wellingtonia · pdf file3 a s the day of the 11 plus examination approached, a mixture of...

Welcome to the first issueof Wellingtonia, thenewsletter of Wellington

History Group. We should like tothank the Heritage Lottery Fundfor enabling us to produce fourfree issues of this magazine overthe next year or so.

The Group was formed inNovember 2007 and comprisesseveral well known localhistorians and others wishing toexplore different aspects ofWellington’s rich past.

Whereas our President GeorgeEvans and Chairman Allan Frosthave written or compiled wellover thirty books about the town,there is still so much more todiscover or, more accurately,rediscover.

Our ancestors knew about theirlives and events in Wellington, justas we do today. And, like us, theyseldom bothered to write thingsdown because their lives were‘normal’. Who on earth would beinterested in knowing what theydid on a day-to-day basis, or whatthey got up to when going to workor church or popping into a pub?

The short answer is ... wewould. Finding out whathappened in the town, even inrelatively recent years, isfascinating to so many of us today,especially those who are tracingtheir family trees and want tohave more to show for their effortsthan a skeletal list of names, datesof birth, marriage and death.

Events don’t just happen:people make history. Our job is tohelp you find out more.

Wellington has been inexistence for well over a thousandyears. We cannot know for certainwhen the first settlers moved in,nor when our town was given itsname. And there are some periodswhere our knowledge is sparse, tosay the least. That’s where our(and your!) skills come into play.

The interests of our Group, likethose of any member of the public,vary enormously. Some want toknow more about Wellington andits surrounding area’s social,economic and political history, andhow The Wrekin Hill and TheWeald Moors fit into that story.

Others are fascinated by thetown’s railways, schools,industries and shops as well as thelong list of notable people whohave influenced developmentthroughout the centuries.

As with many other townships,facts have sometimes beenclouded by rumour, myth andwishful thinking. Another of ourtasks is to find out the truth asbest we can.

We need your help ... and hopewe can help you at the same time.

Discovering history is all aboutsharing knowledge. With that inmind, we’re issuing a challenge toanyone and everyone who mayhave information, however small,to get involved. Please take a lookat the back page for details.

If you’d like to find out more,we suggest you pay a visit toWellington Library and delve

into the books and documentsheld in the Local Studies section.

Other libraries in the Telfordconurbation have similar sectionsand, because the history of thewhole area is intertwined,additional information is waitingto be discovered. And don’t forgetShropshire Archives, based atShrewsbury, which houses anenormous collection of originaldocuments and where the staff aremost helpful.

Further information, includinglists of books currently available tobuy, can be found by following the‘Wellington History Group’ linkon the Wellington Town Councilweb site:

www.wellington-shropshire.gov.uk

WellingtoniaNewsletter of the Wellington History Group,

rediscovering the past of Wellington in Shropshire

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MORE INFORMATIONEDITORIAL

Our Committee. Back row: AllanFrost and George Evans. Front: Joy

Rebello and Phil Fairclough.

Produced with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund

2 Wellingtonia: Issue 1, Autumn 2008

Strange as it may seem,Wellington did not have anofficial town crest until 1951.

An increase in the number ofvisitors to the town in lateVictorian times led directly to theappearance of a souvenir trade:folk coming to Wellington by trainstayed in one of the town’s hotelsand hired a horse and trap to takethem to The Wrekin Hill andcultural venues like Lilleshall,Buildwas and HaughmondAbbeys and the Roman ruins atWroxeter.

What better way to rememberyour visit than to buy a smallsouvenir? But, whereas images ofThe Wrekin and its HalfwayHouse soon appeared on chinaand pottery, there was little in theway of outstanding beauty inWellington itself which warrantedits image being placed on a cupand saucer.

One business in particular sawa looming gap in the market andseized the opportunity to makemoney from tourists: A.E.Bourne’s Gift Emporium in NewStreet. Porcelain and china ware ofan astonishing variety becamehighly popular. Many wereproduced by William Henry Gossat his Falcon Pottery, founded in1858, in Stoke on Trent.

During the 1880s, the firmproduced a range of ‘crestedchina’ ornaments featuring theCoats of Arms of townsthroughout the British Isles; itappears that a Wellington Crestwas devised shortly afterwards, asseen in this miniature wateringcan which is about 5cm high.

Wellington Urban DistrictCouncil (WUDC) adopted avariation on the design during thelate 1920s when producing its ownOfficial Guides to the town.

However, the crest we usetoday was one designed andauthorised by the College of Arms,from information and ideassubmitted by WUDC Clerk JohnBroad (after whom John BroadAvenue is named) and WUDCChairman Cecil Lowe, in March1951.

The design of the Coat of Armsincludes a castle (a reference toApley Castle which was sadlydemolished during the 1950s), twofleurs-de-lys (from the Arms ofFrance which were quartered andappeared in the Royal Arms ofKing Charles I, who made hisfamous Declaration to his troopsnear Wellington, thus marking thebeginning of the English Civil Warin 1642), a lion rampant (from theArms of the Charlton family whoowned Apley Castle), a fret (thehashing behind the lion rampant,taken from the Arms of the Eytonfamily at Eyton-on-the-Wealdmoors and the Cluddes of

Orleton), and a bugle horn (fromthe Arms of the Lord Forester,whose family were custodians ofpart of the Wrekin Forest from theMiddle Ages onwards). Theportcullis at the top of the crest isan emblem denoting the town’srelationship with Apley Castle.

The motto Deo Adjuvante means‘With God’s Help’.

For those who are interested, alarge copy of this crest may beseen on a wall in the TownCouncil chamber inside the CivicOffices in Larkin Way, Tan Bank.

Please contact the clerk to theTown Council to check when theroom is not in use and access isavailable.

THE WELLINGTON CREST Allan Frost

‘Argent fretty gules,a lion rampant sable; on a

chief of the last a castle of thefirst between two fleurs-de-

lys Or. Crest: On a wreath ofthe colours, In front of a

portcullis chained sable, abugle horn stringed Or.Motto: Deo Adjuvante.

Granted 14 March 1951.’

These words, written by theCollege of Arms, are the legalway to describe WellingtonUrban District Council’s Coat of

Arms. This is its history.

