:00:08. > :00:12.The town of Ironbridge in Shropshire, famous for being the
:00:12. > :00:16.birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. To me, boxer Richie
:00:16. > :00:21.Woodhall, it's home. I grew up a mile away and Ironbridge was my
:00:21. > :00:24.childhood playground. In the school holidays, I'd find myself down here
:00:24. > :00:29.almost every day. I'd go fishing just down the hill there on the
:00:29. > :00:34.river. Like many people, I've taken my home town for granted. Now I'm
:00:34. > :00:37.going on a journey to unlock this town's history.
:00:37. > :00:41.Nick, I must have walked past this memorial 1,000 times and never give
:00:41. > :00:45.it a second glance. It's a journey of discovery and
:00:45. > :00:53.revelation, with some surprises on the way.
:00:53. > :00:58.That's incredible, isn't it? He wasn't actually killed in the
:00:58. > :01:01.war. So he died at a later time. I've lived in this area for 42
:01:01. > :01:11.years. I've never really asked the questions about the history of the
:01:11. > :01:27.
:01:27. > :01:30.area and also the people and now I This is the bridge that made
:01:31. > :01:38.Ironbridge in Shropshire famous. Built by local ironmaster Abraham
:01:38. > :01:42.Darby III in 1779, it was the world's first iron bridge. The town
:01:42. > :01:49.then grew up around it. In the 1800s, in its industrial heyday,
:01:49. > :01:54.over 2,500 people lived here. I want to find out who those people
:01:54. > :01:57.were and how they lived, but I've got no idea where to start. I've
:01:57. > :02:03.drafted in a bit of help. Historian Nick Barrett is going to give me
:02:03. > :02:07.tips on what to look for. Lesson one.
:02:07. > :02:11.I feel I'm on a journey. I want to find out in-depth about the history
:02:11. > :02:14.of this area. How do I go about that? How do I go about finding the
:02:14. > :02:18.history about buildings, people - where do I look? First of all,
:02:18. > :02:21.start with what fascinates you. This is your personal experience.
:02:21. > :02:26.It's very easy to take it all for granted because you've grown up
:02:26. > :02:29.here. You take all of the various bits of architecture as given, but
:02:29. > :02:33.you need to look at them with a fresh pair of eyes, that's the
:02:33. > :02:36.exciting thing about it. Just walk up and down the street. Focus on
:02:36. > :02:38.things that perhaps you haven't really noticed that much before.
:02:39. > :02:43.Everything has got an explanation. Everything links into the much
:02:43. > :02:48.bigger picture. It's taking those small clues and then expanding them
:02:48. > :02:52.out so you really understand how Ironbridge formed and changed.
:02:52. > :02:58.the answers are here, just doing a bit of exploring, I suppose.
:02:58. > :03:01.Walking around is always the best place to start.
:03:01. > :03:05.Whenever you look at your home town, the best place to start is the high
:03:05. > :03:09.street. Not only is it the closest but also the oldest part of town as
:03:09. > :03:12.well. You always need shops. You can start to see some of the clues.
:03:12. > :03:16.Many people just look at the shop fronts to work out where they're
:03:16. > :03:18.going to go into. Raise your eyes a bit and you have fantastic clues
:03:19. > :03:22.that you sometimes don't spot. Some of these buildings are very
:03:22. > :03:25.different in style. They've been built at different moments in time.
:03:25. > :03:30.Clues like that window, just bricked up. Glass was taxed, so you
:03:30. > :03:33.brick them up to save a bit of money.
:03:33. > :03:36.I've never even questioned why windows would be bricked up. This
:03:36. > :03:41.small detail shows me I've really got to start thinking differently,
:03:41. > :03:45.if I want to understand how people used to live.
:03:45. > :03:49.Nick, this street looks like it holds a couple of stories. It looks
:03:49. > :03:52.fantastic. I love the angle. Shall we have a little explore? You get a
:03:52. > :03:57.sense of different brickwork as well. It's very yellow on this side,
:03:57. > :04:02.but there's a lot more blue brick back here. Worth the climb, isn't
:04:02. > :04:05.it? Great view. It's fantastic, but you get a sense of what it's like
:04:05. > :04:12.to be above the town, all the roofs are jumbled together. If you can
:04:12. > :04:18.get above the town, always try and do so.
:04:18. > :04:21.Then the town's war memorial catches Nick's attention.
