Wellingtonia · PDF filePhotocall I n recent years, two aspects of local history and heritage...

IN THIS ISSUE******************

Page2. Dr Charles Callaway3. Grave Matters4. Public Houses?5. Notice Board6. Midland Red8. Thomas Lambert jnr9. CCC Remembered

10. The Wellington GibbetPart Two

11. Misleading Myths12. Granddad’s Medals14. Samuel Corbett,

Blacksmith16. Wrockwardine Hundred17. Edith Picton-Turbervill;

Corset Demo18. 100 Years Ago: 1914

20. Photocall

In recent years, two aspects oflocal history and heritageprotection have given rise to

mounting concern.The first relates to Telford

borough council’s poor record,seen as a continuation of measuresexperienced even before the reign(some would add ‘of terror’) ofTelford Development Corporationwhich saw the demolition of morethan a few historic buildings.

Some should have been giventhe protection which is supposedto be virtually guaranteed underthe terms of the Listed Buildingscheme (such as the former NewStreet Methodist church frontage,Charlton Arms Hotel, etc.) or ofsignificant local interest (as inEdgbaston House).

A PhD student is currentlyresearching the borough’s attitudeto heritage conservation andpromotion. All we can say is thatborough councillors and certain ofits employees, who seem moreconcerned with money than takingeffective measures to preservewhat remains of Telford’s heritage,need to rethink their approach toprevent another 40+ years ofirreversible damage. TheIronbridge Gorge does notrepresent the Telford conurbation.

The second refers to localhistory education in our schools.Yes, we all know teachers areoverworked and at the mercy ofcurriculum changes, but myexperience is that not all schoolsare as committed to passing on

professionally obtained local facts(not urban myths or HistoryAccording To Wikipedia) as theycould be, or even interested inlearning more about the area’spast. Like most councillors,History teachers are seldom seenat talks given by our or otherhistorical societies in the district.

This is a shame, not leastbecause Telford is able to offerexamples relating to most periodsin England’s rich urban, political,economic and social history.

Under a new Governmentfunded Heritage Schoolsprogramme to ‘bring historyalive’, a man from English

Heritage has been appointed LocalHeritage Education Manager forTelford and The Wrekin for thenext year or so. He is intended to‘develop greater use and awareness oflocal heritage in twelve partnerschools in the area so that pupils canindentify with their immediate localheritage’.

Let’s hope he succeeds.

WellingtoniaNewsletter of the Wellington History Group,

rediscovering the past of Wellington in Shropshire

Issue 16 : First Half 2014

EDITORIAL

Only £2.00

Our new chairPatricia Fairclough is our chair forthe current year, having taken overthe reins from Geoff Harrison atour public talk last November.

Pat has a degree in History fromNottingham University and taughtthe subject at a County DurhamGrammar school. Her interests arein social and economic history.

Pat’s election provides avaluable link for our Group withthe Wellington Literary Festival,which she also chairs as well as forWellington’s LA21 group, whichhas produced several interestingbooklets on the area’s past.

As if that wasn’t enough, Patserves on Wellington TownCouncil as councillor for theShawbirch Ward.

1www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com

Born on 9th March 1838 at 2Stratton Street, Bristol andson of Lemuel (an

accountant) and Jane Callaway,Charles Callaway was schooled atBristol and Cheltenham beforeentering Cheshunt College in 1859where he studied Theology withthe intention of becoming aCongregational church minister.

In addition he took BA(Philosophy) examinations atLondon University in 1862, andhis MA (Philosophy and PoliticalEconomy) a year later. (He laterobtained further degrees afterdeveloping an interest in Geology:First Class Honours in Geology,1872 and DSc (Geology andPhysical Geography) in 1878.)

After departing Cheshunt in1864 he took up a Pastorate in1865 at Kirkby Stephen,Westmorland. He remained thereuntil 1868. From October 1869until mid 1871 he was atWellington and attended theIndependent Congregationalchapel in Tan Bank which hadopened in 1825..

Upon leaving Wellington,Callaway first went to Bradfordand worked as a librarian andmuseum curator. In 1872 he metthe noted American geologistJames Hall who invited him towork at the New York StateMuseum at Albany.

This was a well-establishedinstitution with a reputation fortraining and encouragement ofseveral notable Americanscientists. Callaway was thereduring 1873-74 and learnt muchpalaeontology (the study of the lifein geologic periods based uponfossil remains). He laterspecialised in Archaean geology(ancient rocks containing theoldest fossils of life on earth).

On returning to England, hebecame curator of the SheffieldPublic Museum. This was shortlived and, after disagreementswith one of the ManagementCommittee, he left in 1876.Following treatment at Malvernfor a ‘nervous illness’, he returned

to Wellington. The rocks of theMalvern Hills are among theoldest in England and Wales andwould later be studied byCallaway. The pure water fromthese rocks was used in thefamous ‘Water Cure’ treatment fora variety of disorders, and stressbeing one of them. (One of themain practitioners was Dr RalphBarnes Grindrod (1811-1883) whobequeathed his collection ofgeological specimens to OxfordUniversity.)

On 29 June 1876, Callawaymarried widow Hannah MariaClark (nee Keay, born 1832 anddaughter of John Keay, aWellington boot manufacturer).She was a music teacher at Hiatt’sLadies College, Wellington, whereher sister Mrs Elizabeth Hiatt wasprincipal. Callaway taughtEnglish, History and Science at thecollege, which gave him time tofurther his geological knowledgeand research.

In the 1881 census Callawayand his wife Minnie lived at 132Mill Bank Wellington. They co-habited with six other women.Two were scholars, another twoteachers and the others servants. Itwould seem that there were nochildren of this union. Minnie diedin 1895; her husband survived herfor almost twenty years. Heremained in Wellington until 1898and then moved to Cheltenham.

Callaway had by now left theNonconformist ministry afterseceding on doctrinal grounds. Hebecame an outspoken agnostic andsupported the Cheltenham Ethical

Society. He was also an honorarymember of the Rationalist PressAssociation whose purpose was topublish literature too anti-religiousfor mainstream publishers.

As a geologist, Callaway wasfocussed mainly on the ancientrocks of Shropshire, Anglesey, theMalverns, Scotland's north westHighlands and parts of Ireland.

During his residence inShropshire, he began originalresearch into the area of TheWrekin. He was able to prove thatthe ancient masses of The Wrekinand Longmynd represented a Pre-Cambrian formation which henamed Uriconian after the nearbyRoman City.

He next studied Anglesey andconcluded that the unfossiliferousmetamorphic rocks were probablyPre-Cambrian. In 1880 he went to

DR CHARLES CALLAWAY David Blain

1880s Carte de Visite studio photo ofDr Charles Callaway, MA, DSc, FGS

and (below) the Murchison Medal.

2 Wellingtonia: Issue 16: First Half 2014

Scotland and was drawn into the‘Highlands Controversy’ debatewith leading geologists on Pre-Cambrian strata and theirrelationship with later geologicalperiod formations in the northwest Highlands. Today he is givenrather more credit for this workthan at the time, when hisassertion that older rocks at theMoine had been forced overyounger formations bygeomorphic activity was regardedas somewhat revolutionary; untilthen, it had been taken for grantedthat younger rocks were alwaysfound on top of older.

Callaway was a Fellow of theGeological Society from 1875 to1906 (why he left then is notknown) and awarded theprestigious Murchison Medal in1906. This was in recognition ofhis pioneering work on Pre-Cambrian rocks and valuablecontribution to the increasingknowledge of Cambrian andOrdovician systems.

Various papers over manyyears were published inCallaway’s name, one of whichwas On the Quartzites of Shropshirewhich appeared in the GeologicalSociety quarterly journal inJanuary 1878 and followed earlierwritings on similar subjects.

When Callaway died inCheltenham, his body wasreturned to Wellington. After anonreligious funeral he wasburied with his wife in the towncemetery.

The inscriptions on theheadstone of Charles and Minnie’sgrave reads:

In loving memory ofCharles Callaway MA DSc

Who died September 29th 1915aged 77 years.

“Truth shall spring out of theearth”

In memory of Hannah Maria(Minnie)

The beloved wife ofCharles Callaway DSc of

Sandown, Wellington.Born July 6th 1832Died Nov 4th 1895

“Love is strong as death”

Most family historians findthemselves in graveyardsfrom time to time and I

am no exception. I find themfascinating places and alwaysleave with more questions thananswers. Fortunately, the internetallows us access to papers andplaces that shed light on ourqueries and, if you read on, I willshare one such experience.