3

As the day of the 11Plus examinationapproached, a

mixture of emotions wasevident among those aroundme. The junior school Iattended – Wrekin Road,which became an annexe toPark Junior after my secondyear – had a successfulreputation to sustain, anddoubtless there was alsoapprehension among thestaff. We had been welldrilled in those techniquesthat tended to be examined,and the effectiveness of thatpreparation was soon to be tested.

On the day before we took ourpapers, candidates were issued with anew nib for our dip pens. Onreflection, I’m not sure this was agood idea: pens seemed to work moresmoothly if the nib had first been ‘runin’ for a few days. Fifty years’ ago, 11Plus tests were held at a Grammarschool – girls went to WellingtonHigh School in King Street, the boysto Wellington Grammar School inGolf Links Lane. A few years’ later, inan attempt to make the experienceless intimidating, they were held inchildren’s own primary schools.

My morning began with a kind ofbusiness assembly, which ended withboys being taken to their examinationrooms by masters who invigilatedtheir efforts. The assembly was led bytwo unfamiliar men – dressed inacademic gowns, probably the firstones I ever saw – whom I lateridentified as headmaster J.L. Morgan-Jones, and Second Master W.B.Tomlinson. They seemed to be joinedat the hip, and I couldn’t decidewhich one of them was the moreimportant. Tomlinson probably spokemore, but somehow that wasn’tconclusive. Had I been moresophisticated, I would have followedthe hints given to me by theirclothing. The Second Master woregrey flannels and tweed jacket withelbow patches; the headmaster athree-piece suit.

Our papers began with anarithmetic test, lasting an hour or so.Interestingly, I did nothing at primaryschool that could remotely bedescribed as algebra, and virtually nogeometry. I suppose it did me nogreat harm in the long-term, but my

mathematical education at primaryschool now seems a rather narrowone. Some of the exercises hadbecome tedious by too frequentrepetition. Later in the morning,there was an ‘Intelligence’ test. Thesewere designed by educationalpsychologists to be ‘culture free’ and,ideally, no benefit would be gainedfrom any practice papers takenbeforehand. However, I doubtwhether this was quite true. We didso many I vividly remember oneschoolmate telling a visiting inspectorthat his favourite subject was‘Intelligence’ – presumably therebycausing the Park Junior authoritiessome embarrassment. Certainly, thequestions asked in my paper had areassuringly familiar feel.

This was followed by lunch. Noone was permitted to eat at home, as Iwould certainly have done had I beengiven the opportunity. I guess thecomplications caused by boysreturning late (or not at all) were toomuch for the authorities tocountenance. The noise levels rose inthe dining hall, until we were tickedoff and returned to a state ofappropriate seriousness.

In the afternoon, there remainedonly the English paper. There wouldcertainly have been a ‘composition’:as a matter of principle, to protect myprivacy, I probably lied about my lastholiday or some other experience Iwas invited to describe. There wouldalso have been some routinegrammatical exercises and – the onlything that I now remember about thepapers with any clarity – there was acomprehension exercise about theVictorian heroine Grace Darlinghelping her father to rescue someshipwrecked sailors.

I assume girls would havetaken the same papers as theboys. Even in those days, girlsperformed better than boys at11 so it was well known byeducationalists that each yeara few girls directed toWellington Modern Schoolwould have scored highermarks than some of the boysselected for WellingtonGrammar School.

I have always had ahopeless sense of direction.Knowing this, I had persuadedmy father not only to show me

– on three or four occasions – whereWellington Grammar School was, butI also prevailed upon him at theeleventh hour to drive me there onthe day of the examination. So Iarrived safely, in good time andrelatively calm. Not unnaturally, itwas felt I could make my own wayback without great difficulty. Had Iappreciated my proximity to WrekinRoad, I would probably not have setoff along the Holyhead Road in thedirection of the Cock Hotel in orderto reach Haygate Road! Whennearing Ketley, it was clear that I hadprobably taken a wrong turning.Picking my way back and eventuallyspotting some familiar landmarks, Imanaged to navigate a course back tomy house. Since she didn’t knowquite when to expect me, my motherwas unconcerned by my late arrival.Of course, this didn’t matter greatly –but just imagine if I had allowed myfather to persuade me to find my ownway in the morning!

On the following day, carefulattempts were made to get pupils torecall, as exactly as possible, thecontents of their papers. Park Juniorschool was anxious to maintain its‘success’: it was rumoured that aschool in Albrighton was the onlyother one that came anywhere nearPJS’s ‘strike rate’.

In my year, which was notuntypical, more that 40 children fromPark Junior were selected for grammarschool. This was about a quarter ofthe total entry to the two Wellingtonschools, which then took pupils froma wide area in East Shropshire. Couldit be that too many were chosen fromjust one school? Few of the boys werelater to be found in the A stream atWellington Grammar School.

DO YOU REMEMBER ... TAKING THE 11 PLUS John Bradley

Wrekin Road Class 2A, summer 1956


They came in their hundredsof thousands, from all overEurope. There were Italians,

Germans, Poles, Lithuanians,Czechs and Slovaks, Yugoslavsand many others. They floodedinto England in a continuousstream. No, this was not in theyear 2007 but much earlier, in theperiod 1942 to 1950.

In 1946 there were 402,000Germans here. In the years before,over 200,000 Italians came. One ofthem described himself yearslatter: ‘I came as a guest of HisMajesty the King’ ... as a Prisonerof War! As conditions in Europeimproved, most went home but asizeable minority stayed to slowlymerge with the local populationswith nothing to single them ortheir families out except perhapsan unusual surname.

This cosmopolitan environmentwas increased, of course, by thethousands of Americans,Canadians, Australians and NewZealanders, Indians and FreeFrench and many othernationalities thrown together bythe war.

This article is about some ofthose who came from Europe asprisoners of war ( PoWs),European Voluntary WorkersEVWs) or Displaced Persons(DPs).

There were over 1000 Prisonerof War camps scattered across theUK. It used to be a common site tosee men working on the land withcoloured patches sewn onto theirjackets and trousers to show whothey were.

In north Shropshire there weresome very large camps, with about2000 prisoners in each, atSherrifhales, Mile End (Oswestry)and Adderley near MarketDrayton.

Smaller camps existed atCluddley near Wellington's cricketground, at Bank Top near St.Martins at Atcham and a cluster offive camps round the military baseat Donnington.

