Do you remember Willenhall?

Many who lived, some who still live here in Willenhall, have come forward and either put pen to paper or tape-recorded their memories of life in the area. The group is gaining a nice collection of old and new photographs,  which each tell their own story, with a large amount of background information which was unnoticed at the time  when they were taken.

We are interested in what happened to people who stayed in the Munitions Hostels for the duration of World War Two, while working for the war-effort. We would also like to hear from those people who were accommodated in the Hostels, however temporarily, after the war, during the period of rebuilding the war-damaged housing stock  throughout the country. In addition, we are keen to contact those people who came to this part of England from all over the world and stayed, for no matter how long, in the Baginton Fields Hostels. Each person has a different story to tell, and we are trying to collect as many as possible, to be able to bring to light this forgotten part of history.  One of the blanks we need to fill in is the story of the prisoners- of- war. We are attempting to trace those  German men who spent their period of captivity in Willenhall working on the land, planting and harvesting the crops at the Baginton and Chace Hostels. For a while, they were part of Willenhall's history too, and as yet we have no  record of them at all. We are hoping that someone in the area may still have memories of the prisoners-of-war, or perhaps even be in touch with someone in Germany who remembers Willenhall.

During the war years, and for some time after, a large part of the British population was moved from all over the country, either to work in factories, or to help keep them going by doing those valuable jobs like cooking the food. This huge movement of people changed life completely for many. Some married, others emigrated ; many stayed and now have grandchildren, even great-grandchildren.

This period of history has not been vastly documented, although it brought vast social change to our area. We are now coming up to the 50-year anniversary of the first people moving into newly-built houses in the Remembrance Road area. If anyone has photographs dating from the early 1950s documenting their house-move, we should be most interested to see them.

Another aspect of Willenhall life which deserves closer examination is the post-war period when Church of England services took place in Manor Farm. We would be very interested to hear from members of that congregation, as  well as their reaction to the building of the new St John the Divine Church.

One of the reasons for doing this research is that is very much the people's history. We do not want these stories  to fade away into oblivion, otherwise our children will never know what life was like in the Hostels or during the  period of rapid change after World War Two. Only your personal memories can keep the history of Willenhall and  its people alive. Please either write them down, or get in touch with us. Contact details are above and linked  throughout the site. We look forward to hearing from you.