In my family tree there is atenuous link to the Clift familywho owned the Excelsior CarriageWorks on Tan Bank. I had reasonto track down the grave of the firstClift to live in our town, Edward,who came to Wellington fromLeominster, Herefordshire, to setup his coach building business(see 1899 advert, right).

Nearby, the memorial to hisson, John Wesley Clift and his wifecaught my eye; I read it andmoved on. After a littlemeandering I found myself at therear of JWC’s grave and wassurprised to find a lengthyinscription upon it. (The gravesare near the chapel; on enteringthe cemetery from Linden Avenue,walk until you are level with thebuilding; the headstones are in thearea ahead and to the right.)

I read that Richard EdwardBrian Clift was remembered here,having died on active service inSouth Africa in 1942. Initially Ithought that, like many of ourpilots, he had been sent to theclear skies of South Africa to learnhis trade, but closer inspection ofthe words told me that he was inthe SAAF.

An internet search showed methat he was included on theUniversity of Birmingham VirtualWar Memorial and a responsefrom them told me that he hadgraduated from their School ofMechanical Engineering in 1933. Ipresumed he had emigrated afterthis and, checking the passengerlists that are available on Find myPast web site, found a departuredate of 23rd November 1934 onthe Balmoral Castle headed forSouth Africa. Now I needed to

know what he went out to do. Myresource would now be hisobituary in the Wellington Journalfrom 1942 (available in theCommunity History section ofWellington Library).

This revealed that he wasknown as Brian and the familyhad lived at Hillside, WaterlooRoad. Coming from a staunchMethodist family he had been sentto Rydal School in North Walesbefore attaining his degree atBirmingham. After his studies heworked in South Africa forHoffman’s, a fledgling engineeringcompany in Johannesburg that stillexists today. At the outbreak ofwar he joined their Air Forcewhere he had been an instructor atthe Central Flying School. In theautumn of 1942, shortly before hisuntimely death, he had beenpromoted to Flight Commander.

The final resting place of Brianis Pietersburg, now re-namedPolokwane, which lies roughlyhalfway between Gauteng (300km) and the Zimbabwean border(200 km). The ever-powerfulinternet allows us to search andfind the headstone pictured herewith ultimate ease. The wordingclosely matches that on theheadstone in our cemetery withthe addition of the word ‘Proud’and an interchange of locations.

GRAVE MATTERS Wendy Palin

© Shane Spargo, GSSA web site.


Two historic buildings inWellington have been givennew leases of life in the last

few months. Good news, youmight think but, in one case, youmay not be quite so pleased.

The PheasantThe first is The Pheasant pub(right) in Market Street which, as ithappens, is the second pub in thetown to have that name (the firstlay behind the present market halland closed in the mid 1830s).

It has been purchased bybrewers Everard’s of Leicesterand, after tasteful refurbishment,leased to the Ironbridge BrewingCompany which also runs therenowned Fighting Cocks pub(also owned by Everard’s) inOakengates. Everard’s brew alesand supply their own pubs but thefirm also, as in the case of ThePheasant and Fighting Cocks,leases other pubs to independentmicrobrewers like the IronbridgeBrewing Company.

Not only is the fact that an in-town pub has been saved but so isthe equally encouraging fact thatbrewing has returned toWellington, almost 45 years to theday since the Wrekin Brewery,once located on the opposite sideof Market Street from ThePheasant, closed for good.

Even more satisfying is that theales brewed behind The Pheasant,in the building previously knownas the Ptarmigan Suite, areproduced by the evocatively-named subsidiary of theIronbridge Brewery: ‘WrekinBrewing Company’. The Pheasantreopened on Friday 2nd may andbrewing commenced soon after.

Edgbaston HouseThe survival of this secondbuilding, in Walker Street, is notwithout controversy and hasbecome regarded as an example ofhow little regard certain Boroughcouncil employees and electedcouncillors have in preservingheritage buildings, inside and out,within the Telford conurbation.

Despite discoveries of uniquearchitectural features coming to

light in an historic building surveycommissioned by (then)Conservative leaders of theBorough, which revealed severalimpressive fireplaces, coving,internal lights (corridor windows),balustrades and ceiling beams,almost all have been removed byworkmen gutting the inside inpreparation for creating a numberof bedsit apartments with sharedkitchen facilities.

What this means is that theshell of the buildings whichcomprise Edgbaston House havebeen allowed to remain standing.Many believe they should havebeen retained as a public amenityof substantial historic significanceand given a new lease of lifecommensurate with its heritage.

The tallest part of the ‘House’was originally the Sun Inn, erectedin the mid eighteenth century. It

was not merely a pub but an earlyadministrative centre for towngovernance, with solicitors’ offices,magistrates’ clerks, Poor LawGuardians and TownCommissioners, and a place forholding important meetings,dinners and assemblies.

The oldest (easternmost) partof the complex is believed to haveoriginated as two dwellings in alate Medieval terrace; if so, it’s theoldest building in Wellington. Itlater became the town dispensary,and an arch led into a farmyard,then at the edge of town.

When the Borough acquiredthe property from Gwynne’ssolicitors, it was intended todemolish it as part of the ‘CivicQuarter’ development. After apublic outcry, council leaders wentthrough the motions of trying tofind a suitable community use,like a much-desired museum.

After fruitless discussions anda lack of commitment, theborough’s Estates & InvestmentsDepartment supported a planningapplication by a developer toprovide the present apartments.Of course they did: they’d putEdgbaston House up for sale inthe first place and, despite areasoned request, neither they northe Planning Committee thought itnecessary to ask the developer topreserve internal architecturalfeatures. Apparently, money ismore important than heritage.

PUBLIC HOUSES? Allan Frost

August 2013: Dan Thomas and Matt Broadhurst of developers Craven & Ellisremove material from Edgbaston House as part of the refurbishment programme.


NOTICE BOARD

DISCLAIMER: Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this publication is correct at the time ofgoing to press. Wellington History Group cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, nor do opinionsexpressed necessarily reflect the official view of the Group. All articles and photographs are copyright of the authorsor members of the Group and must not be reproduced without prior permission and due credit.

HISTORY GROUP CONTACT DETAILS

Please send emails to WHG Secretary: Joy Rebello [email protected]

and letters to Wellington History Group,2 Arrow Road, Shawbirch, Telford, Shropshire, TF5 0LF.

Other officers of the Wellington History Groupcommittee are:

President: George Evans.

Chairman: Pat Fairclough.

Treasurer: Wendy Palin.

Wellingtonia Editor: Allan Frost.

OUR PUBLIC TALKS 2014–2015All talks begin promptly at 7:30 and are held in Wellington Library

unless otherwise advised. Admission is free but donations are invited.* * *

Wednesday June 18thALLAN FROST: A VISUAL CRAWL AROUND OLD PUBS

* *Wednesday July 16th

PETE JACKSON: HISTORY OF WELLINGTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB

7:30 at the Buck’s Head Football Ground Learning CentreDonations after this talk will go to the club’s current charity

appeal rather than for History Group funds.

* *Wednesday October 15th

LITERARY FESTIVAL: ALLAN FROST

WELLINGTON 1900 - 1919: THE GOOD AND THE BAD

* *Wednesday November 19th

NEIL CLARKE: RAILWAYS OF EAST SHROPSHIRE

* *2015

Wednesday January 21stTOBY NEAL (SHROPSHIRE STAR): WELLINGTON IN THE NEWS

* *Wednesday February 18th

DR TAMSIN ROWE: THE CORBETTS

* *Wednesday March 18th

JOHN SHEARMAN: THE PARISH

* *Wednesday April 15th

WENDY PALIN: KING’S SHROPSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY IN WWI

* *Wednesday May 20th

GEOFF HARRISON: THE GREAT WAR AND FAMILY HISTORY

* *Wednesday June 17th

ALLAN FROST: SCENES OF OLD WELLINGTON

* *Wednesday July 16th

MARC PETTY: PHILLIP LARKIN’S WELLINGTON

* * *

RAMBLINGS OF A STRANGER ON THE

WEALD MOORS

BY GEOFF HARRISON

An exploration of the Weald Moors onfoot, looking at how its history hasaffected the views we have of today.£5 + £1.50 p&p from the author.