The Bank Top camp still existsas a small Industrial Estate. Theinmates worked mostly inagriculture for 15 shillings a week(75p in modern money). Nearlyhalf of this was paid in camptokens exchangeable at the campshop for cigarettes or toiletries.The rest of the money was kept bythe Government, to be claimedfrom a bank in Germany on theirreturn. Some had jobs in localindustry, others did road work.Prisoner Heinz Elfner (right) wastold he was coming to help withthe harvest and ended up on abomb disposal unit!

Most of the prisoners were senthome in 1948/9 leaving a severelabour shortage. The governmentdecided to replace the prisonerswith refugees from other parts ofEurope. Advertisements were putin European labour exchangesasking for stateless people to cometo the UK. They were called‘European Voluntary Workers’.

One lady, Margareta Reiss(below), came from theSudetenland (Czechoslovakia) andwas sent to a EVW camp nearPreston. It had been a camp forGerman PoWs and many of thegirls recognised the names carvedinto the wooden walls as formerschool friends. She was sent towork at Courtaulds inWolverhampton. A man fromLithuania was sent to work in thelocal coal mines. His daughter stilllives in Shifnal. The remains ofWellington's EVW camp can stillbe seen behind the new sports hallof BRJ School.

What did they make of us?One German, from a toughinfantry regiment, could not getover the fact that men pushedprams! This never happened inGermany. One fell in love with thefood. In his camp, the prisonerswere given big tins of sausagemeat, bread and mustard. ‘It wasthe best thing I ever tasted,’ hesaid. On the whole, most felt theywere fairly treated here, anopinion reinforced when theyreturned home and met those whocame from the PoW camps inRussia. One Italian PoW said hewas much better off working herefor 15 shillings a week than he hadbeen working on the land in Sicilybefore the war.

Hermann Ganter was aprisoner at Donnington. He fell forhis ATS sergeant, Monica Cann,who was teaching English in thecamp. They married in February1947 at the Registry Office inWellington (now GwynnesSolicitors near the Library) andhoneymooned at the CharltonHotel. She was the firstEnglishwoman to marry a GermanPoW. It was against the law tofraternise with the enemy at thistime, so they were both taken tocourt and fined. The Army splitthem up but the marriage stillstood. Public opinion was sostrongly in the couple's favour thatthe law was changed in thesummer of 1947.

WHEN EUROPE CAME TO SHROPSHIRE Phil Fairclough

Not all had good experiences.An older prisoner, Alwin Gross,from Cluddley Camp hangedhimself in 1947 in the woods nearWrockwardine, and Wilhelm Kunzthrew himself onto the railwaynear Shifnal. Two others,Friedrich Wolter and ErichWullenkord, were shot at a campin Wem just a few days before thewar ended. There were massbreakouts from the camp at MileEnd Oswestry.

What did we make of them?As the first batches of Italianswere marched down from Shifnalto Sherrifhales camp, the localsbooed them through the town.Opinions slowly changed as socialbarriers broke down. ‘I wastreated like a son,’ said ItalianAngelo Toffanin of the farmer whoemployed him. Local womenbought hungry-looking PoWspackets of fish and chips, much tothe displeasure of the Englishsoldiers guarding them. However,those who had lost familymembers in the war were a lotslower to forget and forgive.

Joan Titley did forgive. She metWolfgang (top right) whilst he wasstill a prisoner at Cluddley. ‘Hewas so different from local boys,’she said. ‘Polite, helpful andconsiderate.’ They married and heestablished a haulage business inWellington.

There was a major centre forPolish army families at Penley. ThePoles were in a different position.They had been our allies in the

war which had started in anattempt to stop the Germaninvasion of their country. Manymillions had been incarcerated inRussian Labour Camps in Siberiauntil released to form a PolishArmy to fight on the side of theAllies. After the war, many did notwish to return to Russian-controlled Poland, not surprisingafter their experiences in theLabour Camps. They formed theirown community here which stillexists today.

Most of those who stayed arenow retired. Their families havegrown up and play a full part inour society; one even became ourMP. Others also did well.Margareta, the young factoryhand from the Sudetenland, hadtwo children, one a successfulbusinessman and the second aneducational expert on the needs ofdeaf children. Her grandson is awell known nuclear scientist.Others opened their own buildingbusinesses or became skilledengineers and managers.

These short biographies give aflavour of what it was like to cometo England in this period of socialtransformation. It was not withoutcontroversy. Many of the prisonersfelt they were kept in Englandsimply as cheap labour long afterthe war had ended. They justwanted to go home, or at leastknow how long their captivitywould last.

There was intense debate anddisagreement in Parliament andthe Trade Unions about this use ofprisoner labour. The authoritieswere in a difficult position. Britainwas short of manpower,

aggravated by our militarycommitments all over the world,especially with British Army of theRhine (BAOR), Greece, Palestineand India.

The prisoners were desperateto go home. It was over 18 monthssince the war ended and the PoWcamps were still full. The decidingfactor in keeping them could havebeen the conditions in Germany in1946/47. The situation was dire,there were food riots in the BritishZone of North Germany, highunemployment and a housingshortage even more critical than inEngland.

Our government feared that theconditions in Germany could re-ignite belief in the promises of theNazi party or, more likely, cause adrift to communism. It was felt tobe just recompense that hundredsof tons of food, badly needed inEngland, were sent over toGermany. After all, although thisfood had been grown here, it wasthrough the labour of PoWs.

All the PoWs were returned by1949. About 10% wished to stayand had to promise to work on theland or down mines.

From these inauspiciousorigins, many of those who stayedmanaged to build successful liveshere, often reaching seniorpositions in their chosen fields.Once our enemies, they becamevalued citizens making animportant contribution to ournational life.

5

Angelo Toffanin and daughter visitSheriffhales camp, February 2008.

Mr Upton with the lorry used to ferryprisoners from Cluddley camp to work.


The range of rock typeswithin The Wrekin Forest isone of the most varied in the

world so it is not surprising thatthey have diverse uses. Thegeology here has been exploitedthroughout human habitation.This is an attempt to explain themost common uses that have beenfound for some of our local rocks.

The most easily worked metalis probably gold and we havesome here. It’s in Buckatreequarry, but don’t jump toconclusions; the tiny amount inWrekin quartzite would be soexpensive to extract that it wouldbe much cheaper to buy it from ajeweller. However, there may wellhave been useful depositsthousands of years ago. There mayalso have been copper and tin toaccount for a fairly largepopulation of Bronze Age people.

