Wellingtonia FREE ISSUE! Issue 4 : Summer 2009 Newsletter of Wellington History Group, rediscovering the past of Wellington in

IS THE END NIGH? IN THIS ISSUE ****************** ot for the moment, it isn’t. Page Our Awards For All grant 2. Town Names (for which we have been N What’s new? Pussycats? 3. Market Matters most grateful) has enabled us to produce four issues of How does a night club fit into 4. Life in Little Russia Wellingtonia ... but, thanks in part Wellington’s history? SEE PAGE 13. 5. Journalist’s Chronicle to your recent donations, we have 6. Wartime Rationing enough to pay for a fifth issue. Having said that, it’s been a lot 7. Geomorphology Due out in October (please see of hard work ... not just for our 8. Passage to ? the back page of this issue for committee but also those who details), the bonus Edition will be have offered or been persuaded to 10. Homes fit for Heroes? devoted entirely to aspects of contribute articles and illustrations 11. The Green Wellington’s Victorian history. for the magazine. We’ve received 12. Old Sites, New Faces Schools, in particular, should find many comments praising the high 14. The Foresters it useful to their curricula but it quality and wide range of topics 15. Photo Feature will also be aimed at our usual covered, both in the magazine and readers, whatever their age and our public talks. And we’ve been 16. Wellington Amateurs wherever they happen to live. able to help quite a few folk with 17. New Bus Station What happens after October their own research, some of which 18. Coloured Glass depends entirely on whether or has been difficult at times. But at 19. John Thomas Carrane not we manage to obtain a further least we’ve done our best. 20. Happenings grant; Awards For All have Finally, we knew before we advised us that they are unable to started Wellington History Group Contact Details provide continued funding so we that there’d be a lot of people are looking elsewhere. Please keep interested in the history of other memorabilia you may have your fingers crossed or try to find Wellington, Hill and in your possession. Our research a generous benefactor who can The Weald Moors. What we didn’t needs whatever help you can give spare a few thousand pounds ... anticipate was just how quickly to improve our knowledge and and let us know who it is! Wellingtonia would fly off the understanding of Wellington’s rich Under the terms of our Awards shelves at our usual library, shop history. For All grant, we contracted to and newsagency outlets. Please bear us in mind when produce four issues of Wellingtonia By the way, if you missed any you come across items of local free of charge to both schools and of the issues, we can email copies interest. Even the results of the public. We have. in .pdf format for you to pass on research into your own family tree We also promised to present a to friends and family elsewhere in can be useful ... providing, of series of free-to-attend public talks the world ... all we need is an course, there’s a connection with on subjects related to our area of email address which has a our areas of interest. interest. We did. broadband connection. We’ll let you have details of our We also offered to help schools Whatever activities and events plans for 2010 in issue five, so and individuals. We have. we promote during 2010 won’t make sure you get a copy. In the All told, it’s been a good year. affect our appeals for information meantime, enjoy issue four ... and We hope you think so, too. for the loan of photographs and thanks again for your support!

Produced with financial support from Awards for All When Arleston was built, many TOWN NAMES George Evans names were needed. The council went for Royal names like Kingsland, Kingsway, Windsor, lace names are often houses, a practice that’s dying out Charles, Princess, etc. changed. Sometimes it’s easy (though I have named each house There is John Broad, after a Pto mistake their meanings we lived in). Sunnycroft is a good Town Clerk, Churchill and two and origins. I was once lectured example. The Priory was vicars, Hayes and Abbey; a about the origin of ‘Strine Close’. originally the Vicarage; when it reference to the Festival of Britain ‘This proves,’ I was told, ‘that was sold it was renamed, though I and the founder of Wellington there must have been a stream believe it had nothing to do with College. here in olden times’. Priors. My grandparents’ address Pubs sometimes have Well no, it doesn’t prove that at was, ‘Slaughden, Wellington, interesting names like the all. When the area was being Salop’, though Slaughden was a Oddfellows, after a friendly developed by Wellington Urban semi-detached house in Victoria society, and Bacchus, though District Council, the Surveyor, Avenue. everyone I know called that ‘Dicky Arthur Barton, asked the Do you know where 18½ Street Parkes’s’. Why on Earth was the Chairman of Planning (me) to Lane was? It was the Union Raven renamed Rasputin’s to the think up suitable names. Workhouse on Holyhead Road. annoyance of many? Haygate has I sat down with a map of Nobody wanted to have The nothing to do with dried grass; it’s Shropshire and chose names of Workhouse on either their birth or a gate into the deer enclosure, as is rivers and streams. These were death certificate, so this was an Wickets, a smaller gate: no accepted but were not enough, so I alternative. It’s now Wrekin connection with cricket. produced a list of Shropshire Nursing Home. When Councillor Paul villages. If you live in the Dothill Street Lane was a Roman road Woodhall died in office as Mayor, area of Wellington you now know – probably called Via Londinium the Wellington Town Council how Strine Close, Clunbury Road by them because it went to requested a street to be named etc., were named. Blame me. London – and Watling Street by after him. Wrekin Council did, but Readers may know that the the early English, but when outside the Wellington boundary. sites of Ercall Junior and Barn Thomas used it for his They refused to change. Farm Schools are being road to Holyhead its name The biggest question of all is redeveloped following their changed. the name of the ‘New Town’. Most demolition for reasons I am unable The Normans even had the locals wanted to keep it as to understand. The street names I audacity to re-name The Wrekin or use the name Wrekin. We might have suggested to the Town ‘Mount Gilbert’ after some ‘holy’ have tolerated its intrusion better. Council are as follows: Axon, hermit of theirs. Naturally it But the Minister concerned Keith, the architect who designed reverted to its proper name when decided to exercise his authority Barn Farm Estate; Barton, Colonel English became the official and name it after a Scotsman. Arthur, Surveyor; Rushen, language again. Telford isn’t a popular name; Reuben, Town Clerk, and Buttrey, A slum area at the back of High perhaps it served the developers’ Cliff, Headmaster of Princes Street Street, Parton Square, was purpose in diverting attention and School for a very long time. All renamed New Square, though investment from the existing these are worthy people who everybody still called it Little towns, Wellington, , contributed to the area. Will they Ireland. Back Lane is now King Dawley and Madeley. be used? Do you think that they Street and Belleview Road is Never mind, dawn is breaking should? Constitution Hill. Cart Road has and Telford & Wrekin Council I wrote a little on names in a become Bank Road, Dun Cow now talks about Borough Towns. previous Wellingtonia, when Lane is Duke Street and Swine Hurrah! commenting about Allan Frost’s Market is Bell Street. Names do matter after all. historic map. It’s an interesting line of inquiry and there’s only room for a little of what I know and don’t know. I live in Barnfield Street signs need to be Crescent and would like to know accurate. Sadly, the sign for if it was named after Richard Greenman Close off Mill Barnfield, the Shropshire poet, Bank has lost its historic whose most famous line was, meaning by the omission of ‘Nothing is more certain than a space between ‘Green’ and uncertainties’. Of course there may ‘Man’. It’s supposed to refer have been a barn in the field – I to the former existence of the don’t know. Green Man pub. Will the Victorians often named their Council rectify the mistake?

