The Great War book of Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay, seven years in the making has been launched, detailing the lives of soldiers who died in the First World War. Great Wyrley & Cheslyn Hay Great War chronicles life in the two villages in the run-up to the conflict, followed by extensive information on those who lost their lives – as well as those that survived – before moving on to further community tales. Written by Paul Ford, with contributions from Helen Ralphs and Andy Parsons, as well as help from Soeli Thomas (Graphic Designer of the book), launched by ourselves at Great Wyrley Local History Society.
It is our fifth book to be published. Chairman & Editor, Gary Smith said 50 copies had been produced, which are not on general sale, but would be available in a host of libraries, including Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Cannock and Walsall, as well as William Salt in Stafford. There will also be copies at the South Staffs Regiment Museum at Whittington. Gary said: “It’s very informative and very well put together, a vast amount of research as gone into producing the Great War book, with many late nights. Heritage Lottery funding of £8,900 was awarded for the project in 2018, but due to Covid-19 there as been a delay in getting the book completed.
See full Chronicle Newpaper article – Thursday, 3, April
The villages are getting closer together as the boarder between Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay is starting to blurr. Full plans have been lodged for the construction of more than 100 new homes on land between Cheslyn Hay, and Great Wyrley. The scheme is for 130 dwellings, public open space, allotments, linear park and groundworks and infrastructure on land south of Landywood Lane. Details of the application by Cameron Homes can be viewed at South Staffordshire Council. Deadline for comments is April 16 by going online via staffs gov. uk/planning or via email to planning@sstaffs gov.uk
The notice also states: “All representations will be made publicly available. ln the event of an appeal that proceeds by way of the expedited procedure, any representations made about the application will be passed to the Secretary of State and there will be no opportunity to make further representations.”
Councillor Kath Perry, who represents Cheslyn Hay, Essington and Great Wyrley, joined the council in 2005. We are set to loss a great lady on the Staffordshire County Chamber after she retries at the end of April 2025, she’s done great things and has made a big difference within the village.
Read full article in the Chronicle Newspaper Thursday April 3, 2025
Here’s a view of D.W. Clarke & Son Ltd in Cannock. They sold everything from screws, paint and wallpaper to carpets and furniture. The business was set up by Daniel Wheelwright Clarke in the 19th century. It stood on Market Place and the site in 2019 was occupied by Yorkshire Bank. The empty space to the left became the Wolverhampton Road. Avon Road in Cannock, originally part of the A460, was opened on July 31, 1964, and was renumbered as A4601.
We have had a great evening at the launch of our new Great War Book by Paul Ford. It has taken over 7 years to gather all the information. Helen Ralphs and Andy Parsons have also contributed to this book, adding in their own part of family research. This book wouldn’t of been possible without Roy Myatt that helped get the Lottery Grant that funded the book. Paul Ford spent many years, back and forward to Staffordshire archives researching the information about the soldiers on the Great Wyrley Memorial Gates. This book is not for sale, but will be available on loan from the History Society and Libraries in the area.
This book is arranged into three sections. The first examines Great Wyrley and its neighbours from just prior to the war, through the war years (broken into the individual years to reflect the change), into the post-war period. Each of the war years starts with the important military events, followed by views on more specific home-front topics: understanding the war, views on the enemy, joining-up and shirking, government control of the people, the hardship created by the war, the supporting of the war effort, and trying to go about ‘business as usual.’
The second section is what | was asked to do by the Great Wyrley Local History Society, which is a write-up of the Wyrleyblog project. It opens, however, with further notes on the memorial garden, focusing on the theft of the memorial gates in 1987 and the naming errors that were created by that theft. It goes on with an examination of the names of the fallen soldiers on the replacement plaques to provide both a basic identification and an accepted spelling for their name. This evidence was used to commission the new memorial stone.
The section then goes on to tell the basic life stories of those soldiers that are on the new memorial. This includes one soldier who is not on the old plaques but ironically is on the plaques for those that served and survived. There is no right or wrong way of organising these biographies, however, to be true to the learning curve of the project, I decided to keep them as separate stories and displayed in the order that I researched them. This means that some information is repeated (and it will be noticeable), as the stories were written over years and were never designed to be in read all together in a book format.
Photo taken on the evening of the Great War Book Launch, listening to the talk by Paul Ford
Section three is an eclectic mix, which is designed to encompass both community and life. It brings in different authors, Andy and Helen, who will be reflecting on the war experiences of their own ancestors and so have insights that cannot be matched. They also, refreshingly, talk about soldiers that survive.
For my parts, I chose four different tales. One story is that of Frank Emberton: he was the most highly decorated ordinary soldier to appear on a Wyrley memorial, being awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, yet he was more involved with Bridgtown and Cheslyn Hay than Great Wyrley. A second story is that of Wallace Lawson: Lawson was from Cheslyn Hay, but died while returning home and now rests permanently in Great Wyrley cemetery. It is impossible to track everyone that lived in Great Wyrley and then left, going on to be killed in the conflict, however, I wanted to find an exemplar to represent such people in order to show they are included in spirit: as such, the third story is that of the Chilton family, once of Churchbridge. The final story looks at a community within a community, with the experiences of the Landywood Working Men’s Club (Lower Landywood WMC, and now Harrisons Club) over the conflict.
The fact that the Great War was a savage conflict is not disputed, but many have written the conflict off as a ‘bad war’ as the positives that came from it – true democracy and social emancipation for both the working class and women – are seemingly forgotten.
Why? Possibly because of its re-evaluation in light of the Second World War, as it proved that the ‘war to end all wars’ was a naïve hope. The Great War would have the indignity of being relegated – becoming the First World War – and then face further questions as to why it was fought and what it actually achieved: at least the Second World War, it was understood, was fought against an abhorrent ideology.
Most people’s connection to the Great War today, if not from family memorabilia, museums or archives, comes from viewing its war memorials. These memorials have usually been amended to reflect the fallen from the Second World War and this often shows the disparity between the military fatalities from the two wars simply adding to the feeling of ‘waste.’ Originally, such memorials were seen differently: they were places of pilgrimage to mourn the inaccessible fallen and through their use of language (‘honour,” freedom’ and ‘sacrifice,”) a justification of the war – that the men died defending country, family and noble virtues. A message – as the memorials investigated in the book show -aimed at the young and unborn generations as an example of duty.
Paul Ford – Author of the Great War Book
All people involved in producing the Great War Book. From L-R: Soeli Thomas – Graphic Designer of the book, Helen Ralphs, Paul Ford, Gary Smith, Andy Parsons – all contributed to writing parts in the Great War Book.
After the war the country struggled to find different ways to understand, commemorate and interpret what the war had actually meant: initially, celebration was juxtaposed with two-minute silences, and reflective tree plantings with the exhibition of captured artillery. Over time, it was the sombre reflection of mainly non-combatants that won out; this, it can be argued, is evident when looking at the responses to gifts of captured German militaria offered to both Great Wyrley and the Cheslyn Hay Parish Council.