The longest used mineral isiron ore which was used by theIron Age Celts, builders of TheWrekin Hillfort. They found fist-sized lumps of good iron ore onthe surface in Little Wenlock, BlackHayes and the Short Woods. Therewas also plenty of limestone forflux and, of course, the forestprovided charcoal for the furnaces.They probably began using ironhere around 500BC and it was stillbeing extracted in the earlytwentieth century.

Celts also used sandstone fromthe northern side of The Wrekin tobuild their hillfort on the top.Imagine the amount of workneeded to get a cartload ofsandstone from the bottom of thehill, even with a team of strongoxen. How many tonnes would beneeded to encircle the hilltop –twice?

Romans and RomanisedBritons are known to have usedcoal to fire their central heatingsystem at Viroconium as well ascharcoal and the seams were fairlyclose to the surface anywherebetween Little Wenlock and ShortWood. They, too, would have used

iron and most of the city is built ofsandstone, though much of thatcame from further north and wasfloated down the river.

For their Watling Street’ssurface dressing, they seem tohave quarried Ercallite (orgranophyre), the hard pink fine-grained granite from The Ercall.

It appears also to have beenused by Thomas Telford when heresurfaced the road and extendedit to Holyhead. This rather prettyrock breaks into small hard piecesand was sold as Ercall gravel inVictorian times, popular forgarden paths in large houses likeApley Castle and Dothill and alsosmaller places like Sunnycroft. TheNational Trust, appealing formatching stone for their paths,found it in Ercall quarries.

Coal, clay, ironstone andlimestone have been extractedfrom Short Wood, Black Hayes,Spring Coppice, Limekiln Woodand many other parts, especiallyfrom medieval times and duringthe industrial revolution. Evennow there is an application to takemore by ‘surface mining’ (akaopencast) about which many of usare objecting strongly. At firstshallow mines were dug byprimitive means like bell pits witha ladder, branching out until justbefore (?) the hole collapsed, whenanother hole was dug. Later,timber pit props were used andmining was more extensive.Sometimes, as in Short Wood, adiagonal tunnel was dug; makingan adit or drift mine, into whichminers could walk and coal couldbe brought out by a tramway.

Iron ore and water eventuallymake rust or ochre, which comesout occasionally in springs. Theochre was used for ‘raddling tups’,that is to say daubing the front oframs so that the shepherd couldtell which ewes had been ‘served’by the ram and so estimatelambing time.

Limestone has three main uses– building, farming and ironworking. Our limestone is mostlyCarboniferous in age, not easilyworked or cut in straight lines likesandstone, so not much used forbuilding, especially for corners. Todress fields it was much used afterbeing roasted in a kiln, slakedwith water and powdered. Foriron smelting limestone is used asa flux, absorbing impurities fromthe iron and turning into slag,which is used in road building. InLimekiln Wood are extensive (anddangerous) quarries and mines.When it was discovered that smallboys were used in the mines theywere closed.

Clay is used mainly for brickmaking and we have severaldifferent kinds. Blockleys are stillmaking bricks in Hadley and anold clay pit will soon be built on.Many pools – Apley and Dothillfor example – are from clayextraction. Some deposits are ofvaluable fire clay used for furnacesand there are red, blue and yellowbrick clays. In the Gorge are oddmineral deposits such as talc, tarand fine sands used for blasting.

The biggest quarries in theErcall, Lawrence and MaddocksHills have been for hard-core,forming the bases of roads andbuildings. These were gouged outof the hills, destroying vegetationand wildlife in what wassupposed to be a protected area.Millions of tonnes of WrekinQuartzite and a large grainedgranite called Camptonite wereexploited.

You may say it’s the price TheWrekin Forest paid for TelfordNew Town.

WREKIN ROCKS George Evans

7

Historians owe it to theirreaders to discover thetruth. Sometimes it can be

very difficult, especially whenrumour or wishful thinkingbecomes regarded as accepted fact.

I have been trying to find proofto support various claims ofWellington’s past for several years,without success.

The first is whether or not apagan temple existed in or nearthe present All Saints parishchurchyard.

The Pagan TempleIt strikes me as rather odd that nomention seems to have been madeof a pagan temple in any books orguides relating to the town’shistory until the 1960s. It couldhave been the result of a chanceremark by someone when askedwhether it was possible that thetown’s original Saxon church mayhave been erected on the site ofsacred ground used by pre-Christian worshippers.

He replied, ‘Yes, it may.’Since then, his comment has

been converted in fact and, sad tosay, is often cited by students ofhistory as the reason for the originof our town. The myth is givenfurther credence by the brownplaque on the side of the NatWestBank on The Green. Is it a case ofwishful thinking?

‘Proof’ of pagan presence isquoted by reference to anacademic interpretation ofWellington as ‘grove of the shrinepeople’, using forms of OldEnglish: weoh (shrine) and leah(grove), with the addition of ingas(people of).

This ‘origin’ is extremelydoubtful for several reasons. Oneis that ingas is a word extremelyrare in Shropshire; another is thatit would not be used in the contextof a Saxon settlement but perhapsin a more general way of defininga group of people living in an areaor under the leadership of anindividual, in much the same way

as we may be classed as British orsubjects of a monarch.

The Saxon FarmsteadSomething caused a Saxon to setup home somewhere in the centreof our present town. Angle andSaxon mercenaries had beeninvited into Britain during thesixth and seventh centuries ... andmany decided to stay.

They were seasoned fighterswho eventually gained the upperhand. But they were also farmingfolk who tended to create smallfarmsteads in hitherto quiet andremote parts of the country.Furthermore, after Christianityhad been embraced by the generalpopulation, many smallsettlements had the benefit of alocal priest, often with his ownlittle church, to serve theirspiritual needs.

Since we can be fairly certainthat Saxons set up a farmstead inour locality, and there arenumerous examples of nearbyvillages which take their namefrom early Saxon settlers(Uckington, Uffington, Uppington,Donnington, etc.), should we alsoaccept the fact that Wellington wasnamed after an Anglo-Saxonfarmer (Weola) who happened tochoose our area to erect a farm(tun) which had at least onemeadow (ing)?