2 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 MARKET MATTERS Allan Frost

uch has been made of the already had a thriving and Market Charter of the prosperous market which had Myear 1244 granted by been in existence for centuries; King Henry III to Giles of most likely it began when people Erdington, lord of our manor. living in farms around the village The actual charter is held in the came to attend services at the National Archives and the extract original Saxon church. relating to Wellington is shown in What could be better than the centre of the illustration below. combining a visit to church with a As with all legal documents of the chance to sell surplus produce and causing too much congestion to time, it is written in Latin and make a little extra money? (horse drawn) vehicles and contains many standard Giles didn’t simply want to pedestrians. It was, apparently, a abbreviations often found in formalise Wellington markets: half-timbered structure with Medieval documents. what would be the point? arches and an upper floor used for

Sylvia Watts, who gave a talk at No, Giles’s charter gave him public meetings and manor court. the conference we hosted in May, the right to levy a toll on animals Thereafter, a new Town Hall has provided this translation of brought into the town for sale. Yes, was built (possibly in 1842) along the charter: the market charter sanctioned Market Street, itself to be direct taxation, whereby the lord superseded in the 1864 when the Charter for Giles of Erdington of the manor could expect regular present Market Hall was built. He has a wholly similar charter having payments to fill his coffers, all for In 1841, The Wellington Market free warren in all his demesne lands of a small fee paid to Henry III to Hall Company acquired the right Shawbury and Besford which is a legalise the arrangement. to collect tolls permitted under a member, having a market at his manor Whereas it is likely that all later market charter dated 1671. in Wellington every week on markets originally took place on During the mid 1850s, John Thursdays and having a fair in the and around the village green, in Barber regularised the conduct of same manor every year to last three time the location moved livestock auctions at his own days, to wit on the eve and day of southwards into what became Smithfield and collected the tolls Barnabas the Apostle [11th June] etc. Market Place (now Square). for the Market Hall Company (for Having etc. Wherefore we wish etc. Eventually, it is believed, rows a small commission), an Witnesses: H. de Bohun, Earl of Essex of temporary wooden stalls near a arrangement which continued and Hereford, Peter of Genene, Robert pool at the junction of Walker after the Market Hall Company Passelewe, John Maunsel, John de Street and Tan Bank became more built a larger Smithfield on the site Lexinton, Paul [surname missing permanent structures and, by the now occupied by Morrison’s because of a tear], Robert de Muceys, late Middle Ages, formed the supermarket. Livestock auctions William de Cheenay, Richard de buildings between Bell, Crown ceased in January 1989. Clifford, Geoffrey de Childwic. Given and Duke Streets. At some point, it Nowadays, Wellington Market by our hand at Marlborough 29th day seems that the selling of various Company holds markets on of February. forms of livestock was separated Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and from sales of foodstuffs and other Saturdays. People naturally assume that, wares. Markets were seldom cancelled because this is the first market A market hall was erected in or suspended; a rare example is charter for the town, a market Market Place during the when an outbreak of ‘Cattle didn’t exist before 1244. This is seventeenth century and may have Distemper’ in 1751 and 1752 led to completely incorrect. replaced an earlier structure. This the closure of markets until the Giles wanted the charter hall seems to have been Wellington Cattle Plague Inspector precisely because Wellington demolished around 1805 as it was allowed them to resume.

3 LIFE IN LITTLE RUSSIA Joe Judson

t’s 1944, war time in England. overlooked a field with an air raid My parents lived in London shelter which divided the older Iand decided that it would be part of the estate from the newer, a safer for me to be left at Harvey kind of boundary you could say, Crescent, the so called ‘Little so in the summer time the kids off Russia’ part of the Arleston estate the estate played there. Swings and home of my grandparents. see-saws and roundabouts were They were both in their 60s, erected in the 1950s by the council: had reared ten children and had great fun as we waited our turn to one son at home and were also have a ride on one of them. looking after a granddaughter ... The people on the estate were and now me. I am 2 years old, friendly enough. As time passed, I knew little of this being so young, roamed all over the new parts of nor that I would remain there for the estate where there were flat the next 16 years. roofed houses, tin houses The old part of the estate as it (Wimpey houses as we called was then consisted of Harvey them), so there was a mixture of Crescent and Windsor Road, built different designs. in the 1930s. The estate expanded So what lay on the outskirts of Young Joe with his gran Nellie Judson over the years and would this part of the estate? There was in wartime Harvey Crescent. eventually end over the Dawley Arleston Lane, including its Everything that wore out was Road and up to Limekiln Lane . ‘monkey tree’ ,that led to the A5 utilised for other things. Furniture My family had come to the from the Bucks Head to the was purchased from Pattersons estate from the Black Horse Yard Queens Head along Bennett’s sale rooms in Market Hall and got in King Street, as did many who Bank; opposite that was Summers delivered by horse and cart. had lived there. Living in Harvey Yard, the rubbish tip and Ketley The years rolled by and I had Crescent was a new beginning for Dingle. Behind that was the Allied obtained my education at Prince’s them all, and thus remained Iron foundry and a huge sand pit. Street and the Secondary Modern. neighbours. I wonder what they All these places were explored I started my first job and we now thought of these brand new by us kids and, yes, we rummaged had electricity and an old houses and, perhaps more around and lugged engine parts, television set, and a new fire place. importantly, the conditions they’d tyres, wheels, rolls of silver paper, I also had good friends here, old live in previously. I don’t know and wood. Our parents weren’t at and young alike. There were more where the rest of the neighbours all pleased and lectured us on the cars on the road and the Midland came from. dangers that lay in these places, Red bus travelled through the All the houses looked pretty and told us off for bringing all this estate at 12.45 p.m. each day. much the same to me. We had rubbish home. Did we go there It was now time for me to three bedrooms, living room with again? Of course we did! leave. My grandfather had died pantry and a big cast iron fire When winters were harsh, the some years earlier, my cousin had grate complete with oven and hob tiny iron-framed windows would got married and moved on, and with the fire burning in the centre. be frozen on the inside,but life my gran had just passed away. So The kitchen (complete with the seemed to carry on as normal. the house was emptied of its modern appliances of that time, Johnson’s ‘Red House’ in High contents and was ready to be including an old gas cooker,, gas Street wagon would come selling handed back to the council, boiler with a hinged lid, tap and a hardware. Mrs. Cooper came with My parents asked me to go red rubber gas pipe, dolly tub and the milk, Bob Farmer with his back home with them but I a mangle) led off to a bathroom. basket of bread, Perry and Brayne politely refused, for this was the The toilet was outside in an alley with the coal. only home I ever knew. I gathered adjoining the coal house. The rent man would call and my belongings and closed the gate Lighting was by gas lights with yes occasionally we wouldn’t behind me, leaving this house and mantles that broke at a touch, answer the door (no money). the memories it held behind. I candles and oil lamps. Coal and Pennies were saved to feed the gas walked down the bank and wood were used for heating and meter. At night time, through the through the estate to my cousin’s sometimes cooking. Being so gaps in the houses opposite, you home by the old oak tree in young, I had nothing to compare could see the red hot steel bars Kingsland. this way of life to. skimming across the floor at So, after all those years The houses in the Harvey Haybridge Steel works and the growing up in ‘old’ Little Russia, I Crescent and Windsor Road lights of Sankeys factory. ended up living in the new part.

4 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 JOURNALIST’S CHRONICLE Mike Greatholder

