What a wonderful evening celebrating 180 years of St Mark’s Church for their Summer Soiree. The evening unfoldered with Shelfield Male Voice Choir entertaining us with a delightful selection of songs. Our local Reverend Marie addressed the congregation, which reflected on the fellowship and faith of a loving community. Our own Chairman Gary Smith, spoke about the history of the church and how it came to be in Great Wyrley. As at the time it was undecided if the stone church in Early English style would be in Great Wyrley or Cheslyn Hay. The foundation stone was laid April 23rd 1844 and the new church at Great Wyrley was opened and consecrated on July 22nd 1845. The first baptism took place on the same day. St Mark’s was the first church to have a South Asian vicar of any Church of England parish, Shapurji Adalji. He was vicar of the parish of St. Mark’s from 1876 to 1918. Two years previous Shapurji married Charlotte Stoneham in 1874. Their first child was George, born in 1876, followed by Horace in 1879 and Maud in 1882. The story went on to George Edalji, Shapurji Adalji eldest son, that became infamous in Britain when he was convicted in 1903 for the mutilation of a horse and for writing a number of malicious anonymous letters in the parish of Great Wyrley.

We had a walk down memory lane of how the area was back in 1845, with only dirt roads in and out of the village. It was lovely to see a video montage of photos gathered over the years. We had also found out a collect of photos that was displayed on a board, that we have in our archives, which anyone can see at our coffee mornings, Third Thursday of each month.

It was lovely to hear from our local Parish Councillor, Kath Perry, with the delights of what’s happening now around the village. Tom Baylis did a talk about “Why do I worship here?” he explained how wonderful it was being part of a church and community with so much history and that has joined hundreds of couples in marriage, baptised thousands of children and brought so much enjoy to families in and around the area.

Our guest speaker today Andy French, was full of carry on humour telling us all about the fabulous collection of British comedy films, comprising of 31 films, 4 Christmas specials, a television series and stage shows produced between 1958 and 1992.

The Carry On series contains the largest number of films of any British film franchise, and is the second longest running, albeit with a 14-year gap (1978–1992) between the 30th and 31st entries. It’s so hard to think which carry on film was the best as they were all great and the cast were amazing, each playing their part brilliantly. Sid James Nicknamed “One Take James” because he nearly always did it right the first time. He was earning the highest daily rate of any character actor in the UK. For Carry On Dick (1974) Sid James was paid £5,000, with female co-stars only being paid about half that amount. The budget for Carry On Dick was £212,948. Sid was said to be the King of Carry On, which he definitely earned that name, also earned the reputation of having the dirtiest laugh on film. One of the most rememberable scenes from the Carry On films is from Carry On Camping with Barbara Windsor. Where a morning exercise class ends with Barbra’s bra catapulting off and hitting Kenneth in the face, leaving Barbara’s boobs exposed and a bunch of giggling girls. Andy French continued on talking about every actor and actress who played in the films and how much they got paid, hopefully he will be coming again next year, he has about 10 talks, he is informative and funny.

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This year (2025), Great Wyrley Wesley Methodist Church are celebrating their 100th year in the current building. To make the occasion they are running a Children’s Drawing Competition and are asking children from local Schools, Brownies and Scout groups to take part. All primary school aged children are welcome to take part, which are split into three age groups with prizes for the best drawing, painting or creation.

Three competition groups:
Group 1 – Year 1 & 2
Group 2 – Year 3 & 4
Group 3 – Year 5 & 6
All winners will receive a grand prize from the church

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The Building of St Marks Church, Great Wyrley.

When the question of building a church arose, the inhabitants could not decide whether the site should be in Great Wyrley or Cheslyn Hay. Edward, the first Lord Hatherton took a leading part in the affairs. Lord Hatherton and Mr Gilpin decided to talk to Reverend Smith, the vicar of Cannock, and Mr Sant who had both made generous offers toward the building of St Marks Church, and after much persuasion a new site was chosen. When it came to raising the money, Lord Hatherton said “the farmers and the poor people behaved magnificently,” also remarking that it was the growth of Gilpin Iron Works that had caused the need for the new church. Lord Hatherton gave £100, and his mother another £100, aswell as his unmarried sisters gave like amounts

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We had a great day at Great Wyrley Carnival, with a massive turnout of people, from the village and surrounding towns, all coming to join in on the celebration. We were thankful for so many people coming to visit our stall, to buy books and have a go on our tombola, aswell as look at our photos and talking to us about their time in Great Wyrley. It’s nice to be surround by such lovely people. 

We’d like to thank the carnival committee for organising the event and all the people that took part in the day from all the drivers of the vehicle, that gave their time up to driver around the village. The marching band, that must of been hot having to carry their instruments and wear their uniform in the hot weather. All the people that was involved in dressing up the lorries. The carnival committee must of had a difficult decision deciding on the best dressed lorry, has they all looked amazing. I was amazed to see how well behaved the kids (and adults) were on the lorries. The were sitting on lorries from 11:30am to take part on the judging and then with the ride around the village not returning until 2pm, it was a long time on a hot day. It was lovely to see local residents dishing out tiptops to the children on the floats, just want they needed.

Great Wyrley Carnival 2025 Float winners are:

View our Carnival Gallery

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE PHOTOGRAPHS