I think so. Can I prove itbeyond all doubt? No. But whydidn’t our ancestors bother tomention a pagan shrine? Is itbecause there never was one?

Other OptionsOther reasons for Wellington’sorigins have been suggested,including that it took its namefrom Watling Street (which wasonce a settlement in its own right)or that early forms of the nameindicate an association with Walesor Welsh-speaking people. Noneof these conjectures seems to fitthe facts.

If anyone has definite proof thatthere was indeed a pagan shrine inWellington, please let me know.Until that happens, it would savea lot of confusion if Wellington’sorigins could be credited to Weola,whoever he was. That’s what ourancestors thought.

They may well have been right.

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES Allan Frost

Was there once a pagan sacred grovesomewhere in front of All Saintsparish church? Can you prove it?

Lithograph of All Saints parish church, c. 1880s.


Very few people impress mebut none, in my opinion,holds a candle to the

remarkable achievements of JohnBarber.

He, probably more than anyother individual before or since,was responsible for many changesthat lifted Wellington from beingan overgrown village into aprosperous Victorian township.Yet the town seems to haveforgotten him.

He was still serving anapprenticeship as a land surveyor(among other things) on the Dukeof Cleveland’s Uppington estatewhen his widowed mother moved

into Eversleigh (below) on MillBank in 1840. John joined her afew years later and set up businesshere as an auctioneer and valuerin 1848 at the age of 23. He openedan office (right, as it was in 1975)at 1 Church Street in 1851, wherethe firm still trades.

He soon gained a reputationfor honest dealing, a vital traitamong Victorian businessmen ifthey hoped to succeed. He alsohad the gift of conversingcomfortably with both aristocratsand common working folk.

But he was not content torestrict business activities toarranging sales of property andhousehold goods, or drawingplans for building houses.

He became disgusted at theunderhand antics of livestockdealers from Wolverhampton andBirmingham and tried to hold hisown cattle sale on The Green in1852. It was an unmitigateddisaster. But he was not a man togive up easily, and wasdetermined to stop corruption.

He realised the only wayforward was to obtain his ownpremises where he could controlthe whole affair. His chance camein 1855 when he set up a booth onland by the Bury Yards (where oneof the town’s rubbish dumps was

situated) near the railway bridgein today’s Victoria Road.

As this was a private auctionsupported by a few landownersand farmers willing to test his newventure, unscrupulous dealerswere unable to influence bidding.It was a great success and, overthe ensuing years, Barber’sauctions at his ‘Smithfield’ wentfrom strength to strength andwould ultimately result in a singlevenue for selling all forms of farmlivestock, not just cattle.

Such was the success of theenterprise that the large run-downarea of tenement buildings (whichincluded Nailor’s Row) close toJohn’s booth was renamedSmithfield Place (see map dated1882 opposite).

But what effect did theSmithfield have on the town, apartfrom regularising the sale ofanimals? Quite a lot, actually.

Until John Barber appeared onthe scene, livestock was sold indifferent parts of the town centrestreets: cattle on The Green, sheepin Walker Street, pigs at thenorthern end of Tan Bank andhorses on fields where NewCollege in King Street now stands.Bearing in mind that all animalshad to be driven through the townalong compacted dirt streets withno pavements, and the creatureshad to stand for hours on end,

JOHN BARBER: THE GREATEST WELLINGTONIAN? Allan Frost

Wellington must have beenextremely filthy.

Whereas animals still had to bedriven along roads to theSmithfield, the number ofcreatures passing through thecentre of the town was greatlyreduced, as was the mess they leftbehind. It’s impossible toappreciate the difference it madeto the town’s character.

Further improvements toWellington’s economy came whenJohn assisted the MarketsCompany to obtain an Act ofParliament to acquire land fortheir new market hall (which wasbuilt in 1868 and is still in use) andto transfer the right to collect tollson all animals sold in the town tothe company.

As part of the deal for helpingthem, they built a new Smithfield(below, as seen in 1930) on landnow occupied by Morrisonssupermarket. For the time being,John was allowed to be the soleauctioneer there.

Eventually, Barber’s firmbought the new Smithfield, whichbecame the largest outside Londonuntil its closure in 1989. Manyshopkeepers owed their ownprosperity to the number ofpeople who visited the Smithfieldand, of course, the general market.

And visitors weren’t restrictedto farming folk living in thesurrounding countryside: JohnBarber also held annual woolsales, when fleeces were sold inmarquees erected on field at thesouthern end of where North

Road joins the bottom of SpringHill, although there wereoccasions when the Market Hallwas used to store fleeces from allover the country for examinationbefore bids were made. Theauctions themselves werefrequently held in the Town Hall(also in the market hall building inMarket Street) and attractedinfluential buyers from, amongother places, Yorkshire.

John Barber did not confineactivities to organising auctions ofone sort or another; he did a great

deal more to help the townexpand and prosper. Heintroduced early forms of buildingand insurance benefit societies topromote land acquisition andhouse, office and other commercialbuilding, and drew up numerousplans for town development, oneof which led to the demolition ofSmithfield Place (Wellington’sunruly red light district) to createVictoria Street.

Sadly, John died in 1881, yetthe foundations he laid for hisbusiness helped to ensure itscontinuation; it is currently theoldest surviving firm inWellington. His honestly andcapably made contribution to thetown’s development andprosperity remains unique.

As far as I can tell, John Barberwas the only person to have beenpresented with a superb andgenerous Testimonial (below,signed by over 200 people) andsilverware by Wellington’stownsfolk at an extravagantdinner held at the Charlton ArmsHotel in 1875.

These are just some of thereasons why I hold John Barber insuch high regard and whyWellington should give him therecognition he rightly deserves.

If you’d like to learn more aboutthe history of the remarkable firmfounded by John Barber, read TheStory of Barbers, established 1848,available through all goodbooksellers for a mere £5.00.

9


Ask anyone familiar withWellington’s long andillustrious history to name

its most influential family and it’slikely they’ll mention theCharltons of Apley Castle. Fromtheir historic seat on the northernoutskirts of the town, successivegenerations of the ancient dynastyhad a considerable hand in localaffairs over the course of manycenturies.

Yet, while the Charlton’sinfluence can be seen all aroundWellington ¬— in its buildings,street names and coat of arms(which incorporates a depiction oftheir home), there is anotherfamily whose contribution to thelife of the town appears to havebeen largely forgotten.