areers advice was not high photographer by the name of Bill on the syllabus at Haddock who ran his own CWellington Grammar business in Tan Bank. School in the 1950s. Mary and I shared a pokey Most of the pupils who were little office while Bill had a very not destined for university went to impressive room all to himself. Sankeys, Allied Iron, C and W The first thing that Bill did was Walkers, the Haybridge Steel welcome me onto the paper and Works or the local council or tax say that his door was always open offices. None of these excited me. should I require assistance. I was an avid reader of William It was always open because it Connor, who wrote a column was made of hardboard and under the pen-name, Cassandra, cardboard and every time the front in the Daily Mirror. Week by week office door was opened and a lorry I devoured every word he wrote went down New Street the with people at perhaps the most on national issues, politics, draught used to blow Bill’s door difficult time of their lives. personalities and the more down. It was that sort of office! Around 1960 the company important facts of life such as how I was given the task of decided to close the office in New to keep a bonfire burning for a collecting and writing up the Street and as the staff was just Bill week or the sound that cabbages Wellington paragraphs which Dumbell and myself, we found make when they growing in the meant that at a certain time on a ourselves working from home. allotment. certain day I would call to see – A typical day would begin with I just wanted to write. the Conservative Association, the us meeting outside the post office In the months that preceded Labour Party, the local youth in Walker Street (because it had a my school leaving in 1957, my clubs, the whist drive organisers, wide window sill) and sorting out parents happened to be having a the ministers at all the churches all the copy we had typed up at quiet drink in the Haygate pub in and all the local schools to get home the night before, and putting Wellington with a family friend, details of what they had been it on the 9.20 a.m. train to Fred May. Fred was a compositor doing during the past week. , where the parcel on the Shrewsbury Chronicle and on That was when I first met a would be collected. We then went being told that young Mike young teacher by the name of into the YMCA canteen and wanted to be a journalist soon George Evans whose job it was to ordered two cups of tea while we arranged for me to have an keep Wellington informed of the sorted out who would be doing interview with the paper’s editor, goings on at Prince’s Street School. what for the rest of the day. It the fearsome Jack Cater. As time went on George expanded could be magistrates court, Jack was a newspaperman of his influence into the realm of paragraph work, council meetings, the old school. When I was being cycle training and road safety and water board, etc. Unfortunately interviewed I unfortunately then gently eased himself into the the YMCA secretary didn’t take happened to call him ‘sir’. I was world of local government. kindly to two itinerant journalists told in no uncertain terms that I On other days of the week I hijacking one of his tables for a could call him, Jack or Mr. Cater, went to Oakengates, Dawley, couple of hours and we would be but not sir, as I was not in the Ironbridge, Madeley, collecting thrown out. We would meet up ******* army. paragraphs and covering the local again in front of the post office to I must have done enough to council meetings. Our circulation pack up our news parcel for the prove my credentials because I even covered and 3.20 p.m. train and then, after was taken on as a part-time trainee . another cup of tea if the YMCA reporter in the Wellington office, Another of my tasks was to call secretary was busy, make our way earning £1 a week, plus bike at the local undertakers and get a home to type up copy ready for allowance of 2s. 6d. list of folk who had died. I then the next day. The Wellington office of the had to call round and see the next This went on for quite a while Shrewsbury Chronicle was in New of kin and write up an obituary. until a national newspaper strike Street, next to the Duke of Then I would either wait at the saw Bill move to pastures new in Wellington pub, almost opposite church door on the day of the Worcester and Mike Greatholder, Sidoli’s Café. funeral and get a list of mourners, an indentured trainee reporter, The Wellington staff consisted or call round at the house later. being called over to work at the of me, my immediate superior, Not a job that a reporter today has Shrewsbury Chronicle head office at Mary Smith and the chief reporter to undertake (no pun intended) Castle Foregate, Shrewsbury. Bill Dumbell. There was also a but it really taught me how to deal But that’s another story.

5 upside: householders were urged WARTIME RATIONING John Westwood to grow their own fruit and vegetables, and most did so, with others keeping chickens as well. artime rationing leading to an under-supply of The high wire netting chicken pen descended upon white bread (many’s first choice) was a common sight in many back WWellington and the rest and an over-supply of brown. gardens. of Britain towards the end of 1939, From memory, our family Another rationing ritual (which a month or so after I was born, registered for grocery purchases possibly did not catch on nearly as and continued, on and off, for the with Mr. Giles’s tiny shop well as vegetable growing) were next 15 years, by which time it had opposite the Chad Valley toy British Restaurants, run by the become the accepted way of life. factory in High Street. He served local authorities. Oddly enough The first casualty of the urgent in the shop, Mrs Giles dealt with (very oddly) food served in any need to conserve supplies was matters in the family dwelling at restaurant, private or State-run, petrol. Food rationing followed in the rear. They were constantly went unrationed. If you had the January 1940. It was not the first busy, thanks to their extensive wherewithal, you could eat out all time the British people had been flock of registered customers and the time although, even at the asked to endure shortages. There the need to weigh and wrap Ritz, no meal was allowed to be had been rationing in 1916, when almost everything. Mr. Giles priced at more than five shillings. German u-boats launched a seemed unable to cease quick- British Restaurants were a relentless Great War campaign to stepping sideways up and down Ministry of Food gesture to sink merchant ships carrying behind the front counter, provide a modicum of social and essential supplies to the U.K. weighing, bagging, packing and nutritional relief in hard times, but As World War II unfolded, yakking, as grocers commonly did the meals offered, understandably, Britain realised it was again in those days. tended in most cases to lean vulnerable to attack upon its Surprisingly, as a boy growing heavily towards the ordinary, plus merchant shipping, sharpened by up with rationing, I never went there were restrictions on the the fact that the country imported hungry and, apparently, people number of courses allowed, which 70 per cent of its food supply – no were healthier than they had been themselves were limited in content less than 55 million tons per year, in times of greater plenty – they and presentation. including half the meat ate less meat/fat/sugar, and yet I recall Wellington’s Robin requirements, 70% cheese and rations per person still amounted Hood British Restaurant housed in sugar, 80% fruit, and about 90% of to 3000 calories a day, more than what reminded me of an ex-army cereals and fats. A return to enough to maintain a healthy Nissen hut on the patch of ground rationing was obvious. body mass (it is said that only facing the bus and railway station Anyone over the age of 65 will when consuming under 1750 end of Victoria Avenue. We visited remember ration books, containing calories daily will the average once. Nevertheless, and generally coupons. Each family was issued person lose weight). speaking, British Restaurants had with a book, and was required to Special provisions allowed for their supporters, if not fanatics. A register with a local shopkeeper of fussy eaters (like me). I don’t good, filling, basic feed of three their choice for the strictly know why, but, as a child, I could courses might be had there for controlled purchase of food. never stomach any form of meat, ninepence. Ration books were not a payment so I was awarded an extra cheese Not that fancy food was voucher – they were a means of ration. Imagine my mother’s angst essential to survival. Many were ensuring no family obtained a when I also spurned the cheese; no the times I returned home after greater amount than their coupons wonder I was hospitalised, aged primary school wanting a bite to allowed. Once used up for the three, for several weeks with eat and all I could find in the week, you had to wait until next anaemia. A favourite uncle gladly pantry was bread, dark yellow week before you could buy more accepted our gift of the extra wartime margarine, and HP sauce. sweets, cheese, meat, butter, eggs, cheese, and eventually I recovered. Carve off a slice or two, toast it, bacon, milk, lard, tea, jam, sugar… Horse power made a comeback spread it with margarine (not too Many other commodities were as a result of rationing. The thickly) and swim it in HP sauce – rationed, including clothing, but Government urged traders to it filled you up. fish and chips, fruit, vegetables deliver goods horse-drawn where You can of course still get HP and bread escaped the black cloak possible, to conserve petrol. Ours sauce, even here in Australia, so of Ministry of Food wartime and our neighbours’ bread was, the other day, in writing this regulations. Wellington was no for a time, delivered by a bright article, I tried out my old snack. I better or worse off than anywhere red horse-drawn cab (the local Co- have to admit that after eating it else in Britain. Unrationed though op), which ensured a bonus this time I felt forced to lie down they were, fruit and vegetables supply of garden manure ... by for about an hour with the were often in short supply, as was scooping it up from the street. curtains drawn. flour, especially white flour – often Acting as dung beetles had its