Call 01952 247946 or [email protected]

WELLINGTON IN THE 1920S AND 1930S

BY ALLAN FROST

This collection of archive images, manynever before published, documents life in

Wellington between two World Wars.It reveals how people recovered from theeffects of one devastating war before they

were obliged to make preparations forcoping with another.

It’s another ‘must read’ for everyoneinterested in the town’s past.

Fonthill Media, £12.99.


Most people who lived in thisarea three decades or moreago will have fond

memories of Midland Red. Thedistinctively coloured vehicles basedin Wellington provided most, but notall, of the local bus services in EastShropshire for almost 70 years fromthe late 1920s to the 1990s.

Arrival in WellingtonMidland Red, or to give it itsproper name, the Birmingham &Midland Motor Omnibus CompanyLtd., was established in November1904 and began operating inBirmingham in the following year.Competition from BirminghamCorporation’s motor omnibusesand electric tramways meantMidland Red made little headwaybefore the First World War. Butgradually routes were developedoutside the city and by the 1920sthe Company was, to use itsslogan, ‘beginning to paint theMidlands red’. Midland Red had first appeared inShrewsbury as early as 1916 whenit leased premises first in AbbeyForegate, and then Roushill,before moving to a purpose-builttwo-bay garage in Ditherington inNovember 1920. Four Tilling-Stevens single-decker vehicleswere allocated to this depot, and itwas the Shrewsbury garage thatprovided Midland Red’s firstregular service into Wellington in1922.

They continued to do so untilJuly 1926 when Midland Red’sfirst garage in Wellington wasopened in Mansell Road, rentedfrom the Wellington Transport Co.Ltd. The initial allocation to thisgarage was three single-deckerTilling-Stevens TS3s fromShrewsbury, and the Shrewsburydepot was still responsible for themaintenance of these buses at theWellington dormitory garage. But

the growing fleet of buses outgrewMansell Road, which ceased to bethe home of Midland Red inWellington in July 1932.

The new garage in CharltonStreet (below, left) was purposebuilt on behalf of the Birmingham& Midland Motor Omnibus Co.; itbegan with eleven single-deckerbuses transferred from MansellRoad, but had a capacity of 15. Itwas designed to accommodatedouble-deckers, but low railwaybridges in the area at places suchas Aqueduct, Coalbrookdale andOakengates prevented theirgeneral use.

ExpansionThe buses based at the Wellingtongarage provided a growingnumber of services from the town.Early photos show Midland Redbuses at Ironbridge, Horsehay andDawley, and these were vehiclesbuilt to the company’s ownspecifications. Midland Redcontinued to grow throughout theWest Midlands and to publicise itsservices for business and pleasure.But the outbreak of war in 1939affected the Company’s services,and revised timetables were putinto place. There was a gradualincrease in the size of theWellington fleet, more so in theyears following the end of theSecond World War. By May 1949,27 buses were allocated to thegarage, and a decision was takento rebuild it.

The new garage opened on thesite in September 1953, with acapacity of 50 single-decker busesbut housing at first an allocation of39, including these S9 types(below). At the time, this steel-framed garage was very differentfrom any other on the system andvery modern in appearance. Thetriple entrance/exit and flat brick-built frontage included stone

facings and a brickworkornamental column surmountedby a flagpole. Again, althoughsuitable for double-deckers, nonewere ever allocated to the garage.The number of buses, around the40 mark, remained more or lessstable until the late 1960s and thenfurther development of the landavailable at the rear provided anextension for up to a total of 75buses. Following the building ofthe new garage, the office wasmoved to premises in QueenStreet (above).

Local RailwaysIn the period following the end ofthe Great War, railways began tofeel the impact of competitionfrom road vehicles. Competitioncame not only from the carriage ofgoods by lorries, many of whichhad been snapped up cheaplyfrom the War Department byentrepreneurs such as Harry Priceof Dawley; but also from thecarriage of passengers by theburgeoning number of local busoperators like the Midland Red.The railways appear to havetackled this development in twoways. First of all, the yearsfollowing the creation of the BigFour railway companies in 1923saw large scale investment in buscompanies by the railways, and inApril 1930 half the Ordinaryshares in the Birmingham &Midland Motor Omnibus Co. werepurchased by the Great WesternRailway and the London Midland& Scottish Railway. Secondly, inthe 1930s, the GWR opened anumber of halts in this area in anattempt to boost passengernumbers. Examples are:

—on the main line, NewHadley;

—on the Wenlock Branch,Ketley Town, New Dale, Doseley,Green Bank and Farley;

—on the Crewe Branch,Longdon;

MIDLAND RED Neil Clarke


upwards (with gaps). Someexamples of heavily used dailyservices were:897: Wellington to Ironbridge, viaDawley and Madeley;904: Wellington to Much Wenlock,via Horsehay and Ironbridge;909: Wellington to Kidderminster,via Ironbridge and Bridgnorth;917: Shrewsbury to Edgmond, viaWellington and Newport.

The daily services run on theOakengates and Donningtonroutes from Victoria Street wereshared with members of theShropshire Omnibus Association:894/899/900: Wellington-Oakengates-St Georges-New Yard;913/914/915: Wellington-Donnington (Coal Wharf/Garrison/Roundabout).

Midland Red also ran worksservices (Mon-Fri) and Sundayservices to hospitals:886: Dawley to Hadley CastleWorks;889/890: Ironbridge and Madeleyto Donnington COD;902: Wellington to ShirlettSanatorium (near Broseley);961: Wellington to Bicton HeathMental Hospital (later known asShelton Hospital).

PrivatisationIn 1969 Midland Red became asubsidiary of the National BusCompany, having been partlynationalised since 1947. It wassplit into five new companies in1981, with the Shropshire areacoming under Midland Red North,based at Cannock.

Local identity titles wereintroduced for services at that time– the Shrewsbury area adopted‘Hotspur’ and the Telford area‘Tellus’. Midland Red North wasprivatised in 1988 and wasrebranded as ‘Arriva’ in 1997.

Charlton Street and QueenStreet lost their bus stands someyears before when the mainWellington terminus moved to therevamped Victoria Street busstation; and everything changedwith the setting up of the new busstation on the Parade in 2009. Thelast direct link with Wellingtonwas lost with the transfer of thebus depot from Charlton Street toStafford Park in 2012.

—on the Severn Valley line,Cound and Jackfield.

But nothing could stop themarch of the bus and, when thewholescale closure of our localbranch lines took place between1952 and 1964, buses were in mostcases already providing serviceson these routes.

The Shropshire OmnibusAssociation

The expansion of Midland Red inthe West Midlands in the 1920s ledto uneasy relations with, andcompetition from, other busoperators. However, the RoadTraffic Act of 1930 broughtregulation to the industry, andoperators who obtained licencesfor services enjoyed the protectionof the Traffic Commissioners.

This made it more difficult forindependents to poach on thecompany’s best routes, andsimilarly the Midland Red couldno longer use its superior might tocrush the opposition.

Nevertheless, the companycontinued to expand up to theoutbreak of war in 1939 by thepurchase of over 150 smallbusinesses and their services.

It’s against this backgroundthat the operators of a number oflocal bus services in this areaformed the Shropshire OmnibusAssociation in 1931. At this timemost of the 20 or so members ofthe Association were one-vehicleoperators, and the two mainroutes they operated were:

—Wellington-Trench-Donnington (with variations at theDonnington end to MuxtonCorner, Coal Wharf andHumbers); and

—Wellington-Oakengates-Wrockwardine Wood (with sevenvariations including Priorslee, StGeorges and Lamb Corner).

These were ‘rota operations’,which means the two routes wereworked cooperatively by theseveral private providercompanies in the Association, withthe particular journeys workedchanging usually month to monthaccording to a rota, so that all tooktheir share of the good and not-so-good timings. Apparently, beforethe Second World War a third rotaservice ran between Wellington

and the Wrekin in summer; andsome Association members alsooperated other services.

The Shropshire OmnibusAssociation services operated fromthe Victoria Street bus stop.Individual members of theAssociation had their own livery,but the Association bought ticketsin bulk and published a timetablefor the rota routes, which oftenincluded members’ other services.