For at least a century, there rolein its commercial developmentand the well-being of its citizenswas, arguably, just as significant asthe Charltons and so pervasivethat it continues to be felt in themost insignificant aspects ofeveryday life… from the simpleact of boiling the kettle to makinga quick trip down the cashmachine! So let us take a momentto consider the achievements ofWellington’s great lost benefactors— the Eytons.

Ancient OriginsWith a lineage that can be tracedback to the late Twelfth Century,the Eytons are among the oldestmembers of the landed gentry inShropshire. Despite their ancientpedigree, they did not becomedirectly involved in Wellington’saffairs until the mid 1700s, whenThomas Eyton moved with hisfamily to a mansion in theCrescent Road area of town fromtheir ancestral seat of Eyton-upon-the-Weald Moors. His reasons fordoing so remain unclear but, in anera when it had becomefashionable to abandon the oldcountry pile for a morecomfortable abode (the Charltons,for instance, moved to a new town

house – The Vineyard – in 1721),his was not a particularly unusualcourse of action.

Following his arrival, Eytonadded numerous residential andcommercial properties to hisexisting Wellington estate and mayhave viewed relocation as a meansof consolidating his interests in anera when the town was feeling thefirst flushes of a commercial boomfrom its proximity to the eastShropshire coalfield.

Whatever the motives behindthe Eytons arrival, it was not longbefore they made their presencefelt in the town. Within the familyrecords , a series of letters writtenat the turn of the NineteenthCentury by Frances Sparrow (aWrockwardine spinster for whomthe Eytons acted as legal trustees)provide a florid insight into thereverential treatment afforded to afamily who, in an age before theadvent of democratic localgovernment, clearly exerted apatriarchal influence over localaffairs.

Head of household at the timewas Thomas Eyton who, asShropshire’s Receiver-General ofTaxes and co-founder ofWellington’s first regular bankingservice , undoubtedly flexed agreat deal of financial muscle inthe town.

Yet, if Miss Sparrow’sassertions are anything to go by,he was also a compassionatesupporter of its less wealthycitizens. ‘Mr Eyton has great meritfor his exertions in favour of thepoor’ she opined ‘for they areunremitted (sic) and he has no oneto assist him’, suggesting that suchgenerosity of spirit was by nomeans the norm.

Indeed, Mr Eyton’sbenevolence is well-documented,in such instances as the festivitieshe laid-on for his eldest sonThomas’ coming of age; when thetown ‘was entirely illuminatedand an Ox and about 13 or 14sheep given and roasted by theinhabitants’.

A few years later, at youngThomas’ wedding, food andmoney were again distributed tothe poor at Eyton’s expense buthis good reputation was set to beseverely tested as events took atragic turn for the worse.

Tragedy StrikesThomas Eyton died at his home inJanuary 1816, after what waswidely supposed as a short illness.In fact, he had committedsuicide… after falling badly intoarrears with his taxes in his roll asReceiver-General.

In a stunning reversal of

THE MAGNIFICENT EYTONS Marc Petty

Eyton Hall, c. 1900.

11

fortunes, all but Eyton’s settledestates were seized by the Crownand, following an inquisition atthe Falcon Inn on Haygate Road ,sold to recover his debts, leavinghis eldest son Thomas with nooption but to return to theancestral seat on the Weald Moors.

Eyton Hall, however, had beenruinous since at least 1763 , andthe family were forced to takerefuge in a nearby farmhouse,around which even the crops hadbeen seized by the Exchequer! Yet,despite their seemingly hopelessposition, the Eytons had far fromlost their influence in Wellington..

In 1802, Thomas Eytonexercised a traditional family rightby presenting his third son Johnto the living of All Saints church.While his appointment may havebeen governed by nepotism, thenew vicar proved more thancapable of the task and is widelycredited with inspiring aremarkable religious revival inWellington.

Reverend Eyton’s achievementswere founded on his extraordinaryabilities as an eloquent andpowerful preacher in theevangelist tradition, to which hehad become a convert during histime at St John’s College,Cambridge, where he graduated in1799 (receiving his Masters degreethree years later).

Seemingly, his great piety hadbeen recognised in Wellingtonbefore ordination, as FrancesSwallow readily attests; ‘youwould hardly believe it possiblefor so young a person, but 21, tohave established such a character,as he bears here - but his wholestudy is to benefit the poor and toassist distress’.

When he gave his first sermon,Eyton became something of anovernight sensation, leading MissSwallow to declare ‘the Parish ofWellington will have every reasonto be thankful for such a Pastor’.

That they were is demonstratedby the remarks of the writerCharles Hulbert, who, afterReverend Eyton’s death in 1823 (atjust 45 years of age), wrote ‘thesorrow and distress of theaffectionate parishioners of

Wellington at the loss of theirbeloved Pastor… may beconceived but cannot bedescribed’.

Reverend Eyton had sufferedfrom persistent ill healththroughout his twenty years inoffice but, much like his fatherbefore him, took a close interest inthe welfare of his parishioners,visiting the sick and destitute andproviding poor children witheducation at Wellington FreeSchool — a model of its kind longbefore the establishment of theNational School Society.

His sermons, which wereamong the first items to bepublished by the fledglingHoulstons Printers, continued toinspire generations ofWellingtonians, such as HesbaStretton (who shared his deepevangelical fervour) and, byworking closely with theWesleyans, he also played a crucialrole in helping establish a place fornon-conformist worship in eastShropshire , which is, perhaps, hismost enduring legacy.

An Enduring Influence Just as one of the Eytons hadattended to Wellington’s spiritualneeds, so another beganaddressing its inhabitants’physical well-being.

Although Thomas Eytonreturned to the Weald Moors in1816 and set about providing amansion worthy of restoring hisfamily’s reputation , his eldest sonThomas Campbell Eytoneventually came back toWellington, taking up residence atDonnerville House and, latterly,The Vineyard, where he lived withhis wife and children.

T.C. Eyton was a leading lightin the provision of Wellington’spublic utilities and it was hiscompany, formed in 1851, that wasresponsible for building areservoir at Ercall Pools to supplythe town with drinking water.

He also helped establish a gascompany that eventually took overprovision for the whole town fromits railside works in Bridge Road,which remained a notable locallandmark for many years.