6 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 All Saints church may be on a GEOMORPHOLOGY George Evans man-made mound. Look at it from all angles, preferably ignoring for this purpose the much later ground, however, are man-made his is mainly aimed at railway cutting. It is possible to and this article is mainly about anyone researching local infer that the mound pre-dates the these. In The Wrekin Forest there Thistory. I often grumble that present 1790 church and also the are many small flat clearings, too much attention is given to older church that was built just in marked on the local Orienteers’ documents and published history front of it. Both Laurens Otter in maps as ‘platforms’. Why? Scratch (not that they’re unimportant) and Wellington, a Town with a Past and around and you will soon see not enough notice is accorded to also the Victoria County History of traces of ancient scorched wood. the landscape where events Shropshire, Volume XI infer that They’re charcoal burning sites or, happen. After all, history writers there may have been some sort of as the locals used to say, (including myself) are human; we ceremonial mound there in pre- ‘cockarths’ or coke hearths. Don’t can and do make mistakes. Also Christian times, although there is take my word, go and see. some historical documents (not no documentary evidence to A possible town pond may mine I hope) are biased, support this. have been discovered by noticing exaggerated, misconceived or even Similarly it is interesting to the slopes in Charlton Street, outright lies. As they say, ‘Lies, look at roads and wonder why examining the drift geology map damned lies, statistics and what they aren’t straight. Neil Clarke and spotting clay layers in you find on the Internet’. has clearly been doing this with trenches dug in the road for Asking the right questions the Roman Watling Street and service pipes. I know of no improves your chances of finding Telford’s Holyhead Road (not documents but the physical the best answers. Perhaps the best always the same road). evidence seems to indicate this. It of all questions is, ‘Why?’ That is a Documentation isn’t always may have a bearing on question often asked by children; correct; was our town really Wellington’s early industry and we should never grow out of it. Walitone as it says in Domesday? suggests a connection to the linen Deflating experts is great fun. An ‘Internet Encyclopaedia’ said or hemp trade. So what, exactly, do I mean by once that Wellington was on the Old mines and quarries on the geomorphology? The Concise Welsh border. Telford Ercall and in Birch Coppice, Short Oxford Dictionary says, ‘Study of Development Corporation said Wood, Black Hayes, Limekiln the physical features of the Earth’s Telford was built on pit mounds Wood and Maddocks Hill tell their surface and their relation to its (not a mistake, a deliberate story of exploitation for minerals geological structure.’ The Penguin falsehood). Shropshire Tourism just as much as newer quarries do. Dictionary of Geography says said Wellington had a street These historic sites have a something quite similar but adds, market (it’s not been in the street fascinating story to tell as Neil ‘…sometimes regarded as for over a century). Wrekin Clarke and his colleagues in The synonymous with the older term, Council’s maps marked our local Industrial Heritage Research Physiography.’ Mosque with a cross (how crass is Group in their two publications, My own definition is simpler that?). The Industrial Heritage of the Rural and probably more useful; So when researching history, Parishes Around The Wrekin, Parts ‘Looking at the landscape and remember to take the landscape One and Two have revealed. The wondering why it isn’t flat’. into consideration as well as the mounds, pools and hollows will Yes, I know the Earth is curved documentation. Wonder why the continue their evidence of and that Thomas Telford reckoned terrain isn’t flat. Writers (including palaeogeographic landscapes it was 8 inches to a mile; also that me) make mistakes. there was always water in his provided they are not destroyed canals, level all the way. But it by the threatened opencast The Short Woods to the east beyond looks flat to us little humans mining. Steeraway Farm, 1964. unless there’s a good reason why it’s not. Most of the humps and hollows in our landscape around The Wrekin, including the little mountain itself, are caused by geology. If you want to read more about the geological evolution of this area, (second edition) by Peter Toghill is not only a good geology book; it is also very readable for a layman. Many smaller changes in level

7 All EVWs had to agree to work PASSAGE TO ENGLAND? Phil Fairclough in a specific occupation, chosen by the authorities, for a period of fter the War, Britain was three years, after which they could effectively bankrupt. An do any job they wished and American loan, given remain in the U.K. if they so A desired. They had to be young, fit under quite harsh conditions, was all that prevented an immediate and single. If any of the women financial collapse. The country had became pregnant, they were to maximise the export of returned home. manufactured goods and limit Nikola Novkovic was a soldier imports to build up the U.K.'s in the Royal Yugoslav Army. He financial position. There was one was forced to leave his country big problem. The Cabinet Defence when Tito and the Communists Committee in January 1946 put it took over. He spent two years in very bluntly, ‘We are one million DP camps in Italy and Germany men short of the minimum needed to before being accepted on the EVW revive our export trade. Our situation programme. He was told before he came he would be able to work in is a very gloomy one’. Margareta when in Bavaria. 400,000 German prisoners of forestry in which he had some war (PoWs) were still kept in the Ercall. A large PoW camp at experience. Arriving at the West U.K. in 1946, working in Halfpenny Green accommodated Ratting camp in Cambridge, all agriculture, engineering and road over 1,000 men and women. his group were told they were building but the Government was Margareta Reiss was born in being sent to the coal mines. When under great pressure to send them the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia). they refused, all were lined up by home. Pressure came from the She was expelled in 1945 because the road and told lorries would prisoners themselves who rightly she was ethnically German and, come to take them back to the claimed the war was long over after the war, the Czechs wanted German DP camps. A four hour and there was no legal justification to reclaim this area for themselves. stand off occurred before the to extend their period of With no money, a stateless authorities allowed them back into imprisonment. The Trade Unions refugee, she was sent through six the camp for a meal and eventual and some left wing M.P.s were displaced person's (DP) camps transfer to forestry work in the also unhappy. before arriving in Bavaria, north of Scotland. Later he was They felt PoWs were being unemployed and with no future. It sent to MoD Donnington, living in used as cheap labour, their was then she saw an ‘O’ camp (now Barclay Lodge ). vulnerable status was being advertisement on the wall of the exploited and civilian wage rates Unemployment Office: SUDETEN undermined. By the end of 1946, it WOMEN WANTED FOR WORK IN was decided that Germans should ENGLAND. Although only 17 years be sent home. They left in ever old, she decided to apply; three increasing numbers. months later she found herself at The Government had to face Courtauld's factory in the dilemma of how to plug this Wolverhampton. She was housed widening gap in the labour force. at Halfpenny Green European The scheme they thought up was Voluntary Workers Camp (EVW), called ‘European Voluntary near the airport. She married a Workers’ (EVW). 100,000 men and local man and lives in Dawley. A similar exercise was mounted women were to be recruited from Nikola the continent to work in specific by our Government in the Baltic industries in the U.K. states. They organised a campaign Also based at ‘O’ Camp was The first groups arrived in to recruit single women to work in Ciro Jakovljevic, a soldier from the 1947. They were to be TB hospitals and in domestic Royal Yugoslav Army. He was accommodated in old military service. The reception committee taken prisoner by the Germans camps including those previously that met the boat got a shock. and after release in 1945 went occupied by the PoWs. In our area, They expected poor depressed through the German DP Camps large EVW camps existed at Apley refugees. Instead, well dressed and before coming to England as an Park (on the site of today’s Blessed well educated, beautiful blond EVW. He worked in agriculture in Robert Johnson school), women in expensive fur coats, Lincolnshire before his transfer to Sheriffhales PoW camp and ‘O’ came confidently down the Donnington. Camp Donnington. The main gangplank to start their new lives Emile Mondrey was from documentation centre for newly here. Many did not stay single for Romania. At the end of the war, he arrived workers was at Childs long. was captured by the Russians and

8 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 Left: Ciro Jakovljevic’s passport. Right: Son Marco visits his father’s grave at Donnington Wood. Note the Cyrillic lettering. put in a PoW camp. He managed What were these European wanting to settle as permanent to escape to Hungary but was Voluntary Workers really? Were residents in England? again imprisoned. Finally he they simply economic migrants The government never really decided to escape to the west by here to do a job and then return came to terms with this dilemma, swimming across the river home or political refugees fleeing which still lives with us in our Danube. from persecution or racial hatred, present immigration policies. As an engineer and linguist, he was welcomed on the EVW scheme and was the first of many to gain employment at Sankeys, becoming a foreman and expert on rolling machines. He lived in the Apley EVW camp. He and his Dutch wife Elizabeth moved later to a black and white fronted house on Wrekin Road. This became the unofficial social centre for the Wellington EVWs, always a friendly welcome and the best coffee in town. Emile was universally liked and his death just a few years ago was mourned by all who knew him. Nobody now much remembers the EVWs. There is a small plaque Emile (back left) at a 1960s reunion held at the Red Lion, Holyhead Road. in the Serbian Social Centre in Donnington commemorating their contribution to our economy during those days of austerity. A collection of headstones in St Matthew's Church carved in the Serbian language testifies to their presence here. In all 100,000 people came to the UK under this scheme from a Europe split and destroyed by war. Many were stateless or very fearful to return to the authoritarian regimes of the east. A large proportion stayed after their three years were up and became UK citizens. Many never went back to their homeland. EWVs relaxing at Apley Camp.

