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Brockton, Shropshire: War in the Words of Local Women

School friends who moved across the country and exchanged wartime experiences

β€œDear Everybody” begins Helen’s letter from 17 February 1917; β€œhere’s to all of us and may we never want for owt!”

And so starts the letter that links six Bridgnorth school girls together as they grow up during WW1.

Helen and Dorothy stay in Shropshire but Hester Nella, May and Stella and leave the county. Nella moves to London to teach dance and deportment. May becomes a secretary in Birmingham, Stella is married and lives in Bury St Edmunds and Hester becomes a nurse.

Through the war years and beyond the girls share their stories and their letters are neatly transcribed at the farmhouse kitchen table in Brockton by Helen. She keeps β€˜the letters book’.
Through it the girls reveal their ambitions and feelings, they share stories about the hard work they do, the funny moments and the inevitable tragedies.

β€œHester It must be spiffing to be in the thick of the real war world. You must feel you are doing something tangible to defeat the Germans. How are all your soldier brothers?”

There’s gossip and chat, tales of life and love in the words of the six women living on the home front and hoping desperately for a happy outcome to the war.

Location: Brockton, Shropshire TF13 6JR
Image shows one of the letters written in February 1917, courtesy of Shropshire Archives

Release date:

Duration:

4 minutes

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