Castle Bromwich War Memorial

Not far from Castle Bromwich Hall on the Green is the Castle Bromwich War Memorial. My photographs were taken in early 2007; and since then this war memorial has had a further plaque added for those killed in action from the area since 1945.

The main memorial is divided into the left part dedicated to the First World War and the right part to the Second World War.
Names are as following:

The Great War 1914 - 1918

S Andrews
H Betts
E Birch
R O B Bridgeman
G Brotherton
R E Bullows
J T Churchill
F Crofts
A Eden
R Eden
R D Evans

A Hancox
J Harvey
A Hemmings
G Holtham
B T Harris
E Irons
G Irons
W J Leake
W S Morgan
G Neville

S G Ravenhall
H E Rhodes
J T Rowley
H Rudd
H Rushton
S Smith
C Stone
H J Watlington
A W Watton
J Woolley
F Wyatt

The middle plaque with a cross above has the thought provoking paragraph:

At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.

The World War 1939 - 1945
Names are as following:

W Adams
O G Baker
T Collins
A Cooke
J Cook
G Cox
R Crawford
D R Davis
E Davis
R Dawes
M Dunn

F Forbes
G E Gostling
E Hall
B Johnson
E Jones
A M Henry
A Milner
G Palmer
T Sale
T Savage
J Snowball

N Stocker
L Thomas
R Thompson
A Tonks
B Walker
J Winkley
B Winning
G Winning
F Wynn
and
Mary W Green

From the names of the soldiers who died in the First World War there is R O B Bridgeman who was Commander Richard Orlando Bridgeman DSO. He was the second son of the 4th Earl of Bradford and Ida Frances Anabella Lumley of Castle Bromwich Hall. He died in 1917 aged 37 when his plane got into difficulty over Africa.
The only name that appears to be female is on the Second World War section and is that of Mary W Green. This is Mary Winifred Green, Chief Volunteer of the Auxiliary Territorial Services who died in 1940. She was the oldest daughter of John and Ethel Green of Castle Bromwich. She is buried in Perry Barr Cemetery in Birmingham.  

War memorial in St Peter's Church, by Coughton Court, Alcester

A short walk from Coughton Court in Alcester is the church of St Peter's. Inside is a wall plaque with the names and information of the men who died in the First World War. This grade1 listed building might be missed on a trip to the house but well worth taking time out to view. The war memorial plaque is easy to read (thank goodness) being in white with black wording. So my older eyes were able to transcribe this one without much difficulty.

Underneath the black cross is the wording:

To the glory of God and in memory of those who went forth from this parish and fell in the Great War 1914 - 1918.

Lieut Col Throckmorton, Royal Welch Fusiliers, April 9th 1916, Sanna Y Yat.
Major C E C Eagles DSO, Royal Marine Light Infantry, April 23rd 1918, Zeebrugge.
Sec Liet Percival A Chambers, Royal Warwickshire Regt, April 26th 1916, Mesopotamia.
L/Cpl F Mason MM, Royal Warwickshire Regt, August 9th 1917, France.
Frank Ainge, Gloucestershire Regt, Dec 2nd 1917, France.
Charles Baylis, Royal Garrison Artillery, Dec 1916, France.
Dennis Bolt, Worcestershire Regt, March 4th 1917, France.
Ernest Ford, Labour Brigade, August 8th 1917, France.
Leslie Horton, Worcestershire Regt, Oct 20th 1916, France.
Edward P Johnson, Worcestershire Regt, Dec 1st 1917, France.
John Parker, Royal Warwickshire Regt, July 10th 1917, Mesopotamia.
Arthur Perks, Royal West Kent Regt, Sept 24th 1918, France.
Frederick Pinfold, Dorsetshire Regt, Oct 2nd 1916.
W Harry Smith, Royal Warwickshire Regt, July 30th 1916, France.
Arthur Wheeler, Post Office Rifles, Dec 1916, France.

Information about St Peter's Church Alcester and Coughton Court.

Lieutenant Corporal Richard Courtney Brabazon Throckmorton was just 49 (born 1866) when he died. Already a veteran of the Boer War and heir to the Coughton Estate.

Arthur John Wheeler was 26 when he died in France. Previously a rural postman living in River Cottage, Alcester, Warwickshire in 1911.He was in the 8th City Of London Battalion, Post Office Rifles. Interestingly other resources says that he died on the 7th October 1916.

More memorials to come in and around Solihull and Birmingham. 
 

Photographs from a 1940s wedding in Acocks Green, Birmingham

Don't you love a mystery? So when this small book of wedding photographs from the 1940s was auctioned on Ebay, I couldn't resist. There are no names of the happy couple or any details other than the photographer was a Stanley Hewitt, Studio 85, Warwick Road, Olton, Birmingham 27. Can you help name them and so that I can hopefully return this book to the family that ended up in Exeter.

Just a few of the photographs are going to be shown and the first is of the happy bride and groom. Who are they? When the photographs arrived the church was a mystery but there are some clues.

Groom with his best man waiting by the church door before the wedding. Quite a distinct carved entrance that reminded me of the church that my mother was married in. So out came her photographs but none showed the carved head above, but the stone work looked very similar.

Three lovely bridesmaids with glorious bouquets in their hands. Its a pity the photographs then were not in colour. Would love to know the colour of their dresses.  Wonder how long it took them to curl their hair just right ready for the big day. Curlers in over night and a hot curling iron warmed on the fire to finish of the tight curls maybe. 
Now as we were transcribing war memorials and visiting churches. I visited the St Mary, the virgin church in Acocks Green, Birmingham to look for a match and it so happens to be the church that my parents got married in during the late 1950s.

 
We found that the door and entrance matched these mid to late 1940s wedding photographs.

Hence this radiant bride and her beaming groom were married in St Mary, the virgin church in Acocks Green on the Warwick road.
Here are them with the main family. I love the way that the mothers were sat down. Probably because their shoes were hurting by this time or because it was a correct etiquette thing to do. I am not quite sure. 

The whole wedding party photograph seems to have been taken elsewhere. Can not name this building as yet?  It looks like the reception was at a hall somewhere. Maybe this was the church hall or one of the working mens clubs in the area. It was usually quite close in those days, as many people did not have a car, so would have been walking or catching the bus. How we take things for granted nowadays on distance.

Do you recognize anyone. My mom lived in Acocks Green as a young girl and she couldn't, but some one might.
Here is a photograph inside with the wedding cake. Love the tiered cakes that were traditionally decorated. One part was put away for the first christening with the icing and marzipan removed first.

Then lastly the going away car and happy couple or wedding car with loads of paper confetti. No clues to the street from this photograph. It could either be outside the St Marys church or the wedding reception. See the little boy in the background scooping up the confetti from the floor. Kids don't change do they! He would be in his 60s or 70s now.

So can you help? Just email us via our website or post a comment to the bottom of this blog. We do look at them before publishing and would not publish anything with an email or phone number on - because of the spam that follows!