow. He was buried in the man who, like many of us, had Above: Andrew on a New Street south west corner of Wellington’s Methodist youth club hike, early a strong affection for the hill. All Saints churchyard (near where 1960s. Below: The memorial plaque. the Lych Gate now stands). The grave is no longer there, Andrew Rochelle (1942-2006) had but in 1872 a record of the not long retired from his job as a inscription read: surveyor for the Ordnance Survey (OS) when he died while exercising in a gym. June 18th 1723 Very much a Shropshire Lad, Andrew was born in Leegomery Here Lieth the Body of and joined the Ordnance Survey After Andrew died, the idea of WILLIAM MATTHEWS, after leaving Adams Grammar a plaque was mooted by Neil who was barbarously school, Newport. Dewfield, a former colleague. As Murdered by ROBERT BOLAS Following training at far as we know, the memorial and his accomplices. Southampton, he worked plaque on The Wrekin Hill trig successively at Sutton Coldfield, Also William point is the only one in existence, his son aged 29 years Wick (where wife Wendy enlarged and is an indication of how well the family with son Christopher Andrew was regarded. 1770 Margery and daughter Sarah), West The plaque was installed in his wife aged (blank) years. Malvern (for the Satellite Tracking December 2006 in a touching Unit), Haverford West, Stafford ceremony attended by OS Burial records show the burial and, finally, Wellington where the colleagues, ladies from Leegomery took place on Jun 21st (an affidavit OS office occupied the floor above WRVS cafe where Andrew had delivered). the HSBC on the corner of Station worked in retirement, and The inscription was ambiguous Road and Market Square. members of his family. and this led to speculation in the late 19th century that Bolas had murdered all three family members, but inspection of the church records show that the couple were married in Nov 1722 so had not been married a year when William’s life was taken. Margery died almost fifty years later. Their son lived until 1752, when he died aged 29. * * * * * There will be more to report on Left: Ordnance Survey engineers fix Andrew’s plaque to the side of the column. this story in the next issue of Right: Ordnance Survey colleagues toast a respected colleague with his favourite Wellingtonia. tipples: Old Pulteney single malt whisky (from Wick) and Martell Cognac. www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 15 were essential to improve the 50 YEARS AGO: 1963 Joy Rebello/Allan Frost railway network and guarantee its future; in fact, the (hidden) agenda was to promote road transport and The following reports increase the number of motorways in the long term. appeared in the Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury APRIL News at various times Local authoress Edith Pargeter is during 1963. presented with an ‘Edgar’ (a ceramic statue of Edgar Allan Poe, whom some consider ‘to be the JANUARY father of the detective story’) Motorists, however, had to awarded by the Mystery Writers of contend with severe delays to America. traffic along the A5 and country Edith’s novel, written under lanes waiting for tractors to move her Ellis Peters pen name, Death stranded vehicles out of the way and the Joyful Woman, had been and clear the roads. serialised in the Chicago Tribune, and made into a film by Alfred MARCH Hitchcock.

MAY Major refurbishment of the The Gas Board moved into a ‘fine’ Charlton Arms under the showroom in New Street: management of Mr. & Mrs. R. Baldwin does much to raise the hotel’s status. The cocktail bar (above), and the newly-created Open Road lounge bar were just two areas to benefit. The hotel had just been added to the RAC’s list British Rail chairman Dr. Richard of Appointed Hotels. Beeching’s plan to restructure the British rail network included The weather was cold enough to withdrawal of these services: warrant a mention: it was the Local stops (Admaston, Walcot, coldest January since 1948. Upton Magna) between Wellington and Shrewsbury; FEBRUARY Wellington–Stafford; Wellington– Boys at Wellington Grammar JUNE Crewe. The Wellington–Much school made their own skis. The Midland Bank on the corner Wenlock route was already closed. Members of the school’s Ski Club of Station Road and Market All was not what it seemed. (below) tried them out on the Square was proud to reveal its Beeching’s duplicitous ministerial slopes of their playing fields. totally refurbished and announcements said the changes modernised premises (below), complete with all the latest banking facilities for the comfort and benefit of customers. The Midland Bank was formed in 1908 following the absorption of the North and South Wales Bank

16 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 which had previously occupied the site.