Midland Red continued tocover most of the ShropshireOmnibus Association routes withits own frequent services and from1950 cooperated with publishing ajoint timetable. However,following the designation of‘Telford New Town’ in the 1960s,big changes were on the horizon.With the growth of the Telford andthe resultant changes in trafficflow and shopping patterns,Midland Red acquired the severalshares of Cooper’s of Oakengatesin 1973, and they had taken overthe remaining Association servicesby 1978. Reorganisation followed,with new circular routes basedprimarily on the Shopping Centre.

Original RoutesPrior to these changes, MidlandRed timetables for this area in the1950s and 60s showed a widerange of services:Long Distance & Seaside Services

Service C: Birmingham –Llandudno, via Wellington (daily,Whitsun–end of September);Sevices G & H: London-Llandudno, via Birmingham andWellington (daily, March-October).

Express ServicesX96: Northampton-Birmingham-Shrewsbury, daily via Wellington;X97: Leicester-Birmingham-Shrewsbury, via Wellington (Sat. &Sun.).

Local town services forWellington and Bridgnorth

W40 – W44: CharltonStreet/Queen Street/VictoriaStreet to the Arleston and Orletonestates;B90 - 91: Bridgnorth.

Regular Services Midland Red ran a wide range ofservices in this area radiating fromWellington, which were given theservice numbers from 886


Iwas walking around SalisburyCathedral in the summer andmy attention was drawn to a

tomb set into the floor that musthave been walked over thousandsof times without anybodyparticularly noticing it.

The inscription reads ‘The bodyof Tho. sonn of Tho.Lambert Gentwho was borne May 13 An Do 1683& dyed Feb 19 the same year.’ Here isevidence that Thomas died inFebruary 1683 yet wasn’t bornuntil May 1683! A conundrum, oris it? Surely there must be a simpleexplanation. Of course there is. In1683 Protestant England was stillusing the Julian calendar, whereasthe Catholic countries of Europewere using the Gregorian calendar.

The lives of our ancestors,certainly 500 years ago, were notcontrolled and directed by time;there was no ‘clocking on and off’at the beginning and end of yourshift; no change of lesson whenthe ‘bell goes’; no frustration whenthe bus or train isn’t ‘on time’; andno getting confused when theclocks go back in the autumn orforward in the spring. The onlytime control which governed yourlife was the rising and going downof the sun. The day began when itwas light enough to work andstopped when the day-light faded.

Similarly, the year wasmeasured by the seasons: noannual holiday, no regular BankHolidays. The soil was preparedwhen the crop was harvested, seedwas planted when the dayslengthened, harvest was taken

when the crop was matured andripened.

The only special days of theyear were saints’ days and thereligious festivals of Christmasand Easter. A villager would knowthese two festivals but, beyondthat, only days designated by thelocal priest would be significant.

The local church would dictatethe passage of time from one yearto the next; it was more than likelythat individuals would beunaware of their birthday andprobably didn’t ‘celebrate’ itanyway. It was common tomeasure their age by the numberof winters they had endured.

The Church and its priestswould have some knowledge ofthe year; after all, they needed to‘control their flock ofparishioners’, and higher churchofficials had important jobs in thegovernment of the country: theyneeded some measure of time andhad to measure years with somedegree of certainty. However, theydid not number years as we dobut generally recorded the year ofa monarch’s rise to the throne andcount the years from that dateuntil the next monarch. These arecalled Regnal Years.

The first Regnal year of aparticular monarch would beginon the day of their accession to thethrone, not their coronation, andwould end when they left thethrone by death, being deposed, orabdication. The next monarch’sregnal years would then begin.Each monarch would begin theirfirst regnal year on a differentdate: a confusing system ofcounting years which did not diein our country until 1963, ‘InEngland, and later the UnitedKingdom, until 1963, each Act ofParliament was defined by its serialnumber within the session ofparliament in which it was enacted,which in turn was denoted by theregnal year or years in which it fell.’

Perhaps we are indeedfortunate in that the Church,Catholic or Protestant, was alwayspresent and needed to measure the

years with some sort of regularity.The major ‘movable feast’ ofEaster must fall on the Sundayfollowing the first (paschal) fullmoon following the springequinox. This was decreed at theCouncil of Nicea in 325 and, as thepaschal full moon determined thedate of the Jewish Passover, andChristian belief sets theResurrection as the Sunday afterthe Jewish Feast of the Passover,the date for Easter is set. Fixingthe date for Easter seemscomplicated enough but before1582 the known western worldwas using the inaccurate Juliancalendar.

The Julian calendar, whichJulius Caesar adopted in the year46BC, consisted of a solar year oftwelve months. It began onJanuary 1st and leap years wereevery third year, but the calendarevolved and adapted particularlywith the rise of the Christian faith.This calendar was changedthrough the centuries. It wouldappear that there was noconsensus across the countries andregions as to when the year began;in England the year started on25th March and ended on 24thMarch. Then astronomersdiscovered that there was an errorof eleven minutes a day, or threedays every four hundred years.This error had been accumulatingover the centuries so that every128 years the calendar was out ofsync with the equinoxes andsolstices; thus, between the year325 to 1582, the error amounted toten days in all, and the ‘fixing’ ofEaster became inaccurate. Thiswas especially troubling to theRoman Catholic Church becausethe date of Easter by the sixteenthcentury was well on the way toslipping into summer.

Pope Gregory XIII reformed thecalendar to match the solar year sothat Easter would once again ‘fallupon the first Sunday after the firstfull moon on or after the VernalEquinox.’

This ‘Gregorian’ calendar, thecalendar used today, was firstintroduced by Pope Gregory XIIIvia a Papal Bull in February 1582to correct the errors of the oldJulian calendar. The Gregorian

THOMAS LAMBERT JNR Geoff Harrison


calendar was adoptedimmediately upon thepromulgation of Pope Gregory'sdecree in the Catholic countries ofItaly, Spain, Portugal and Poland,and shortly after in France. Duringthe next year or two most Catholicregions of Germany, Belgium,Switzerland and the Netherlandsalso accepted this calendar.Protestant nations did so later, atvarious times.

In Britain the change to theGregorian calendar was not until1752. No doubt there werepolitical reasons as well as thereligious turmoil to account for the‘delay’. The whole religious scenewas chaotic; Henry VIII was Kingjust prior to the Bull of PopeGregory, and at Henry’s deathEngland was plunged intoreligious chaos for many decadeafterwards. Then England was

ripped apart by its own strife, theCivil War. Hence England was avery troubled land during the 170years between the Papal Bull andthe Act of 1751 (below).

England came into line with themajority of Europe after 1752; wehad a common calendar. Thechanges were made by the 1751Calendar Act of Parliament ‘forRegulating the Commencement of theYear; and for Correcting the Calendarnow in Use’. This came into force inSeptember 1752 when 11 days wereomitted from the year; the day after2nd September 1752 was 14thSeptember 1752. This loss of 11 dayswas not welcome to the populous:‘Give us our Eleven Days’ was apopular political slogan of the time.

There was a second changewhich the Act introduced, as statedin its title which changed the firstday of the year. Prior to 1752 inEngland the year began on 25thMarch (Lady Day). The Actchanged this so that the day after31st December 1751 was 1st January1752, New Year’s Day. As aconsequence, 1751 was a short year- it ran only from 25 March to 31December. A ‘pit-fall’ for theunwary family historian.

Thomas Lambert (junior) lived,all but briefly, at the time of theJulian calendar; he had been born inMay 1683, after the Civil War andRestoration of Charles II whenEngland still used the Juliancalendar with the year beginning in25 March, and he sadly died thefollowing February, yet still in thesame (Julian) year of 1683; notreally a case of burial before birth!

Steve Spragg posted a photo ofhis Clifton Children’s Clubbadge on the Telford

Memories Facebook page. Theformer cinema is currently in thenews because of a campaign topreserve and turn it into acommunity arts centre with,naturally, a cinema (visitwww.theclifton.org.)

Steve told us: ‘I belonged to theclub. The Clifton used to bepacked out every Saturdaymorning. Usually cartoons wereshown and the last item wasalways a serial; I particularlyremember one was Rocket Man.

‘Near the end of the everyepisode, it looked like somecatastrophic disaster was going tohappen to him and you had towait until the next Saturday to seewhat happened. Of course nothingreally did; the hero survived ... butloyal children had turned out tothe cinema once again! That’sreally all I can remember. I wasabout ten years old at the time(I’m now 58) so it was a long timeago.’

