WW1 Exhibition

More than 100 people, including relatives of some of the men who served in the armed forces, came to the exhibition held the weekend of 27-28 September 2014. This exhibition, held in the village hall, was aimed at giving today’s villagers and visitors an idea of what Wenden was like at the outbreak of the Great War and its effect on the lives of the inhabitants.

The population of Wendens Ambo in 1914 was very close to today’s 400 or so. Most of the people in the village were agricultural workers but there were also a number of households who relied on the Great Eastern Railway Company for their income according to the 1911 Census. The highlight of the village social calendar was the annual flower show, held every July at what was then called Mutlow Hill House but is now known as Mutlow Hall. This was the home of the unofficial squire of Wenden, Turner Collin, a solicitor, Clerk to the Justices in Linton for more than forty years, and a prominent figure in the public life of Saffron Walden.

The exhibition featured displays showing snapshots of everyday life and the daily grind of ordinary folk in villages such as Wenden. Among the highlights were descriptions commemorating the seven Wenden men who lost their lives, including extracts from some of the unit war diaries from the relevant battalions. Individuals and families we remember are: Fred King, who showed courage under machine gun fire and who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal; Fred Goddard, Wenden’s very own war poet, who served with one of the newly-formed road companies and wrote about his experiences in ‘The Roadmen’; the patriotic Darrington Family whose sons joined up from far away in New Zealand and whose daughters nursed the wounded closer to home as well as those who set up an auxiliary hospital for wounded Belgians at Mutlow Hill. Those not mentioned individually also played a part in the Defence of the Realm and were advised to travel West in the event of a German invasion.

The exhibition featured many original documents, photographs and items generously donated by relatives of the 53 men from Wenden who served in WWI. Jim Grant put together a moving slideshow of photographs taken at the Front – it is thought by a Belgian photographer who stayed in the village at some point during 1914-18 – showing everything from tanks and flimsy-looking aircraft, to explosions near trenches and the devastation of Ypres and Cologne.

There were interactive displays where visitors were able to feel the weight of shrapnel (horribly heavy in relation to its size), try on a German helmet and handle a rifle – all courtesy of a marvellous display by Adrian Robert, former Head of History at The Perse School and a veteran of WWI battlefield tours.

The WI provided much needed rations in the form of tea, saucer cake and Empire biscuits (formerly ‘German’ biscuits).

The exhibition is being followed by the Wenden Commemoration of WWI ‘From the idyll into the abyss’ to be held in the church, St Mary the Virgin, the evening of 11th November.

Thanks are due the many people who contributed to the exhibition, especially the Pledger and Goddard families. Special thanks go to members of the WI who provided the catering and the committee who put it all together: Jane Morley, Ann Wade, Jim Grant, Patrick Smith and Richard Pryor.