Mary-Ann lived on the Belt Road at Hednesford, her husband William was serving abroad and Mary-Ann was at home with two small children. To supplement their income Mary ‘took in’ laundry from the Military Hospital at Brindley Heath, using her pram to carry the washing to and from the hospital. It would be a steep…
Read more ▸
At the age of twelve, Edward left school, and started work like so many young boys in the area down the local pit, his earnings supporting his widowed mother and six younger siblings. We do not know exactly when Edward enlisted into the South Staffs Regiment but his family recall him saying that he joined…
Read more ▸
In January 1916, work began to construct a large Military Hospital at Brindley Heath, Cannock Chase. This was to provide hospital facilities for the men at both Brocton and Rugeley camp and convalescing soldiers. Elizabeth (Lizzie) was one of the voluntary Red Cross VAD’s (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses. Photo 8 shows her in uniform at…
Read more ▸
Arthur or Griff to friends and family was from Wolverhampton – he lied about his age and joined the army in the second half of 1915 when he was only sixteen – men were not supposed to fight until they were nineteen years of age. By the time his mother found out and had written…
Read more ▸
In 2016, a Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘Reaching Out Arms’ recruited and trained a team of volunteers to find out more about some of those who stayed on, worked at or visited the military camps during the First World War. A series of ‘memory events’ were held locally which invited local people to come and…
Read more ▸
A century ago they were shot for mutiny – one of the most serious crimes in the British Army – but now their honour has been restored. The Shot at Dawn Memorial in Alrewas, Staffordshire, had contained the names of 306 men who were executed for ‘cowardice’ or ‘desertion’. With many now recognised as having…
Read more ▸
To commemorate the centenary of the opening the very first School of Scouting and Sniping at Cannock Chase in March 1916, there has been more activity around one of the original Great War Hut on Cannock Chase. More volunteers have been recruited with lottery funding to cope with the amount of visitors coming to the Hut, which…
Read more ▸
The ‘Chase Through Time’ Project has made use of state-of-the-art LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology attached to an aircraft to survey the area from several thousand feet. It has revealed some of the landscape’s archaeology, much of which survives as earthworks hidden beneath vegetation; all without damaging or removing the familiar trees and plants of the Chase. Staffordshire…
Read more ▸
St Matthews Church in Birches Head has become home for probably the largest sticky backed plastic stained-glass window in the UK….if not the world!! And the theme for such a huge artistic enterprise could not be more fitting than the global WW1 Centenary. St.Matthew’s is one of 5 C of E churches in different communities…
Read more ▸
The Museum of Cannock Chase has recently received a World War 1 diary for its collection. William John Simmonds and his wife Nell lived on Hednesford Road, Norton Canes with his children Agnes and Leslie. William joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) at the beginning of the First World War and served throughout the…
Read more ▸