:04:21. > :04:27.Nick, I must have walked past this memorial about 1,000 times and I've
:04:27. > :04:30.never give it a second glance. is the first port of call for
:04:30. > :04:34.anyone trying to do local history. It's a fixed point in time, but
:04:34. > :04:36.also you've got the names of so many residents here.
:04:36. > :04:40.What about this, though, three soldiers all with the same surname,
:04:40. > :04:45.Speake. We see the surname Speake - there's
:04:45. > :04:48.three soldiers there that have been tragically killed. I mean, they
:04:48. > :04:51.could be from the same family. Almost certainly, yes. It's a
:04:51. > :04:53.fairly small, self-contained place, so we can actually use this to find
:04:53. > :04:57.out what happened here, the particular tragedy of losing three
:04:57. > :05:00.members of a family, they could be cousins or brothers, but it gets
:05:00. > :05:04.you to the heart of the community, what life was like before the First
:05:04. > :05:13.World War came along, what they were doing, their occupations. It's
:05:13. > :05:17.a great entry point to finding out more about Ironbridge. So far it's
:05:17. > :05:19.the names of the soldiers that have really captured my imagination.
:05:20. > :05:22.There's one name in particular, the Speake family. Were they brothers
:05:22. > :05:30.or cousins? Did their deaths destroy an entire Ironbridge
:05:30. > :05:33.family? Already I'm starting to ask questions. Walking up the high
:05:33. > :05:37.street's been a great start, but Nick wants to meet local people.
:05:37. > :05:41.The key to uncovering any town or village's history is by talking to
:05:41. > :05:46.the people who live there. So I've organised a bit of a do at the
:05:46. > :05:55.Tontine Hotel, the town's oldest building. All I need to do now is
:05:55. > :06:00.guarantee people will come. BBC Radio Shropshire. ..Well, we
:06:00. > :06:05.need people to come and speak to us, really. We're going to be in the
:06:05. > :06:08.Tontine Hotel from 4pm till 7pm. That's Richie Woodhall on the show
:06:08. > :06:11.talking about this documentary on the BBC. They're going to be at the
:06:11. > :06:14.Tontine Hotel, Monday, in Ironbridge, 4pm until 7pm. If
:06:14. > :06:17.you've got any stories, old footage, photographs about Ironbridge and
:06:17. > :06:23.how it has changed over the years, do go down and see Richie and the
:06:23. > :06:25.team. I suppose in these situations,
:06:25. > :06:30.speaking to local people, I mean, it's hands-on experience, it's
:06:30. > :06:32.crucial. It is, yes. We think of archives as being documents in
:06:33. > :06:36.libraries, museums, but actually we're all archives. We all remember
:06:36. > :06:39.things. We all like telling stories. That's what we want to get here
:06:39. > :06:42.today. It's really personalising your journey and finding out from
:06:42. > :06:46.the people who've lived through quite a lot of this history what it
:06:46. > :06:49.meant to them. We've had a tie with Ironbridge for
:06:50. > :06:56.over 50 years with my grandfather here, who was working in the pie
:06:56. > :06:59.shop. The sewer is there. What happened in the old days then - it
:06:59. > :07:03.pumped into the river, I suppose? Everything went into the river. Yet,
:07:03. > :07:09.we learned to swim in the river. Oh, my goodness, what have you got
:07:09. > :07:17.there? These are just local people on here going back, gosh, 40 years
:07:17. > :07:20.or more there. This is a treasure trove. To actually be able to find
:07:20. > :07:24.people who were here at a crucial point in the town's history is
:07:24. > :07:27.stunning, really lucky stuff. Nick was right, simply by listening
:07:27. > :07:30.I'm starting to understand Ironbridge's ancestry. But when
:07:30. > :07:35.Rosemary Clegg and her friends arrive, I discover it's not just me
:07:35. > :07:39.interested in the town's war memorial. I did some research on
:07:39. > :07:47.the war memorial, into each individual man. On the website was
:07:48. > :07:50.answering questions about the individuals, so yeah. The war
:07:50. > :07:52.memorial here in Ironbridge fascinates me because there are
:07:52. > :07:55.certain surnames on there, there's one surname, Speake, there's three
:07:56. > :08:03.people who were called Speake, who have lost their lives. Were they of
:08:03. > :08:06.the same family, do you know? They were? There were quite a few
:08:06. > :08:15.brothers of different families. That was Word War I, am I right?