In the early seventies WendyPalin went to a similar showing atOakengates Town Hall. Besidesfilms, there was road safety withPierre the Clown and a birthdayslot where you were invited ontothe stage if your birthday was thatweek.

This was before TV schedulersrealised it could have an audienceof children on Saturday mornings.Multi-coloured Swap Shop, thefirst Saturday show aimed atyoungsters, first aired in October1976.

CCC REMEMBERED


Having found reference to agibbet somewhere in thevicinity of The Horseshoe

Inn at Uckington, I have continuedto search for the facts of the crime,the punishment dealt out and amore precise location for theelusive gibbet.

I felt I had to find definitiveanswers to the discrepancies thathad appeared in the variousversions of the story. I had twomurder victims, William Matthews(who had been buried inWellington churchyard somewherenear where the Lych Gate nowstands) and Walter Whitcombe,something of an unknown entity.

How they met their end wasunknown except that it was at thehands of Robert and WilliamBolas, the former giving rise to astory that has been repeatedworld-wide for almost threehundred years (see Wellingtoniaissue 15).

Surfing the internet allows usto find and access articles thatwould, in all likelihood, remainundiscovered without its power.I found a newspaper article in theLeicester Mercury from December29th, 1883, which referred to The

History of Shrewsbury, Volume I, byOwen & Blakeway, published in1824. On page 581, this entry isfound:

“1723. Sept. 4th. Robert &William Bolas were executed for themurder of William Matthews andWalter Whitcombe at Beslow, June19th. They were hung in chains onthe south side of the London-road, alittle beyond the 7th mile-stone, wherethe writer of this remembers the gibbetin 1775.”

Travelling from Shrewsburytowards Wellington, the gibbetwas on the right hand side of theroad; seven miles takes us more orless to the tree-lined lane thatleads to Uppington. Going beyondthere in 1723, the London roadfollowed a different course to itspresent path, heading to the rightof the current route and upOverley Hill. The gibbetframework must have stoodsomewhere here, well away fromdwellings but in full view oftravellers along the road.

The scene of the crime isnamed as Beslow, in the parish ofWroxeter, a cluster of houses justsouth west of the Horseshoes andinaccessible today. Using GoogleEarth allows us a bird’s eye viewof the location as it appears now.John Rocque’s map (below) showshow it was in 1752 with theseventh mile indicated on the

map. The large, half -timberedfarmhouse was pulled downwithin living memory. The barn,site of the crime, stood until about1830 and showed marks of thefray on the beams.

From Parish records, oursecond murder victim WalterWhitcombe was buried as apauper in Uppington graveyardon June 21st, leaving wife, Maryand daughter Martha not quite ayear old. Some accounts state thathe was guarding his own wheat,but burial as a pauper brings thatinto question.

The Uppington Registers alsolist the life events of the BolasFamily. Robert Bolas, Yeoman andChurchwarden and his wifeCatherine had a son Robert on30th May, 1675.

This man was 48 years oldwhen he committed the doublemurder. He married ElizabethBagshaw on Oct 9th, 1698 atAtcham. I cannot ascertain ifWilliam was a relative but think heprobably was. Therefore, siting thegibbet between Uppington andBeslow would seem to be theperfect spot. The names ofWhitcombe and Bolas disappearfrom the local records within ayear of these dreadful events.

However, all the facts I hadgathered about the crime hadcome from secondary sources,some of which contradicted eachother, so I decided to try to locatethe actual records from the trial ofthe two Bolas men.

In 1723, the men would havebeen tried at Shrewsbury by theOxford Assizes, a travelling court.Records for this, if they stillexisted, would be held at theNational Archive at Kew.

Calling up the Crown and GaolBook for 1723 produced the record(top of next page) that reads

“For ye murder of Wm Mathewsthe said Robert Bolas Striking himwith a hedging Bill on ye head faceneck shoulders breast stomach & sidesto giving him severall mortall woundsof which he instantly died the 20thJune last at Wroxeter and the saidWm. Bolas being then present andassisting therein.

On the Coroner’s Inquest for thesame Murder.”

THE WELLINGTON GIBBET, PART TWO Wendy Palin

Wendy continues herinvestigations to track down

Wellington’s gibbet.


A similar entry for WalterWhitcombe cited wounds to the‘head face throat and back’, againcausing instant death. (See imagefor samples of hedging bills.)

The inconsistent date seems toindicate that the crime took placelate on the night of the 19th Juneor early on the 20th.

I hoped to find the Coroners’Inquest but, with limited time, Iwas only able to photograph anumber of recognisances or bonds,most written in Latin with Englishbelow, ordering the men listedhere to attend the next Assizes togive evidence against Robert andWm Bolas. One is shown belowmentions Thomas Lee and EdwardMiles while other examplesinclude the following: JohnSpencer of Cross Houses, Weaver,

Andrew Ffox of Eyton (on Severn,I suggest), John Dyos, ThomasEyton, Edward Welling, PeterLambert, Robert Clarke, JamesEashen and John Court.

Possibly unaware of thenumber of men called to witnessagainst him, accounts tell thatRobert thought his trial wouldresult in an acquittal and that hewould dance in his chains and say,‘I would that these troublesometimes were over, as I want to gohome and get my barley.’ This alsobecame a Shropshire sayingrecorded at the time.

By Sept 4th, all Robert’s hopescame to nothing when he andWilliam were hanged inShrewsbury and afterwardsgibbetted near Uppington.

The next question arises from acomment in three of the secondarysources. The newspaper report of1883, Charles Harper’s TheHolyhead Road and Emma Boore inWrekin Sketches all say that ‘WilliamMatthew’s tombstone stood in theportion of the churchyard that wassome time ago taken for the purposesof the railway’ at Wellington.

Can we prove this? Only time and more research

will tell.

The excellent news thatrefreshments at the HalfwayHouse on The Wrekin Hill

will be continued by its newowner has been greeted withenthusiasm. However, yet another‘urban myth’ (i.e. made uphistory) has been supplied inrecent issues of Shropshire Star andTelford Journal.

It was bad enough to see theShropshire Tourism web sitestating categorically that TheWrekin was the inspiration forJ.R.R. Tolkien’s Wethertop hill inThe Lord of the Rings. This camefrom an article written by andmade ‘fact’ by journalists andattention seekers wishing toelevate the famous Shropshirelandmark to celebrity status.

It is untrue; there is no proofwhatsoever from any source(including Tolkien’s own writings)to support this. A recent peek atshropshiretourism.co.uk showedthat the comment has not beenremoved but merely watereddown to ‘It has been suggested thatthe Wrekin may have been theinspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's MiddleEarth’, thus continuing the fallacy.

Shropshire Star says that theHalfway House was an 1842hunting lodge. No it wasn’t; it wasa dwelling for orleton estate farmworkers and game keepers.

As these examples show,journalists tend to repeat ill-researched findings, thus creating‘facts’. History in general and TheWrekin in particular don’t needspeculative comments to makethem interesting.

The public deserves better thanthis and official web sites, thePress and the people approachedfor comment should know betterthan to mislead. It isn’t clever.

MISLEADING MYTHS


‘I’ve got granddad’s medals andsome memorabilia from the FirstWorld War, but I don’t knowabout his war record, can youhelp?’

Many of us will be faced with asimilar question, particularly asthe Great War will be the focus ofmuch reminiscing over the nextyear or so. We want to know whatour grandfathers or great-grandfathers did in the Great War.

Theanswercould beeasy,resultingin eithercompletesuccess ornothing.

My wife’s grandfather served inthe Great War. We know thisbecause he sent a post card to herfather, a young boy of six at thetime. But this is all, apart from onephotograph of him in uniform.There are no Service Recordsexisting of what he did. Over halfof the Service Records of soldiersof the Great War were destroyedin the second Great Conflict, the socalled ‘burnt records’.

If your relative was a soldier inthe Great War and his records arenot part of those ‘burnt’ in theSecond War, you could be verysuccessful. If it happens that yourrelative was an officer, the recordsstill exist in their fullness. I’mfortunate in that two of my

mother’s brothersboth served, one anofficer, the other asoldier, and in bothcases their ServiceRecords still exist.Those of the officercan only be accessedat the NationalArchives at Kew butthose of the soldierare ‘on-line’, albeitvia a subscription, aswell as at theNational Archives.