9 HOMES FIT FOR HEROES? Phil Fairclough

fter the last war there was about a family a very serious national who had Ahousing shortage. A lot of moved into property in urban areas had been the old bombed and the construction of prisoner of new houses was given low war camp at priority against other vital war Cluddley, just work. With the return of millions off the A5 near of servicemen and the arrival of Wellington. over a million prisoners of war, He and his displaced persons, European brother, voluntary workers and Polish Norman, put exiles, the pressure on the his double remaining housing stock was bed, which George Lewis and the fairground organ he made; immense. Even those who had had been it often appeared in Wellington. given five years’ active service in stored with his mother at Bennetts There were some outdoor taps the forces were given no priority. Bank, across two pedal cycles and for water, the toilets were just a George Lewis volunteered for set off to claim a hut as a squatter. bucket with a seat on the top. The the Forces when war broke out. Norman was already a squatter on huts were heated by a central coke He thought it best to choose where the better quality Arleston Camp burning stove but were always to go rather than just get drafted. so he knew the ropes. cold as the roof was made of His choice was the Royal Army It had not been easy to get the corrugated iron which failed to Medical Corps and as a male bed as they had to save special insulate properly. nurse he went all over the world, coupons from the Government Despite all this, George soon from the retreat from France in before they were allowed to buy divided the hut into a living room, 1940 to the final surrender of the any furniture. They all bore a a bedroom and a kitchen. He also Japanese in 1945. He served in utility mark. got a chemical toilet installed. France, Egypt, South Africa, India When they got to Cluddley, Where the door had been, he hung and the Far East. there was a guard on the gate so an old blanket to keep the wind He came home in January 1946 they slipped through a gap in the out. They had an old tea urn in and managed to find some rooms fence and found an empty hut. which they stored five gallons of with Mrs. Westbury on New The doors had been removed paraffin for the two primus stoves Church Road but when his new and the side windows taken out to used for cooking. The tea urn had wife, Olive, became pregnant with deter squatters but George soon a tap at the bottom making it their first child Keith, they were made it habitable for his wife and easier to access the paraffin. asked to leave as the upstairs flat baby son. It was to be their home The rest of the furniture was was not suitable for a family. They for the next eighteen months. They not easy to get as they had run out were about to become homeless. had another son, Roy, and, of coupons. Like many, a George saw an article in the although both the boys were born sympathetic supplier managed to Express & Star (January 1949) at Wrekin Hospital, their early find some chairs, a table and a years were spent on the camp. sideboard, ‘under the counter and There were about eight huts on at a price’! the site. They had previously It seems that the squatter camp housed Italian and German was soon accepted by the prisoners of war, who worked on authorities. The guards vanished. the land and at the Ercall Quarry. The public health inspector came Each hut had accommodated round to check, the postman about 30 prisoners; now the Lewis delivered the mail and Gough the family had one all to themselves. coal merchant delivered coke for The huts had no gas, no electricity the stove. Just like everyone else, or running water but the George went off to work each advantage was that there was no morning (at Corbett's Agricultural rent to pay. One enterprising Machinery) and returned to his resident found out how to connect hut each evening. the camp to the mains but this All the residents got on well ploy was soon discovered and the and, despite the minimal security power was permanently turned of a curtain for a door, there was off. no crime. His neighbours were the Olive Lewis during the War. White family and the Turners.

10 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 THE GREEN Allan Frost

was dismayed when, at a public meeting to discuss Irepaving plans for Wellington town centre, a vote was taken to decide what constituted The Green. Some thought it All Saints parish churchyard; others, correctly, said it was the small traingular piece of land outside NatWest Bank. The churchyard, despite being levelled and grassed over as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation The Green, from an 1882 map. A Squatter Camp in the late 1940s at Bottom: As it was 100 years ago. Limekiln Bank St. Georges. The huts celebrations, is a graveyard. I still had previously been occupied by feel uncomfortable when secular repaving plans a couple of years Italian prisoners of war. events take place on its hallowed ago, disregard was taken one step ground, but reconcile myself that, further when someone decided Also on the camp lived the in Medieval times, churchyards The Green should be disposed of Edgertons and the Conleys. One of were the centre of many social altogether by the restructuring of George's neighbours was only four activities. Perhaps it’s a neo- Church Street to create a wide years old. George says it was a Victorian upbringing that makes sweep of the road into Queen very happy time with lots of me feel so uncomfortable. Street. freedom and remembers the great The fact is that The Green is the No! This is what happens when fun they all had building the oldest identifiable historic plot of no-one bothers to check the town’s annual bonfire. There may have ground in the town. As such, it heritage. There is no excuse for been a certain stigma attached to should be revered as being the this; there are enough publications living as a squatter but many only definite starting point we and knowledgeable people able to decent people were forced to live have when tracing developments give advice, but lack of knowledge in old military camps during this in Wellington’s long past. by (some of) the powers that be period of great housing shortage. Our ancestors knew that. It was can result in drastic proposals Some camps were highly important for the site, although being made and irreversible organised, usually by ex-members encroached on by peripheral actions being taken. of the Forces, with duty rosters, buildings, to be preserved. What a Our ancient heritage has been formal representatives to the local shame, then, that our own Urban progressively and, at times, council and a recognised authority District Council decided, I believe insidiously chipped away over the structure. Cluddley was not like during the 1950s, that it was a years. What little remains needs this. It was small and very relaxed. suitable place for ... a car park. to be preserved so that future An unsuccessful attempt was How irreverent can you get? generations can understand made to squat at Apley Castle Even more so, apparently. important stages in our town’s Camp (on the site of the present When designs were submitted for development. Blessed Johnson College) but the military strengthened the guards as they wanted it to house European Voluntary Workers. The squatters, however, managed to take over camps at Arleston, ‘L’ camp at Donnington, Mile End at , and High Ercall. It was only with a massive effort to bring in the new prefabs and council houses that the housing shortage was solved and George and his fellow squatters could move out into decent accommodation. He still lives in the house he was allocated by Wellington Urban District Council in 1951.

11 OLD SITES, NEW FACES Allan Frost

Sometime between 1913 and There have been many 1916 he decided to acquire the changes to properties on plots Shakespeare Vaults, then a of land throughout the years. Temperance restaurant, complete Some buildings haven’t with stabling at the rear. Tranquillo bought the property changed much; others have from Margaret Keay, whose family been replaced. Each plot has a owned many buildings in the Sidoli’s in May 1960. story to tell ... town. In time, it became justifiably (mainly male) customers: this was renowned for its cream cakes and at a time when Wellington’s streets SOFIA’S CAFE, NEW STREET delicious ice cream (sold around were unlit, and miserable opular Sofia’s Cafe is run by the town from horse drawn and, husbands sitting in dreary homes Harmoinder Singh and his later, motorised vans). every night could be a dismal Pfamily who came from the experience for the whole family. Punjab in India in 1950. Sometimes known as Keay’s They chose to settle here Vaults or The Shakespeare, the because of the opportunities for 1858 business appears to have had a work as well as it being a pleasant typically high turnover of place to live. In spite of prevailing publicans. Trade directories show economic conditions, they are sure Thomas Jones (1851), Richard Hall there will always be a demand for (1856, who may also have been a a well-run cafe such as theirs in house decorator), Richard Cotterill Wellington, especially as our (1863), Thomas Birks (1868), Market brings many shoppers into Thomas Jones (1870; he may have the town. been the first to provide food as Sofia’s, as some of us recall, Tranquillo didn’t just provide well as alcohol as he’s described as was previously called Sidoli’s drinks, meals and snacks: he was a licensed victualler), his widow Cafe; the name changed when the one of the first folk to show silent Jane Jones (1891), Stanley Duckers Singhs acquired the business in films in a Shrewsbury pub as well (1899), John George Slaney 2004, following the retirement of as in the cafe in Wellington at a Duckers (1900), Mrs. A.E. Rae Ugo Bassini. Ugo’s grandfather, time when trips to the cinema (1901) and J. Hussey (‘Old Tranquillo Sidoli, had migrated were not too common. He was the Shakespeare Restaurant’, 1913). from Italy in the early 1900s to first to import Espresso machines And now the business still work at his sister’s shop in into the U.K., in the 1920s. offering refreshment in this old Princess Street, Shrewsbury. The business was continued by building is Sofia’s Cafe. Tranquillo’s descendants Frank Why not support our local and Angelina Bassini (1936), then economy and a small, family run Ugo, Remo and Angeline Bassini business by popping in for a drink (1968) and finally Ugo and his or snack? wife Rosanna. Until the 1940s, You may become a regular! when wartime restrictions came into force, opening hours were from 7 a.m. until midnight. The property was, in 1840, a ‘spirit shop’ run by David Heans but the name Shakespearean Wine Vaults is first recorded in 1844 as a tavern run by William Keay. In all likelihood it was a gin palace, Sidoli’s, in the 1920s. The large lamp where bright gas still said ‘Shakespearean Wine Vaults’ lamps, sparkling brass fittings and Hayley Watton (staff member) and on its glass panels. light-bouncing mirrors attracted Raja Singh (Harmoinder’s brother).