JULY/AUGUST

You can often tell when town planners have outlandish and hideously expensive ideas: they persuade councillors to raise SEPTEMBER The firm ‘believes in high speed public awareness of, for example, service’ and delivery vans were congestion and untidiness fitted with radio telephones. problems – and the wonderful ideas they have to solve them. NOVEMBER So it was in 1963 when Dramatic improvements to Wellington Journal ran reports of emergency 999 calls came when how bad the traffic problems in the Wellington telephone exchange New Street (above) had become. was upgraded to include an How long would it be before automated system. expensive plans would appear? Midlands Electricity Board’s DECEMBER As it happened, no time at all. products had instant appeal to The weather made headlines again Urban District Councillors women. In an exhibition at Wrekin at the end of the year. apparently voted ‘unanimously’ in Hall, new equipment meant Mr. & Mrs. C. Rigby and their favour of a drastic redevelopment ‘lighter work in the kitchen for son Paul, of Severn Drive, made a of the town centre (see plan above meal preparation, cooking, snowman in their garden: right, which included a bowling laundry and washing dishes.’ rink – very popular at the time) Naturally, disinterested men only which would have destroyed had to pay for all this wonderful much of its architectural heritage. stuff ... Commonsense prevailed, assisted by a stark realisation that Vernon Cooper opened a new someone would have to pay for it. electrical shop at 33 New Street The one aspect which was (below), selling all the latest clung to like a lifebelt was the idea designs under the slogan, ‘Try in of a Ring Road. Every town worth your own home first.’ its salt had one. The fact that it was utterly inappropriate for Wellington and would act as a noose, stifling future commercial development, was ignored. Then as now, town planners and councillors don’t always see things as normal folks do ... www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 17 Relief of the poor in earlier WORKHOUSE OR ALMSHOUSE? Geoff Harrison centuries was the task of the Established Church through the parish, where a Poor Rate was The Established Church was levied to support the work. In the ‘local authority’ of the middle addition people of wealth often ages until the legislation of the gave donations to alleviate the nineteenth century which began to suffering of the poor. set up and develop what we may Church records, often the Glebe recognize as present day secular Terriers, provide some evidence. local authorities. In the growing Wrockwardine Glebe Terrier 1845 – centres of manufacturing there ‘Benefactions: Edward Pemberton’s were but a few small parish bequest towards setting forth and A modern photograph of a workhouse churches; the origin of the town binding an apprentice every third where the environment has been would have often been a small year, orphans being preferred; Thomas sanitized. Crown copyright 2007. village church, and these could not Ore left £2 to the poor not dependent possibly cope with the huge influx on the parish’. ur picture of the of poor families migrating to find In All Saints Glebe Terrier we workhouse is no doubt the work, which they mistakenly read ‘Benefactions; Richard picture of Oliver wanting believed could provide better O Steventon in 1658 gave £10 pa. to the ‘more’; that story by Charles financial rewards than working on poor ... Walter Marygold of Dickens was a deliberate attempt the land. Leegomery gave £1 pa. to the poor on to portray the workhouse as a The state had to intervene to Good Friday; Roger Pavier gave £4 place to avoid, but the simple encourage the development of for the poor on Easter Monday ...’ truth is that ‘Life was meant to be workhouses. In 1782 an Act of This tradition of benefaction – much tougher inside the workhouse Parliament permitted parishes to those with wealth giving to the than outside, and the buildings combine to provide for a ’proper’ parish poor – has a long history themselves were deliberately grim & workhouse but many parishes and almost always was rooted in intimidating - they were designed to preferred to act independently in ‘buying salvation in the afterlife’. look like prisons. They were full of providing for their poor. Further Fulk Eyton who died 1454 left a illness and disease brought about by legislation in 1834 compelled will, the earliest Shropshire will to over-crowding & the starvation diet’. parishes to unite into ‘unions’ to survive written in English and the This purpose of the workhouse deal with the poor and set up early part is certainly focused was a response to the perceived workhouses. upon his afterlife; there is a great ills of the time, the nineteenth Our local area was not one of deal of instruction as to the ‘dirges century, when each person knew the new centres of manufacturing and masses’ which were to be said their place in society and what such as Manchester, Birmingham, for his soul. ‘... that there be taken was expected of them; the poor Sheffield and others; the relief of my best goods for to say five thousand worked or starved. Poverty was a the poor changed little, yes there placeboes and dirigies, and five social disease and the sufferers was a workhouse but often the thousand Masses and for every dirigie were responsible for their own local parishes did their best to aid and Masses fourpence’. fate. Legislation was put into place the poor in the traditional manner. In the latter part of this will he so that each Poor Law Union The Established Church was not makes a bequest to the almshouses would ‘look after its own’; this totally ignorant of the situation. As at Tong College, in return the simply codified what was already with any local authority, the almsmen are to say De profundis at available; there had been ‘poor church wanted to know about his grave. Such concerns of the support‘ from the parish for their ‘region’ and in 1772 the wealthy with their afterlife had led centuries but it appears that with Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry to the foundation of almshouses; the migration of farm workers and sent out a questionnaire (below, Tong College was such. their families from the country to right). And one of the questions Almshouses were often places the industrial manufactories in concerned the provision for the where the persons in religious dirty, grimy, unplanned crowded parishioners; the response is from orders had the care of ‘deserving’ towns the destitution of the poor the Parishes of All Saints and became more pronounced. Eyton (left).