Searching forGranddad Perry’srecord was easy – weknew his age and

address and fortunately hisrecords existed. A simple searchbrought up two pages, and howilluminating! His AttestationPapers (‘Signing on’, bottom left)showed that he volunteered forthe Royal Engineers on the 9thMarch 1915. Preliminary searcheshad already confirmed his dateand place of birth, marriage andpresent address, so I was certainthat this was the soldier,Granddad Perry, even though theage of 44 years and four monthson the Form didn’t exactlycorrespond with his date of birth.

But there were problemsarising from the second page ofrecords – he was ‘discharged as‘unlikely to become an efficient soldierbeing overage’, even quoting King’sRegulations! Importantly, this wasdated 15th April 1915, just onemonth after his enrollment.

Samuel Perry served fromMarch 1915 to April 1915, a veryshort period of time, yet it left uswith the problem of the medals.Original medals issued during theGreat War were inscribed aroundthe edge with the name of therecipient, and this clearlyidentified S Perry.

Re-reading the Records, Inoticed on the Attestation Formthat Samuel had served in an

GRANDDAD’S MEDALS Geoff Harrison


earlier period. He was a ‘timeexpired’ soldier of the SouthStaffordshire Regiment. It was atthis point the family rememberedthat there were stories of hisearlier service and perhaps heserved in the Boer War. This wasanother avenue to search – someMilitary Records exist for the timebefore the Great War.

This search revealed twentypages of Service Pension Recordsfor this same Samuel Perry. Itwould appear that, as a singleman, he joined the SouthStaffordshire Regiment at Lichfieldon the 23rd October 1887, aged 18years and four months, on a ShortService enrollment.

A further page provides adescription of this 18 year oldman.

These pages of Records arerewarding in that they show heserved initially in Lichfield, thenmoved to Devonport (4th January1888) and, on 25th September1889, was sent to the Curragh inIreland.

The majority of these recordsrelate to his medical history; it isrecorded that in January 1890 hehad an accident which damagedhis left shoulder so that in March1890 he was discharged. Therewere no medals for his three yearsservice, no travelling beyond theIrish Sea. He was ‘invalided out ofthe Army’.

This summary of his servicewith the South Staffs was only afew pages out of the all thoseavailable, and it was as I read onthe real story unfolded.

Samuel, having enrolled in theRoyal Engineers in March 1915and discharged in April 1915 as

‘being too old to make an efficientsoldier’, turned to his old Regimentand volunteered for service withthe South Staffs. in May 1915 andwas welcomed back into theirranks. It is interesting that, onemonth earlier aged 44 years, hehad been rejected by the RoyalEngineers, yet now, giving his ageas 48, he is accepted. Ageing fouryears in one month appears tohave been the key to hisacceptance!

As an ‘old’ soldier Samuel wasnot given a ‘cushy number’ on the‘home front’ but was sent to servehis country in France; ‘EmbarkedBEF’ in 1917.

As was common during theGreat War, soldiers weretransferred from one unit toanother where there was a need,and this happened to Samuel. Hisrecord shows he served with anumber of units, often changinghis Regimental Number from theSouth Staffordshire Regiment, hisoriginal unit, and including theRoyal Engineers. So much for theirrejection! This movement fromunit to unit is more easily seen onthe Medal Roll (bottom right).

These medals were awarded toSamuel Perry of Wellington: theBritish War Medal (awarded toanyone who had served in

uniform, particularly overseas butsometimes for service in the UK)and the Victory Medal (awardedto those who served in a theatre ofwar outside of the UK afterJanuary 1916). This latter was notawarded alone but only to thosewho had another service medal.These two formed part of a trio,irreverently referred to as ‘Pip,Squeak, and Wilfred’. Missingfrom Samuel’s medals is the 1914-5 Star issued for service to thosewho served in 1914 and 1915.

The story of his service in the1880s and particularly his attemptto join up in March 1915, beingrejected in April 1915 and hissubsequent four years service fromMay 1915 to February 1919certainly justifies some reward,but the jury is still out as towhether his persistence was theact of a hero wanting to serve hiscountry, or an old man trying toregaining his youth.

I am indebted to DorothyVickers (nee Perry), daughter ofthe late Bill Perry from The OldBike Shop, Park Street, Wellington,who provided the initial enquiry,and personal materials andmemories.


I’ve long been fascinated by alarge, cast iron, monument tothe Corbett family that lies in

the grounds of All Saints church.

The monument is somewhatdilapidated now, but at one timewould have stood as testimony tothe wealth and prosperity of thisfamily. Curiosity aroused, Idecided to see what I couldunearth about the family.

The inscription on the primaryface of the monument is tocommemorate the life of SamuelCorbett of this town, his wifeElizabeth and his son GeorgeWycherley Corbett.

Samuel Corbett was born in1819, the youngest son of RichardCorbett, a labourer, of New Street,Wellington. However, by the timeof Samuel’s marriage in 1840, hisfather is recorded as a brick maker.

Evidence from the 1840 tithemap of Wellington, shows thatRichard owned the ‘Duke of York’public house in New Street, whereI believe the family lived, sevenproperties in the yard to the rear(Corbett’s Yard) and a further fiveproperties in Water Lane (bottomof Wrekin Road), the large gardenof one he used as his brickyard.

Unlike his older brothers,Samuel didn’t follow his fatherinto the family business buttrained as a blacksmith andwhitesmith, possibly apprenticedto George Wycherley of Back Lane(now King Street), whosedaughter Elizabeth he married in1840.

The marriage took place inLittle Wenlock instead of the localchurch, probably becauseElizabeth was already seven

months pregnant at the time.In 1841 Samuel was listed as a

whitesmith, living at ProspectRow, Back Lane, with his wifeElizabeth and young son, William,and by 1851 he appears to haveexpanded his business and hadtaken on another blacksmith,recorded in his household as aservant.

From sales particulars held atShropshire Archives we canascertain that shortly after this, in1853, Samuel had acquired aproperty in Park Street,Wellington, and it looks as if hetook the opportunity at this point,to purchase adjoining land, withthe intention of expanding hisbusiness (see 1853 plan and 1882map below).

Slater’s 1859 Directory listsSamuel as a blacksmith, ironfounder, whitesmith and beerretailer of Park Street. Ken Corbett,a direct descendant of Samuel,reminisced that when the propertyin Park Street was re-decorated, alarge sign for the Travellers Restpublic house was found on theplasterwork, evidence to it havingbeen used for that purpose. By1861 Samuel was employingeighteen men and five boys and inaddition to the foundry in Park

Street, he also had an ironmongerybusiness in Church Street,Wellington, an outlet for the saleof his goods. Both businessescontinued to flourish, and by thetime of Samuel’s death in 1885 heleft a personal estate of £4,488, theequivalent of £397,800 today,based on historic standard ofliving, but in terms of status andpower worth far more.

After Samuel’s death thebusiness continued to be run bytwo of his sons William andGeorge, Thomas had already setup his own business inShrewsbury (see

www.madeinshrewsbury.co.ukfor a biography of ThomasCorbett), Walter was in business asa printer, and Samuel Jnr., blindedfrom childhood, was a professor ofmusic (See Songs of the Wrekin inWellingtonia issue 5).

By the 1890s, the company wasamong the country’s best-knownmanufacturers of agriculturalmachinery, winning numerousaccolades at prize field trialsthroughout the country.

In 1892 the company won firstprize at the Royal Show atPlymouth for their grinding mill,an achievement capitalized on intheir future advertising.

William Corbett died in 1904leaving an estate valued in theregion of £12,757 and George in1916 leaving personal effects to thevalue of £31,356, further indicationof the success of the business.

SAMUEL CORBETT, BLACKSMITH Judy Meeson

Cheque producedfor S. Corbett & Son.

Advert for S. Corbett & Sons, 1906.


Albert Samuel Corbett with wifeFlorence, daughter Phyllis and son

Albert Kenneth.

Albert Samuel Corbett, son ofWilliam Corbett became theprincipal of S. Corbett & Son andthe company continued to trade asa private family business until itsincorporation as a limitedcompany in 1951. The businesscontinued to operate from ParkStreet until 1974. (See

http://youtu.be/4xIY_1JEVigfor images of Samuel Corbett’sexhibits at agricultural show in theearly 1950s.)

At its height, the businessemployed in the region of forty tofifty men and during the war,when it became difficult to findmale labour, they employedwomen.

