Last year it was revealed that Dudley Council had lost the historic painting of Sg William Jordan’s act of heroism in saving a wounded colleague. The painting was by Francis Gibbons, an artist of some renown who had exhibited at the Royal Academy and had also started the Gibbons and Hinton tile works at Buckpool. Now a trawl through Dudley archives have a revealed and article in The Advertiser of 21st August 1915 in which Sgt Jordan told of the exploits which were to inspire the painting.
These extracts from the County Express 100 years ago contain letters from Brierley Hill soldiers who were serving at the front in 1914 when the famous Christmas Truce took place. There is also an article which describes how much the town raised to send parcels to serving soldiers and where they were stationed.
High summer temperatures; a feeling of injustice; heavy handed policing; insensitive politicians. Classic ingredients for public unrest. In August 1914, in Quarry Bank, hard pressed workers were outraged when shopkeepers increased food prices upon the outbreak of war. Even more so when two of the shop-keepers were local councillors. Cue the Quarry Bank Riots!
On the day war broke out the men of the Brierley Hill Territorial force were summoned by bugle to the Drill Hall in Pearson Street. Now ASDA car park. Crowds gathered at Five Ways and at the corner of Pearson Street and High Street – singing patriotic songs. This blog posting describes the events and contains the Country Express article from 1914. I found the section headed “The Departure” incredibly moving.
The second of the historic Great War documents discovered during renovation work at St Michael’s last week was the Delph Roll of Honour.
During the Great War the Delph was a very strong community in its own right. It had its own brickworks, mines, scouts, pubs (of course) and, importantly, church.
It was at the Mission Church that, on Sunday 15th June 1919, the congregation stayed behind after the evening service to consider how to commemorate Delph men who had served in the war.
An email from Rev David Hoskin last Friday asked if it would be possible to pop up to St Michael’s. The church is undergoing some restoration work thanks to local benefactor Tony Whittaker. During the work Tony’s son had come across some old documents – relating to the Great War – lying under a pile of ‘junk’ on the church balcony. The press had been called and could I go up in case my recent research on the war memorial was helpful.
It was enormously exciting to see this terrific find.
This blog posting gives details of the names of those commemorated on Brierley Hill war memorial on Church Hill. Clicking on the name gives details of any press coverage I’ve identified together with war records where available. Clicking on the name of a cemetery or memorial gives details of location of death and an indication of in the action the commemorated individual lost their life. I would be especially grateful if you could notify me if you spot any errors.
This blog posting gives details of the names of those commemorated on Brierley Hill war memorial on Church Hill. Clicking on the name gives details of any press coverage I’ve identified together with war records where available. Clicking on the name of a cemetery or memorial gives details of location of death and an indication of in the action the commemorated individual lost their life. I would be especially grateful if you could notify me if you spot any errors.
This blog posting gives details of the names of those commemorated on Brierley Hill war memorial on Church Hill. Clicking on the name gives details of any press coverage I’ve identified together with war records where available. Clicking on the name of a cemetery or memorial gives details of location of death and an indication of in the action the commemorated individual lost their life. I would be especially grateful if you could notify me if you spot any errors.
This blog posting gives details of the names of those commemorated on Brierley Hill war memorial on Church Hill. Clicking on the name gives details of any press coverage I’ve identified together with war records where available. Clicking on the name of a cemetery or memorial gives details of location of death and an indication of in the action the commemorated individual lost their life. I would be especially grateful if you could notify me if you spot any errors.