18 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013 poor; in the case of Tong College, the poor of a locality, at those from but essentially the exterior is as it which had been established by certain forms of previous employment, was a century or more ago. Lady Isabel de Pembrugge, wife of or their widows, and are generally We have just cause to be Sir Fowke Pembregge, there were maintained by a charity or the impressed; the images speak for five priests and two clerks caring trustees of a bequest’. themselves, but to emphasis their for thirteen paupers. Preston Hospital was built on architectural merit some words of three sides of a quadrangle, the praise. Hall in the centre and each wing providing accommodation; women on the west wing and the young girls in the east wing. The Hall was originally a school room during the week and a chapel on Sundays. Living conditions could not have been further removed from More locally we have another the inmates of a workhouse; the prominent almshouse; Preston girls were schooled and prepared It is ‘probably Shropshire’s most Hospital (see photos on this page). for a life beyond the Hospital, architecturally distinguished The almshouse at Preston was instructed in the skills suited to almshouse’ and, in the opinion of endowed by Catherine, the widow domestic servants particularly Pevsner, ‘one of the most impressive of Lord Herbert. In her Will of relevant in a rural environment, Georgian almshouses, both grand and 1716 she left money to purchase and were expected to go into sober’. land in Shropshire and to build an domestic service: ‘whatsoever could Further historic accolades almshouse for 12 poor women and make them useful servants’. include ‘most princely’ of Georgian 12 poor girls. It is said that the gift The women were each almshouses, ‘splendid but cheerful was a thanksgiving for her provided with living and friendly with a generosity of deliverance when lost in the Alps. accommodation of a bedroom and proportion and detail’. The money was in trust to her a parlour, together with a small A final comment from Buildings brother Lord Torrington and three garden; and each received a of England (Newman & Pevsner other trustees. A few years later stipend, coal to heat their 2006): ‘At the beginning of the Lord Torrington made land accommodation and a bedding eighteenth century public architecture available at Preston upon the and furniture allowance. was barely an identifiable category in Weald Moors to build such an What of the building? If you the county {Shropshire]. In almshouse under the guidance of have not been along the road to Shrewsbury the Goal, 1705, looked the Trustees. He himself provided Preston, you must. Trustees sold much like an ordinary street house ... money to build the Hall. the property recently, using the The one exception ... Preston-on-the- The donated money was wisely money raised to provide more Weald-Moors Hospital, 1720-6, where invested by the Trustees both in suitable and modern generous endowment and a confident commercial enterprises and in accommodation for the recipients architect, probably Francis Smith of land and property; as a of their care. Warwick, produced a building not consequence what had been an The buildings have not been only large but grand and in the almshouse for 12 women and 12 altered externally but are now forefront of architectural style’. girls was able to provide for 20 luxury apartments, the brickwork women and 20 girls after but a few has been cleaned, or so it appears * * * * * years. The widows were chosen initially by nomination and selection by the trustees on the basis of personal recommendation but they had to be aged 60 or over, members of the Church of England and to have ‘been of good station in life, though of reduced circumstances in old age’. Almshouses are not workhouses, but in some ways are complementary. ‘Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people (typically elderly people who can no longer work to earn enough to pay rent) to live in a particular community. They are often targeted at www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com 19 MORE 1963 IMAGES

Right: Headmaster J.L. Morgan-Jones with prefects of the Boys’ Grammar School, Golf Links Lane, 1962-63.

Wellington Carnival Queen 1963 with her attendants. From the left: Sandra Buckle, Vera Hensworth, Susan Sheard, Patricia Gainham and Norma Gregson.

The Wrekin Beacon, seen in the cold Members and officials of New Street Methodist Youth Club on their annual winter of 1963. holiday, this time at in Devon at Ilfracombe, 1963.

Headmistress Ethel Barnes and prefects of the Girls’ High School, King Street, 1963-64.

20 Wellingtonia: Issue 15: Second Half 2013