There were considerabledemands upon the company atthis time to produce moremachinery as food production wasparamount.

After the war they won acontract to produce one thousandgrinding mills for the UnitedNations RehabilitationOrganization, in a period of eightmonths, which cost in the regionof fifty to sixty pounds each, andwere sent all over the world.

Although the businesscontinued to operate from thepremises in Park Street, the familymoved to more prestigiousaddresses to reflect their risingaffluence. Albert Samuel’s firstproperty was in Albert Road, hethen moved the family toHighfield House in Wrekin Road.

After a brief spell inWolverhampton, the familyreturned to live at ‘Burleigh’ inVineyard Road and later moved to‘The Brooklands’, previously thehome of Sir Charles Henry MP.

The ironmongery business inChurch Street, Wellington (below)appears to have passed to

Samuel’s eldest son William, uponSamuel’s death, and becameknown as W. Corbett & Son. UponWilliam’s death in 1904 thebusiness continued to be run byhis son Howard Corbett, who hadalready been acting as manager ofthe business. By1909 the businesshad expanded, and renamed W.Corbett & Co, was not onlyoperating the ironmongerybusiness in Church Street but alsoowned premises in AlexandraRoad for the manufacture ofgalvanised tanks, sheep racks, pigtroughs and many articles foragricultural use.

In the 1930s the businessacquired new premises nearby inHollies Road and became knownas W. Corbett & Co. (Wellington)Ltd. This company continued tooperate from these premises until2000 when it moved to Halesfieldin Telford. The Corbett familyceased to be involved with thebusiness in 2005.

Do you have any photographs relatingto the Corbetts? I’m in close contactwith the family and they areparticularly interested in obtainingcopies of photographs relating to theIron Works in Park Street and any ofWilliam and Samuel Corbett and theirfamilies.

The Brooklands (above) and (below)Albert Samuel Corbett and Florence

sitting on the front doostep.


‘Wrockwardine?’ they asked,when I suggested there shouldbe an article about it in

Wellingtonia. ‘It’s not inWellington’. ‘Ah,’ I replied, ‘butWellington used to be inWrockwardine, according to theDomesday Book’. That’s how Icome to be writing aboutWrockwardine in Wellingtonia.

When the Normans and theirallies conquered England theyordered an audit of what they hadjust acquired, nicknamed theDomesday Book. It was written inthe Latin of the churches and theFrench of the conquerors with lotsof abbreviations. Shires werechanged to counties but thehundreds, into which the shireswere divided, remained andWellington is shown as in thehundred of Wrockwardine.

Laurens Otter, in his bookWellington, a Town with a Pastsuggested that when the firstEnglish came here they establishedWrockwardine as a militaryheadquarters, the ‘wardine’ of TheWrekin, with Wellington as itsreligious centre, ‘The Temple inthe grove’ and Orleton as theresidence of the Earl. Nobody, sofar as I know, has proved himwrong, though there are some(including me) who are dubious.

Much of the information thatfollows is taken from an excellentversion of the Domesday Bookedited by John Morris andpublished by Phillimore. It notonly translates the original intoplain modern English but alsoexplains its meaning.

Wrockwardine hundred had asimilar area to the old WrekinDistrict, now called the Borough ofTelford and Wrekin or moresuccinctly the county of TheWrekin. The WrockwardineHundred included; Albrightlee,Atcham, Berwick, Beslow, Bratton,Brockton, Buttery, Charlton,Chatsall, Cherington, Chetwynd,Cross Hills, Crudgington, Dawley,Eaton Constantine, Edgmond,Childs Ercall, High Ercall, Eytonon Severn, Eyton on the Weald

Moors,. Hadley, Haughton,Hinstock, Horton, Howle,Isombridge, Kynnersley, Lawley,Leegomery, Leighton, Lilleshall,Longdon upon Tern, Longford,Longner, Peplow, Poynton,Preston upon the Weald Moors,Puleston, Rodington, Sambrook,Shawbury, Stoke on Tern, Suttonupon Tern, Tibberton, Uckington,Uffington, Uppington, WatersUpton, Upton Magna, Wellington,Withington, Woodcote,Wrockwardine, Wroxeter andLittle Witheford.

So how did all these placescome to be in the Hundred ofWrockwardine? And how did littleWrockwardine come to be thechief place of the district?

Shropshire was then known asSciropescire. Most of it had beengiven to the new Earl ofShrewsbury (Sciropesberie) byWilliam the Conqueror (akaWilliam the Bastard) who then‘owned’ the whole country. TheEarl, Roger Montgomery, had beenvital to William in the Battle ofHastings, when an exhaustedEnglish army was defeated andKing Harold killed.

Manors like Wrockwardine andWellington had been owned by theMercian English lords; now theychanged hands. King Edward (theConfessor) had been lord ofWrockwardine but now Earl Rogerheld it apart from the church,which had its own land. Therewere 13 villagers, 4 smallholders apriest and a rider; they had 12ploughs, 8 ploughmen, a mill andwoodland. Before 1066 it paid £613s 8d tax but now it paid £12 10stax.

Wellington had been owned byEdwin; there were 12 villagers and8 smallholders with 9 ploughs(and another 9 possible), a mill(probably at Walcot) and 2fisheries. Before 1066 it was taxedat £20 but now only worth £18.

So, even then Wellington had aslightly larger population (thefigures are for families, not people)and was worth more. Why wasWrockwardine more important?

Its ownership by the previous kingmay give us a clue. PerhapsLaurens was right and that therehad been a military headquartershere, and the ‘capital’ of the firstEnglish settlers, theWreokensaetan or Wrekin Settlers.That could be the historic reasonfor its importance and why it wasthe chief settlement of thehundred. After all, many thingscan happen in the five centuriesbetween the establishment of thevillage and its take-over by EarlRoger. It’s just that we know solittle about that time, though thatis no reason to suppose nothinghappened.

The hundreds were an Englishsystem of spreading theresponsibility for law and orderand the Normans kept them.Eventually there was areorganisation and BradfordHundred appeared, to be laterdivided into North Bradford andSouth Bradford, which was ourarea and similar to Wrockwardine,though then the administrativecentre became Wellington.

There is a lot of historybetween the conquest and 2013and no more space, so we willmake a huge jump into moderntimes. Modern Wrockwardinevillage has a wonderful churchand an interesting collection ofpeople but little else. Is it even avillage? There’s no pub, no shop,no school. All these things havebeen taken away from the villagenucleus and spread around theparish – mostly to Admaston andBratton. Before the Last WorldWar, Admaston was alreadybigger than Wrockwardine.

What will happen in thefuture?

WROCKWARDINE HUNDRED George Evans

Wrockwardine church as sketched byDavid Parkes in July 1812.


have been very determined andstrong. The family chapel has aplaque with the words ’asometime Member of Parliament’– how dismissive and sad! She hadso much energy and achieved somuch. She was a trailblazer and anexample to us all.

I decided to honour andcelebrate her by trying to bring herto life as a person. I wrote the firstpart of ‘A Head Above Others’ asa diary and in the second parttranscribed words from her ownbook Christ and Woman’s Power(published in 1919).

I have put her on Wikipediaand think it is time the town ofWellington should also rememberher somehow and be proud ofwhat she did.

A Head Above Othersfictionalised memoir of Edith

Picton–Turbervill O.B.E. Perigord Press

ISBN 978–9573977–81Paperback available from Amazon

for £7.99 and also as an ebook.

It was only by chance that Ifound out about Edith Picton-Turbervill and that she had

been the first and, so far, onlyfemale member of Parliament forthe area.

I was curious to find out moreaabout her. Why did a crowd ofthree thousand miners and theirfamilies spontaneously burst intosong in Market Square when theyheard she was to be their Memberof Parliament in 1929?

When I delved into EdithPicton-Turbervill’s past, Idiscovered some of the reasonsshe was so well liked despite herprivileged background. As myadmiration and knowledge abouther grew, so did my anger that shehad been forgotten. But, as awriter, I realised that words andwriting would be one of the bestways of restoring and resurrectingher into history. I purchased someof her books and read herautobiography Life is Good.

She was born in 1872 into alarge family. Her father hadinherited Ewenny, formerly aNorman priory near Bridgend inSouth Wales, which had land andprofitable coal mines. She was sentto the Royal School in Bath withher twin sister Beatrice and had aneducation but didn’t want toremain at home until she married.