Just at the peak of hisinfluence, Eyton ended hisfamily’s direct involvement inlocal affairs when he inherited theancestral estate in 1855.

While he had been aninfluential figure in Wellingtonpublic life, he enjoyed a muchhigher profile as a distinguishednaturalist, famed throughoutEurope as a recognised authorityon Ornithology, publishing manybooks and papers on the subject.

After moving back to EytonHall, he turned his attention tobuilding a museum to house whatwas widely regarded as one of thefinest private natural historycollections in Britain, although theventure did not come cheaply.Within the family records, severalincreasingly fraught letters writtenby Eyton’s father-in-law R.A.Slaney emphasise the heavy costof improvements, whicheventually amounted to nearly £10 000 .

The heavy burden was not justa financial one, either. Indeed,Slaney had taken it upon himselfto save the new lord of the manorfrom ‘ruin and sorrow’ and hisinsistence that Eyton promise ‘totake steadily to water and leaveoff intoxicating liquors’ hints atthe underlying problems of a manhe feared had become ‘habitually

Thomas Campbell Eyton

Concluded on next page ...


disguised and weakened’ by ‘badhabits’.

All of which seems farremoved from the dignified publicimage of a person who had notonly served as a Justice of thePeace but also Lieutenant in theWellington Corp of the ShropshireYeomanry!

With the Crescent Roadmansion succumbing todemolition soon after the Eytonsmoved back to the Weald Moors ,few obvious traces of their time inWellington survive.

There are no street names orpublic edifices to commemoratetheir good deeds, whilesubsequent modernisation hasswept away many features of theutilities the family helped toestablish in the town.

Given their comprehensiveinfluence over local affairs, thereare still plenty of ways toremember the Eytons, so, nexttime you turn on the gas centralheating or go to the tap for a glassof water, spare a thought forWellington’s lost, but not entirelyforgotten, benefactors!

Some members of WellingtonHistory Group committeehave amassed a wealth of

information on Wellington and itsinhabitants, including tradedirectories, maps, copies ofproperty sales, census listings and,of course, photographs of thetown and its people.

We may be able to help folkdoing their own research,including aspects of Wellington’shistory and family trees, soinformation which may not beavailable in public libraries andrecord offices could be supplied byus for a small fee to cover timeand expenses. On the other hand,if we don’t have the informationourselves, we can often point youin the right direction or offeralternative suggestions.

We have already providedinformation to peopleinvestigating ancestors involved inthe malting, brewing and pub-keeping trades ... some from as faraway as Australia!

Our offers of help also extend

to businesses and churches whichmay want to know more about thebuildings they occupy, and eventhe Borough and Town Councils.Sometimes we are able toinfluence decisions which couldotherwise have an adverse effecton the historical integrity andheritage of the town or itssurrounding environment.

The history of Wellington isfascinating; there’s so much tolearn. We rely on people willing toshare their own experiences andwhatever family papers andphotographs they may havelurking at the back a drawer.

One way or another, we are allhistorians. Many people want toknow more about their families,and how they can record theirfindings for future generations.

We can offer advice ... butresearch is not just a one-wayprocess. Your own discoveries canhelp Wellington History Groupgain a better understanding of ourtown’s fascinating past, so pleaseshare your findings with us.

THE WREKIN TOPOGRAPH Allan Frost

No one can ever knoweverything or be surewhat they’ve written is

totally correct. Several times afterone of my books has beenpublished, someone has turned upwith a rare photograph or snippetof information which casts aslightly different light on thesubject.

That’s exactly what happenedwith my book The Wrekin Hill. Init, there’s a topographicillustration of the landmarks youcan see from The Wrekin summit.

Until recently, we (historians,that is) believed these topographscame into being shortly afterrailway services arrived inWellington in 1849. They wereintended as useful souvenirs fortourists. The earliest version of the

topograph seemed to have beenpublished in an 1870 guide. Howwrong can you be?

A few months ago, AnnePlummer contacted the WrekinFriends web site saying she had anold Wrekin topograph printed incolour on good quality cloth.

She sent it to George Evans forsafekeeping until Wellington getsits own museum or an archivessection in the library.

The interesting thing about thistopograph, which is slightly largerthan an A3 sheet of paper, is thatit’s dated 1824, almost 50 yearsearlier than any other we’dmanaged to find.

This discovery leads us torethink the origins of Wrekintourism. As it’s of such quality, itmust have been produced for

‘better off’ visitors takingadvantage of the increase in, andfrequency and reliability of,stagecoach transport, perhaps as adirect result of generalimprovements to roadconstruction by engineers likeThomas Telford at that time.

Which leads me to mentionsomething I realised years ago ...folk have some exciting thingstucked away in their attics.

Have you? If so, please get intouch.

We’re interested in virtuallyeverything to do with the town,especially if it’s printed on paperor cloth. We can’t, unfortunately,accept artefacts (like bottles,pottery and even old farmmachinery) but we would like theopportunity to photograph them.

CAN WE HELP?The Magnificent Eytons

continued from previous page ...


History is all around us andalthough it is about thepast, the present can

provide us with clues to our localhistory. Even in a relatively smallmarket town like Wellington thereare numerous clues if we taketime to stop, look, and think. Theaim of this article is to give you aflavour of the types of things thatcan still be seen that provide aglimpse into the past.

I would like to focus on someexamples of physical features thatare in and around the centre of thetown. Old advertisements andsigns represent good examples ofhow vestiges of the past are stillpresent today even if the reasonsfor their origins have long sinceceased.

The railway bridge in ChurchStreet still shows the remnants of a‘McCLURE’S’ white-paintedadvertisement on one of its brickwalls. McClure’s had shops inboth Crown and Duke Streetssince the Great War . It is sad tosee that the McClure’s shop inShrewsbury has also closed.

Rather than just state whereother different examples arelocated, it might be interesting tosee if you can recognise thedescriptions of old signs andwhether you can identify theirlocations.

One prominent old sign depictsa black painted ‘TEA ROOMS’moniker positioned on the side ofa building with a hand and fingerpointing towards the entrance. Thebusiness there today is verydifferent.

Black lettering on a faded whitebackground indicates the settingfor a former ‘BRUSH & BASKETMAKER’ in another area of thetown. Fortunately, it also includesthe name of former owner.