12 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 1900, a large corrugated iron hut Left: Costas Vanezi at the entrance to had appeared, home to the Whispers wine bar. American Roller Skating Rink. Above: Early 1920s ... the blue cross It became the Rink Picture marks the Grand Theatre, until 1911 Palace in 1911 and was renamed the American Roller Skating Rink. Wellington Hippodrome (1912), Below: A 1913 Picturedrome advert. then Picturedrome (1913) and Bottom: The Grand Theatre in 1960. finally Grand Theatre (1914), VENUS, WHISPERS AND PUSSYCATS, which was rebuilt in 1936 and put TAN BANK an end to rainfall on the old tin o you remember the Grand roof drowning out the sound. Theatre, ‘The Cosiest Cinema As well as showing films, the Din Town’, in Tan Bank? I Grand also staged concert and was a frequent visitor to its much theatrical performances, most sought after darkened rear seats notably by the highly acclaimed during the 1960s, although I can’t Wellington Orchestral & Operatic always recall the films I ostensibly Society during the 1930s. went to see, if you get my drift. The Grand closed in 1975: its Costas Vanezi is a director of owner, Mr. W.I. Wright, had died Medlink Enterprises which owns at a time when cinemas were the Venus Function Suite, losing their popularity. It was sold Whispers wine bar and Pussycats to the Granada chain and Night Club, whose doors opened converted into a Bingo club, which to the public in September 2005. later passed to Zetters Leisure This joint enterprise, as well as Enterprises before it became the being a dance venue for the furniture store ... and burnt down. younger generation, also caters for Costas has revived the site’s private functions and is a meeting reputation for providing a venue place for groups of 30 to 600 folk. for valued public entertainment. It is a great asset to Wellington. Costas migrated from Larnaca, Cyprus, in 1971 and, after ten years in Birmingham, came to the Telford area because he anticipated business opportunities. To begin with, Medlink Enterprises acquired The Silver Fish chip shop, also in Tan Bank, and bought the Grand Theatre site after the building had been destroyed by a devastating fire when it was used as a showroom for a furniture business. In 1840, the extensive site was a ‘Rectorial Glebe’, where John Espley had a small crofter’s cottage fronting Tan Bank. By

13 THE FORESTERS Neil Clarke

Much of Wellington was once the property of the Forester family, whose association with the area goes back at least to the twelfth century. As a result of being rewarded for services to the Crown, of increasing their wealth and of marriage, the Foresters acquired the manors of Watling Street (the original Wellington Haye), Dothill, Wellington and neighbouring estates such as Little Wenlock. Although the family seat moved out of the area when they acquired the Willey estate near Broseley in the mid eighteenth century, the Foresters were still in possession of these local holdings until they were sold in the early twentieth century, and even today own a small parcel of land in the Ercall area. The town’s coat of arms, granted in 1951, includes a horn, which represents the historic link with the Forester family. (above, believed to be as it appeared in the early 1900s). orester is an occupational the timber structure of two storeys The Foresters acquired Dothill name, its bearers in this case that runs parallel with Watling (together with the manor of Fhaving been hereditary Street, in about 1480. The family’s Wellington) from the Steventon wardens of the Wellington Haye, wealth and importance was family. The Steventons, originally part of the Forest of Mount Gilbert greatly added to by Edward’s from Preston upon the Weald which once covered the area successors. Moors, had come into possession around The Wrekin Hill. His grandson, John, a member of the Dothill estate in 1431 when A ‘haye’ was originally an of Henry VIII’s court, was, William Steventon married Alice, enclosure for deer and its name is perhaps owing to poor health, daughter and heiress of Robert perpetuated in the local names of granted the unusual privilege of Horton of Dothill. Haygate and Haybridge. The wearing his hat in the royal In the early seventeenth forestership of Wellington Haye presence and, by the time of his century, a descendant of this was a royal appointment and the death in 1591, had acquired by marriage, also named William, warden’s fee was a grant of a half marriage property at Upton enlarged the late medieval house virgate of land (about 30 acres) in Magna and Arleston. at Dothill, creating a five-bayed the Haye. Around 1620, John's grandson, range together with formal The first recorded member of Francis Forester, built a new wing gardens. the Forester family was Hugh, in onto the Old Hall - the Jacobean He was succeeded in 1647 by the late twelfth century. The wing with its gabled end toward his grandson, Richard Steventon, forestership descended mostly the roadway; and in 1623 acquired whose widowed mother married from father to son and by the late the manor of Little Wenlock from Francis Forester (III). It was the fifteenth century was held by Sir John Hayward. child of this second marriage, Edward Forester. Francis's son, also named William Forester, who inherited It was this Edward, described Francis, was probably the last Dothill in 1659, following the as ‘of Watling Street’, who head of the family to live at the death of his unmarried half- probably built the first part of the Old Hall, for his son, yet another brother, Richard Steventon. Old Hall (below, as seen in 1961), Francis, moved to Dothill House William Forester took a keen interest in politics. He was a supporter of the Glorious Revolution, being made a Knight of the Bath by a grateful William III in 1689, and he represented the Borough of Wenlock in Parliament for many years. Sir William’s immediate successors increased the family’s wealth by marriage: his son, also named William, married Catherine, heiress of William Brooke of Clerkenwell, and his grandson, Brooke Forester, married Elizabeth, heiress of George Weld of Willey, in 1734.