She had a religious ‘epiphany’and persuaded her father to allowher to be a missionary with theYoung Womens’ ChristianAssociation. During her training,she was exposed to the poverty inthe slums of the East End ofLondon but, undeterred, she went

EDITH PICTON-TURBERVILL Sue Crampton

off to India to set up hostels forwomen and girls.

She became disillusioned withthe work in India and felt that thetruly needy were not beingattended to. On her return to theUK she was asked to become VicePresident of the YWCA andcampaigned for funds to supportwomen munitions’ workers in theFirst World War, helping to set upcanteens for them, as well ascreating hostels in France.

After the war she met manyothers who were becominginvolved with the fledglingLabour Party and was asked tojoin it and stand as an MP. Sheagreed and was adopted by TheWrekin constituency where shecanvassed and helped at theminers’ soup kitchens during theGeneral Strike of 1926. She becamewell known and appeared at allsorts of functions.

She never forsook her religionor strong feelings that womenshould be at the centre of theAnglican Church. She wrote booksand pamphlets campaigning forwomen to be priests and was thefirst woman to preach a sermon ata statutory service (inLincolnshire).

Although her political life wascut short by the Stock MarketCrash and divisions caused by theNational Government, Edithcontinued to work and campaignfor the working class, the poor andfor women.

She travelled extensively. Shevisited Russia in the Thirties andmet Kemal Ataturk of Turkey. Shewas President of the NationalCouncil of Women Citizens. Sheeven appeared on television in theSixties.

My research revealed what aninteresting and importantcontribution Edith Picton-Turbervill made to Women’sHistory, and what anextraordinary woman she was.She forged an independent lifeand career, and devoted herself totrying to improve the lives ofthose less fortunate. She must

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We trust our Customers willavail themselves of the uniqueopportunity now offered.

Wellington Journal advert, 1908.

This momentous year beganwith the above cartoon,showing a witch casting a

spell to reduce the size of an over-large camel named ‘Rates’ so thatit could pass through a narrowPublic Opinion crevice, otherwiseknown as the Needle’s Eye on TheWrekin Hill.

The cartoon signified theextremely unlikely chance thatShropshire County Council wouldever reduce the high rates chargedto the county’s residents. In theevent, all forms of taxation wouldimpose an even greater burdenwith the onset of the First WorldWar, whereupon the camel’s rates,which later did increase, wouldseem relatively insignificant.

There was almost nothing toindicate that 1914 would be anydifferent to previous recent years.Yes, the arms race with Germanycontinued to cause concern, yet inthe context of the day it said moreabout each participating country’ssense of insecurity than feelings ofaggression. Germany had amassive army because it feltthreatened by France and Russia,who in turn increased the size oftheir standing armies and evenintroduced conscription to boostnumbers. The British Governmentwasn’t (apparently) too concernedand sat back, comforted that theEnglish Channel gave adequateprotection against these nervousforeigners; and who needed theexpense of conscription anyway?

The ‘race’, which, among arange of measures, included theproduction of bigger ships

(‘Dreadnoughts’) with bigger gunscapable of shooting bigger shellsat targets much further away andmore accurately than hitherto. Noone in their right minds really feltthat war was just around thecorner, so life continued as normal(apart from levels of taxationwhich had been steadilyincreasing since about 1870).

At a local level, the Wellingtonbranch of the ShropshireYeomanry continued to train, asdid boys from the Officers’Training Corps at Wellington (later

renamed ‘Wrekin’) College, whoseband led parades (as above inChurch Street after a service at AllSaints parish church) through thestreets to Market Square, whereoccasional drills to musicalaccompaniment took place, muchto the enjoyment of onlookers.

By the end of July, tensionsreached breaking point, and acombination of Nationalism andImperialism led to some stupiddecisions ... and war.

Below, townsfolk assembled inMarket Square on August 4th,

100 YEARS AGO: 1914 Allan Frost


awaiting the announcementdelivered by telegram that Britainwas now at war with Germany.

Within days, mounted soldiersof the Cheshire Regiment arrivedin Wellington (previous page,bottom), and used the Market Hallin Market Street as a temporarybarracks while their horses werebilleted on the field immediatelynorth of the High School (nowNew College) buildings in KingStreet.

This led to the weekly generalmarket having to be relocated forjust one day to The Green and partway along Church Street ... theformer location of the town’smarket which had last met theresome fifty years earlier at whichtime it moved to the market hallitself. The photo top right wastaken on that historic day.

Once the Cheshire Regimenthad departed to continue itsjourney to the Western Front, longconvoys of vehicles descended onthe town.

They had been commandeeredfrom businesses throughout thecountry by the British War Office;those in this photo (right) taken onthe railway bridge in King Streetcame from Bury in Lancashire and,like the Cheshire Regiment, wereon their way to war.


Wellington Town Football Club staged a special match in 1914 when a team offormer Town players who now played for ‘first class clubs’ elsewhere in the countrywas scheduled to play against a team of players who currently played for Wellingtonand Shrewsbury Town.

Former Wellington Town players (and their present teams in brackets) as seenabove are top, left to right: Gordon Jones (Shrewsbury), Lloyd Davies(Northampton), A. Causer (Glossop), G. Harris (Coventry), J. Freeman (Llanelly).Bottom: R. Firth (Notts Forest), H. Hampton (Aston Villa), W. Littlewood (AstonVilla), W. Ball (Birmingham), G. Hampton (Glossop), F. Banks (Notts Forest).

This special team played the Wellington/Shrewsbury combined team whichcomprised Hedgecox (Wellington), Crump (Shrewsbury), Slater (Wellington), W.Jones (Shrewsbury), Nevison (Wellington), Harvey, Rogers and Joyce(Shrewsbury), Burden, Deacon and Davies (Wellington).

THE GREAT WAR IN

WELLINGTON

BY ALLAN FROST

Many books and articles have beenwritten about the origins and

battlefields of the Great War as wellas tales of soldiers’ lives during the

conflict. This book is unique in that itshows the impact of the war on

Wellington itself, how it coped andplayed its part.

Wrekin Books, £5.99.

PHOTOCALL

30th January 2014 saw theofficial handing over of threeVictorian maps of Wellington.

The maps, comprising an 1853version of the 1840 Tithe map(above) a late 1830s hand colouredstreet map and an 1850s mapshowing all the townships in the(then) Wellington parish weregenerously and kindly donated toWellington History Group by

Lanyon Bowdler solicitors whosehead office is at Shrewsbury.

After negotiation with officialsat Telford council, we securedpermission for the maps to behung in two secure meeting roomsfor perusal by members of thepublic when the rooms are not inuse. Please ask a member oflibrary staff to arrange access.

The maps are wonderful

sources of information for familyresearchers as well as anyoneinterested in the history of thetown. For example, a magnificentamount of information can beobtained when the tithe map isused in conjunction with its‘Apportionment’ (a listingshowing ownership andoccupancy of all properties) andthe 1841 Census.

Also, the parish map showswhich townships and villages fellwithin the Wellington parish, thusgiving pointers to whereinformation regarding people,businesses and streets for thosesettlements can be found.

We are in the process ofproducing a detailed backgroundto the maps together with them incomputer-viewable format, plusan abridged version of theWellington tithe apportionment sothat you can peruse and make useof them at home. All this will bemade available on a DVD.

It’s taking some time, but we’reconfident the wait will be wellworth while!

Bob Coalbran submitted thisphoto to our editor and asked forany information connected to itor the ‘Old Swans’ whosemembers are pictured outsidethe Forest Glen Pavilion at thefoot of The Wrekin Hill.

We have been told that theOld Swans in question refers to asocial club at the Swan Hotel onWatling Street and the photomay date to the 1920s or 1930s, ifnot earlier.

Do you recognise any of the menand do you know anything aboutthe Old Swans? If so, please get intouch with us.


Michael Gwynne sent our editorthis photo of Wellington Half-Holiday Football Club, 1907-8season. The club played whenshops had ‘early closing’ on aweekday afternoon, hence thename.

Back row, left to right: F. Bean,E. Bethell, W. Gwynne, J. Owen, E.Nickless, V. Stretton, W. Wellings,J. Poole, H. Whalley, H. Knowles.Front: B. Richards, C. Wood, H.Ward, J. Phillips, J. Plant.

Wellingtonia · PDF filePhotocall I n recent years, two aspects of local history and heritage...

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