Further along the same road,the emblem of a formermanufacturing company canclearly be seen. The circular sign isblue and white and it is positionedat the top of the front of thebuilding. It gives the initials of thecompany in question althoughthere is no indication of theproducts that were made on thepremises. Those ‘in the know’would immediately realise whatthe initials in the ‘The C.V. Co Ltd’sign stood for. Today the buildinghas a very different use.

A short distance away fromhere two stained glass pinkinscriptions stating ‘COMPLETE’and ‘FURNISHERS’ are still inevidence on the first floorwindows. No prizes for guessingthe name of this business. Inrecent years the premises belowhave been used for a variety ofretail outlets. This establishment

has a personal connection as manyyears ago my mother wasemployed there. Next time you areat the top of New Street why notsee if you can spot them?

White letters on a greybackground spelling out the word‘BILLIARDS’ are clearly visibleabove the doorway of the rearentrance to what is still anentertainment venue in the centreof the town. Keep a look out for itnext time you park your car andwalk down the steps into town.While billiards may no longer bethe order of the day at thosepremises, another building that formany years was known as ‘TheWellington Billiard Hall’ on TanBank, was more recently used forthe more popular past time ofsnooker. That of course was theformer ‘Rechabite Hall’ as can stillbe seen today.

Whilst the Rechabites wouldnot have approved of the previousvenue selling alcohol, it should beremembered that Wellington hadan enormous amount of publichouses around the town.

The grey ‘FOX & HOUNDS’and ‘1908’ signs against a red brickbackground indicate the locationof that former public house.

Elsewhere in the town there isa date stone for just two yearslater, but where? Read on ...

On the side of a building nearto the public house mentionedabove there is a yellow ‘PublicConveniences’ sign still displayedalthough anybody attempting tofollow its advice would surely findthemselves inconvenienced as thefacilities that the sign relates to areno longer in use.

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS OF WELLINGTON Chris Fletcher

A modern blue public housestyle sign still hangs outside aregrettably closed establishment.See if you can spot it with itshistoric coat of arms before it isconsigned to history. As a clue toits location there is adjacent to itanother sign which ispredominantly white in colouradvertising ‘The Boot Room’restaurant. There is also a painted-over plaque on the wall whichtells of the link to one of the mostimportant family names in thehistory of Wellington.

On occasions, older signs canstill accurately depict the currentbusiness that uses the premisesindicating the longevity of theparticular establishment. Anexample of this is the white

painted sign above the first floorwindows showing the name of aparticular estate agents located inChurch Street.

The Square in the centre oftown has a number of historicbuildings. I wonder how manypeople could name the currentoccupants of the building that wasthe site of a former renownedprinting and publishing firm? Twodamaged brown tiles with scenesfrom a working printing firm arestill visible below windows at thefront of the building.

Sometimes, when olderbuildings are removed orredeveloped, all trace is lost.However, there is still a smallpiece of evidence adjacent to thesite of the former swimming bathsin the town which has the dateinscription of ‘1910’. I managed tolearn to swim there just before itwas demolished.

These are just a few examplesof how the past lives on inWellington.

Next time you go into townwhy not look more closely at thestreetscape that we all take forgranted and see what you can spotfor the first time? There is boundto be something you have passedon numerous occasions but simplynot noticed before.

If anyone has any interestingstories about any of the sitesincluded in this article, pleasewrite in with your recollections.

OLD PHOTOS

Do you have any oldphotographs or postcardsshowing scenes of

Wellington, The Wrekin or WealdMoors? If so, please get in touch.

Photographs not only showwhat things were like at aparticular point in time, they canalso be compared to other picturesso that we can see the changeswhich have taken place over theyears. Comparing successivephotos can sometimes help us topin down roughly when each onewas taken.

This photo of The Greenlooking towards All Saints parishchurchyard was taken sometimebefore the 1920s when thebuildings were demolished tomake way for what was then theNational Provincial Bank.

15

The Green, the oldest identifiable location in Wellington.


Wellington History Group, affiliated toWellington Civic Society, is a group ofindividuals interested in various aspects of

the history of our town and has been created to fulfilthe following objectives:

1. To research and publicise the history of thetown of Wellington and its neighbourhood, includingThe Wrekin Hill.

2. To work with other organisations andindividuals having similar aspirations.

3. To organise or take part in events, exhibitions,displays and pageants of local history.

4. To advise and help each other with localhistory work.

5. To support any worthy efforts with positiveimplications for local history.

6. To publish books, leaflets and other work.

We are not restricted to things that happened decadesor centuries ago ... even yesterday is history!

CONTACT DETAILS

Please address general correspondence to:

Secretary: Joy Rebello, 6 Barnfield Crescent,Wellington, Telford, Shropshire, TF1 2ES.

Tel: 01952 402459. email: [email protected]

Other committee members of Wellington HistoryGroup are:

To help us make a success of this excitingventure, we need your help. If you haveanything on paper connected with the history

of Wellington and its surrounding area (including TheWrekin Hill), please get in touch.

We’re interested in anything and everything:personal photographs taken at work or during events,postcards, programmes, posters, maps, directories,guide books ... in fact, you name it!

We are keen to acquire as much information as wecan. And don’t worry about the safety of yourtreasured belongings. Unless you say you don’t wantitems back (in which case we’ll take them off yourhands with a view to donating them to theWellington museum if or when it is created,otherwise to Wellington Library), we’ll copy andreturn them, unharmed, in a short space of time.

So, please take time to explore those boxes tuckedaway gathering dust at the back of the attic ... and, ifyou’re in any doubt about how useful somethingmight be, we’ll help you decide. The only effort we’dnormally ask you to make is to provide us with alittle background information on the subjects ofpersonal photographs.

Please help us rediscover Wellington’s Past!

President: George Evans, 18 Barnfield Crescent,Wellington, The Wrekin, TF1 2EU.

Tel: 01952 641102. email [email protected]

Chairman: Allan Frost, 1 Buttermere Drive,Priorslee, Telford, Shropshire, TF2 9RE.


Treasurer: Phil Fairclough, 2 Arrow Road,Shawbirch, Telford, Shropshire, TF5 0LF.


About Wellington History Group ...and how you can help us to help you

WHAT WE DO AND HOW YOU CAN HELP

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 are copyright of the authors.

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