14 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 Brooke left Dothill to live at Willey Old Hall, but returned to PHOTO FEATURE Allan Frost Dothill following the death of his father in 1758. In fact, Brooke was ... and do you need help with the last head of the Forester family e would like to find out identifying people, places and to live at Dothill, and he died there more about the subjects events in your own old town in 1774. Wof these photos. If you photos? We may be able to help. Brooke Forester’s son, George, can help, please get in touch ... the famous hunting squire, was born at Willey Old Hall in 1738 and lived there all his life. He remained a bachelor and, on his death in 1811, Willey and all his other estates, including Watling Street, Dothill, Wellington and Little Wenlock, passed to his cousin, Cecil Forester. It was Cecil who had the grandly Neoclassical new hall built (1813-20) and who was created 1st Baron Forester of Willey in 1821. What became of the two former Forester family residences in the In this photo by W. Cooper-Edmunds of New Street, which engineers are sinking Wellington area? Little is known the ‘New Artesian Well’ around 1910, and where? Is it on Lime Kiln Lane? of the Old Hall on Watling Street in the years following the death of Francis Forester (II) in 1665; but in the early nineteenth century it was leased to Joseph Cranage, who opened a school there in 1845. This continued to be run by his family until 1926, when Ralph Hickman purchased the freehold from Lord Forester. Alterations and additions more than doubled the size of the original house, and a preparatory school continued there until its recent removal to the Wrekin College site. With his son George In this A.E. Bloomer photograph, John Bromley & Sons seem to be sinking established at Willey, Brooke another artesian well. But where? And when? Can you name the people? Forester spent his later years at Dothill House with his second wife and their daughter, Harriet. Presumably they continued to live there after his death in 1774, but eventually, as with the Old Hall, Dothill was occupied by tenants. Extensions and alterations to the property, begun by Brooke in the 1760s, continued during the nineteenth century. Following the sale of the estate in 1918, most of Dothill was purchased first by Ernest Groom and then by H.F. Hodgson, who sold 197 acres to Wellington Urban District Council in 1956. Dothill House was demolished in about Probably taken between 1900 and 1904 by Dyson & Wood photographers at 2 1960, by then a sad reflection of its New Church Road. Mr. Dyson also appears to have been publican at the Red Lion former glory. Inn (possibly next door) at 82 High Street. The picture seems to show the cast of a drama or pageant ... but what is it, where did they perform, and who are they?

15 in Oakengates and offering WELLINGTON AMATEURS Dave Gregory football to a larger mass of people, thereby encouraging more volunteers to get involved with afternoon on a council facility, hen the editor, Allan the running of the club. knee deep in mud or hardened by Frost, asked me to write I suppose the biggest common frost, the game just doesn’t seem Wan article about the factor in the 59 year history of quite so beautiful. history of Wellington Amateurs Wellington Amateurs is myself. I Nevertheless, despite all the Football Club, I said to him, ‘No played as a centre forward for the impending disasters that undo problem, how many words?’ He club from 1962 to 1974 and once I other clubs and conspire to cause said ‘Around 850 will do nicely.’ retired I became a committee their downfall, the Ams have That presents a problem for member and have been with the managed to keep going. They me. How do you cover 59 years of club 47 years. played most of their early football history in such a short amount of But there have been many at the O.D. Murphy facilities in words? So, I must rely on my people who have played for Orleton Lane, once they were journalistic training and economy Wellington Amateurs over the asked to leave the Grammar of words. Here goes ... years and many more who have School. From there they moved to In 1949 the Old Wellingtonian, a served as committee members. Bowring Recreation Park and publication for ex-students of Names like John Allford and Keith eventually to Grainger Road in Wellington Grammar School, Merrington (now sadly both Leegomery, when the County records a request from a group of dead), Geoff Richards and Paul League insisted on ‘better’ ex-students to form a football team Taylor – all four have held facilities. to play in the Wellington & important roles at the club and For the past five years the Ams District Football League. The have been very much part of its have been at their new home at request was granted and the success and longevity. School Grove in Oakengates. At school football pitch made The club has had its successes long last, after years of trying, they available. on the field of play too. After have managed to secure a long So, in the season 1950-51, the playing football in the Wellington lease on a ground, and with the Wellington Old Boys played their & District League for 31 years and co-operation of the T&WC LEA, first game of football. You might winning several cups and league they are developing its facilities. ask why the Wellington Old Boys championships, the club were This has also enabled the club has anything to do with promoted to the Shropshire to form a junior section: the aim is Wellington Amateurs – well, quite County League in 1981. to have junior teams playing at simply, the Old Boys started They immediately completed every conceivable age group. recruiting extra players from the ‘double’ in the First Division Wellington Amateurs has outside the ranks of the school and and were promoted to the Premier become a community club, and if incurred the wrath of the Division. They went on to win the you are not quite sure what that headmaster, who immediately Premier Division in 1983 and 1991 means, club members are forbade them from using the plus other local cups like the embracing their new community school’s facilities. In an equally Commander Ethelstone Cup. rueful response the ‘boys’ ditched the Wellington Old Boys from their club constitution and renamed themselves Wellington Amateurs! Since the first game the club has played continuously for nearly 59 years! That is some record for an amateur club. Most clubs start up with a burst of enthusiasm and run out of steam after a few years or, in the case of some clubs, they continue for longer but the end result is usually the same – just a few club members keeping things going for as long as they can and eventually giving up the ghost. Wellington Amateurs owes its success to people who devoted such a large part of their lives to promoting the beautiful game. The problem is that, on a wet February

16 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 Three years ago the club was promoted to the West Midland NEW BUS STATION Allan Frost Regional League and won the Second Division title at the first and where the railway booking attempt. They went on to win First une 15th, 2009 saw the new office is now was the town Division at the first time of asking, bus station officially opened. bowling green and a small pool. ensuring three promotions in three JIts arrival is a major step The pool was conduited and the years. Now they have the task of forward in creating a transport green relocatied to the new tackling the West Mid Premier hub for Wellington, where Charlton Arms inn around 1860. Division. crossover access between railway However, the stable yard So, 59 years on and and bus services will be easier. behind the Duke of Wellington approaching another milestone in There’s still more work to be done. was extensive, to say the least. It the club’s history, Wellington I was invited to the official was capable of accommodating Amateurs is having one of the ribbon-cutting affair. Quite a few over 150 horses, plus all the most successful periods in its words were spoken in praise of carriages which accompanied history. Floodlights are on the the project but it wasn’t until after them (as well as the occasional horizon and the club hope to build the ceremony that a few folk circus elephant or two). It was also their own social club. sidled up to me and asked ‘What’s noted for its horse-and-carriage Wellington Amateurs are a the site’s history?’ and ‘Can you hire services, used by visitors to success story. They have achieved think of a historic name for it?’ travel to The Wrekin Hill and something that all other local clubs In a nutshell, about half of the historic sites like and have failed to achieve. They have overall area on its western side Haughmond Abbeys and the survived into their sixtieth year belonged, until the 1930s or so, to Roman ruins at Uriconium. and they have built a club that is the Bull’s Head and Duke of The rest of the bus station land part of its community, both Wellington hotels, both of which has had a variety of uses: John Wellington and Oakengates. fronted New Street. Barber’s first Smithfield (1855 to It would be easy to trail out a The Bull’s Head Yard was, until 1868) encroached on the plot. list of achievements in this article, shortly after the arrival of rail There was also an orchard and and Wellington Amateurs have services in 1849, used by Royal several gardens, but nothing as won their fair share of trophies, Mail coaches delivering and important as the stable yards ... but what singles them out from all collecting mail as a changeover apart from the short-lived Robin other clubs is that they have staging post for fresh horses. The Hood People’s Restaurant which survived for so long when others narrow alley leading from New provided cheap, nourishing meals have fallen by the wayside. Street to the bus station led into and a venue for private parties Wellington Amateurs have the yard and is a throwback to the and receptions from 1943 until its become a local institution – many days when it was a private right of closure in the mid 1950s, since ex-players look out for their way which, until recent times, was when it has been a car park. results every Saturday, and blocked off for one day each year So, how does ‘Old Stables Bus Saturdays would not be the same to preserve its status. Station’ sound? without the Ams! Between the Bull’s Head Yard

View of the new bus station looking west and (right) an 1879 plan of the Duke of Wellington Inn stable yard. The eastern edge of the yard roughly followed the line of the zebra crossing in the centre of the photograph and extended almost as far as the wall above the railway station where a narrow lane separated the two and gave public access to steps leading down to the railway booking office.

17 COLOURED GLASS Geoff Harrison

olour, that wonderful gift of front of her broken wheel, on nature! It attracts our eye which she was martyred; the Cwherever we see it: on our origin of the Catherine Wheel high streets, in shop windows ... firework. everywhere. But do we look In the central window of the beyond the bright impression of North Wall there are some ‘bits’ of that colour to the image it glass – perhaps not so coloured portrays? but should not be overlooked. Coloured glass is all around us These are early glass fragments – in the windows of some from the church which stood on domestic homes, in our civic this site before the present one. It buildings and in our churches and is difficult to date these but it is cathedrals. We have all at one time generally accepted that they date or another seen coloured windows from before 1500. They show St. – did we really look at them or did we just ‘get an impression’? The the union of an Eyton male with a church of St. Catherine’s at Eyton wife of another landed family. upon the Weald Moors is an Each of these arms is surrounded example of a small building but it by a common design of figures displays a wide variety of and scrolls. Or rather, five of these coloured glass; well worthy of are but the sixth is surrounded by comment. ‘bits and pieces’ of that design. Just walk inside and facing you This would suggest that they is a gloriously colourful window, were not church windows painted described in the words of the time ‘in situ’ – they have been moved as ‘fine window in the chancel of from somewhere else! More Eyton Church’. This was placed significantly, looking at the here about 1850, and is the work surrounds, they are not the sort of of David Evans of Shrewsbury. images one expects in a church: One cannot see it without seeing they show ‘Bacchic orgies’! the story of St. Catherine, holding Very recent research has the martyr’s palm in one hand and suggested that they are of style, a sword in the other, standing in techniques and colours common between 1570 and 1630. From an Christopher, St. Catherine, a mill ‘expert’: ‘Having made something of wheel (guess the connection) and a study of armorial glass, I am the motto of the Eyton Family. reasonably confident … is typical of a Coloured glass, in the six kind of oval armorial panel in windows, three on each side of the enamelled and silver-stained glass church, are losing their power to made roughly between 1570 and attract by their colour. They are 1630’. worn. It has been assumed that But the church was only built these were ‘painted’ by French in 1743! Where were they before? refugees or prisoners at the time of Napoleonic Wars, indeed there is correspondence which gives substance to the story. But is this really possible? ‘Windows painted by a French artist staying at Eyton as a refugee’ and again ‘The beautiful centres of the windows … were painted by a fugitive from abroad political, who stayed at Eyton.‘ The centre of these windows deserves close examination. The centre medallions record the arms of a male Eyton and his spouse;

18 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009 The answer is most probably in the old Manor House of the Eyton JOHN THOMAS CARRANE Allan Frost Family, assumed to have stood next to the church. Because the number of his The proportions of the clients had grown, John formed a medallions are distorted, taller brief partnership with a Mr. than one might expect, probably to H.G.U. Elliott around 1905; it only fit narrower openings than the lasted a few years, and John was ones they are in today. Similar again working on his own by 1913. designed coloured glass armorial However, he took a Mr. marriage links were installed in Shawcross on as a partner shortly the new Eyton Hall of 1830, afterwards; unfortunately, possibly a repetition of what had Shawcross died in 1916, leaving been in the earlier Hall; indulging John on his own again. According in the display of their pedigree. to family sources, he retired but Who would have thought that, recommenced the business in in the colourful windows of a order to see Henry Hugh Lanyon small rural church, ignored by through his five years of articles. many, there would be such a slice Apparently, Henry was born in of history in its most obvious ohn Thomas Carrane was just 1899 and his father married features. one of a number of solicitors widow Shawcross a few months Coloured glass of three distinct Jwho found our town a good after Mr. Shawcross died, so John periods spanning the centuries – place in which to run a would have known who Henry small portions from the fifteenth business during the nineteenth was and offered him a job. Henry, century; large armorial centred and into the twentieth century. a Royal Engineer during the Great windows, six of them from the In the Civic Society book Latest War, had had to leave the army sixteenth and seventeenth Memories of Old Wellington, the late because of poor eyesight. centuries and that huge East Audrey Smith (formerly Wheatley) The partnership which ensued, Window of the nineteenth century. says, ‘He was a short, tubby little Carrane & Lanyon, traded under man and had a habit of playing about that name until about 1938 * * * with his gold chain, which he seemed (although John had died in 1926) Geoff Harrison’s new book, A very proud of.’ and subsequently went through Family – A Manor – A Church is John was born in or near New several merges and takeovers; the now available. It reveals the Street (possibly Chapel Lane) in current name of the business that fascinating history of Eyton upon 1851. His father John was a dealer John founded is Lanyon Bowdler, the Weald Moors and the impact in old clothes, while his mother whose offices are a few yards of the Eyton family. Ann was described as a hawker. away from Tyrone House at 49 If you’d like a copy, please Despite such lowly beginnings, Church Street, which some folk send a cheque for £7.99 made John appears to have become may remember as being Dr. payable to Geoff Harrison at 46 articled to one of Wellington’s Pooler’s surgery during the 1950s. Station Road, Admaston, Telford, solicitors and branched out upon John Thomas Carrane was a Shropshire, TF5 0AW, telephone qualifying around 1880, with an committed Roman Catholic who 01952 247946. The price includes office in St. John Street. As his did much to support philanthropic free postage to U.K. addresses. business developed, he moved activities both at St. Patrick’s into better properties in Mill Bank church and school (then on Mill (1881) and Walker Street (1885), Bank). and occupied rooms (where he After his coffin had spent the also lived) at Tyrone House in night before his funeral lying Church Street in 1888. (It was at inside the church, his body was number 24, which was later laid to rest in the town cemetery renumbered 45 Church Street.) off Linden Avenue.

Tyrone House today. Part of the site Lanyon Bowdler’s office, 1950s, was once home to The Criterion pub. when it was Dr. Pooler’s surgery.

19 HAPPENINGS October 2009 Talks ... and Wellingtonia Issue Five

We shall be giving two talks as part of the Wellington Annual Literary Festival. According to current plans, both talks will take place in the Hayward Arts Centre at New College, King Street, Wellington, and start at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free.

On Tuesday 27th October, Allan Frost will talk about and launch his new book THE GREAT WAR IN WELLINGTON (at £5.99 per copy) and also release the FREE Special Victorian Bonus Edition of ellington History Group hosted a well- Wellingtonia (issue Five) attended History Day organised by Wrekin which, depending on us being able to obtain WLocal Studies Forum in the parish hall of All further funding, may be the last magazine we Saints church on 16th May. are able to produce. In the morning, Sylvia Watts (above, right) gave a talk on Wellington Before 1700 and Lance Smith (left) The magazine will also be available following spoke about The Wellington Poor Law Union. After the second talk on Wednesday 28th October lunch, George Evans and Allan Frost took groups when Phil Fairclough will speak about around the town, pointing out various features and POST WORLD WAR II FOREIGN SETTLERS. explaining aspects of the town’s history before returning to the hall for three short presentations on the lives and contributions to society of Hesba Stretton, Issue Five of Wellingtonia will be available William Withering and John Barber before the in our usual library, shop and newsagent audience voted which of these was Wellington’s Most outlets from Thursday 29th October, 2009. Notable Person. (Withering won). * * * Make sure you get your copy to find out more about Wellington and our programme of talks s a little extra to mark the end of our January to June 2009 indoor public talks, George for the season January to June 2010. AEvans and Allan Frost each led two guided By the time issue Five is published, we should historic walks-and-talks around Wellington, giving be able to say whether you can expect to see their intrepid followers a chance to discover a little more issues of Wellingtonia during 2010. more about our town’s past by looking at things in context. Thanks to everyone who gave us donations.

President: George Evans, 18 Barnfield Crescent, CONTACT DETAILS Wellington, The Wrekin, TF1 2EU. Tel: 01952 641102. email [email protected]

Please address general correspondence to: Chairman: Allan Frost, 1 Buttermere Drive, Priorslee, Telford, Shropshire, TF2 9RE. Secretary: Joy Rebello, 6 Barnfield Crescent, Tel: 01952 299699. email: [email protected] Wellington, Telford, Shropshire, TF1 2ES. Tel: 01952 402459. email: [email protected] Treasurer: Phil Fairclough, 2 Arrow Road, Shawbirch, Telford, Shropshire, TF5 0LF. Other committee members of Wellington History Tel: 01952 417633. Group are: email: [email protected]

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.

20 Wellingtonia: Issue 4, Summer 2009