:08:15. > :08:19.Yes. Is this a photo of... That's out of the newspaper. That's one of
:08:19. > :08:22.the Speakes? I can't believe my luck and neither can Nick.
:08:22. > :08:25.Rosemary's coming up with answers I thought would take hours, even days
:08:25. > :08:28.of research. Why did you do it originally? Pure interest, just I
:08:28. > :08:31.thought, they're going to be forgotten. Was it a case of you
:08:31. > :08:35.looking at that memorial one day and thinking, "I want to find out
:08:35. > :08:38.about these people"? Yes. Here you have a goldmine of information.
:08:38. > :08:41.This is why it's so important to talk to people who have got that
:08:41. > :08:44.local knowledge. In many ways it would have been easy to run around
:08:44. > :08:47.and try to replicate some of this. It's here. You're beginning to
:08:47. > :08:50.answer some of those early questions. The war memorial is the
:08:50. > :08:54.starting point. You've got some names and there it is, all done for
:08:54. > :08:57.you. It's now a case of working out what other questions need answers.
:08:57. > :09:02.It's now focusing back in on what you need to find out and what's
:09:02. > :09:05.missing. I think Richie's going to go on a
:09:05. > :09:07.really exciting journey. What's he going to expect? Well, expect the
:09:07. > :09:11.unexpected. There's a world of possibility and he has to start
:09:12. > :09:16.being ruthless and focus on one or two things.
:09:16. > :09:21.So day two, and Nick's words are ringing in my ears. I've got to
:09:21. > :09:24.follow what interests me and start to be ruthless. I've had a night to
:09:24. > :09:28.think about it, and I've decided, there's a couple of families that
:09:28. > :09:33.really caught my imagination, the Speake family. Three brothers lost
:09:33. > :09:36.their lives. This is a very small town, is Ironbridge. That must have
:09:36. > :09:41.been absolutely devastating. It's devastating to lose one soldier,
:09:41. > :09:45.but three from the same family. I'd like to know about them.
:09:45. > :09:48.I'm going to research the lives of the Speake brothers. By building a
:09:48. > :09:54.picture of how they and their family lived, I can start to
:09:54. > :09:57.understand what life was like here in the early 1900s. Mary McKenzie,
:09:57. > :10:04.one of the experts at Shrewsbury Archives, has done some digging for
:10:04. > :10:08.me using the 1911 census. Interestingly enough, we did a bit
:10:08. > :10:12.of research into the family and we found that they were a very...
:10:12. > :10:19.There was a lot of children, nine children. Nine! The parents
:10:19. > :10:23.actually got married after they had a few of the children. OK. That was
:10:23. > :10:26.not particularly unusual in those days. They were married in 1891.
:10:26. > :10:30.The family, they lived in Ironbridge. They appear to have
:10:30. > :10:34.lived in Lincoln Hill. We can see from the census that the father in
:10:34. > :10:37.1911, the father was a labourer and the boys seem to work as moulders
:10:37. > :10:43.in the iron works, which I understand is the people who made
:10:43. > :10:46.the moulds in which the iron was poured into.
:10:46. > :10:48.So the Speake soldiers were from a family of nine children, Henry,
:10:48. > :10:51.Alfred, James, Percy, Albert, Violet, Nelly, Thomas and Daisy.
:10:51. > :10:54.Their parents were Thomas and Susanna Speake and on the night of
:10:54. > :11:04.the census in 1911, they were living at number 15 Lincoln Hill,
:11:04. > :11:06.
:11:06. > :11:10.Before they signed up for the Army, all four brothers worked in the
:11:10. > :11:17.iron industry. It's incredible, already with these few details I'm
:11:17. > :11:21.starting to build a picture of their life. A great day. I really
:11:21. > :11:24.wanted to find out about the Speake family and I have done. I found out
:11:24. > :11:26.about even their occupations, finding out that their parents had
:11:26. > :11:31.nine kids. I've got an address where they actually lived on
:11:32. > :11:38.Lincoln Hill. I want to go back to that cottage, where is it? I want
:11:38. > :11:40.to have a look at it and try to picture how these people lived.
:11:40. > :11:43.Armed with the address, I've recruited Ron Miles, local amateur
:11:44. > :11:50.historian to help me out, as the house numbers on Lincoln Hill might
:11:51. > :11:54.have changed over the last century. Speake family was well known in
:11:54. > :11:58.Ironbridge. Where we're standing now I'm 90% certain, the Speakes
:11:58. > :12:00.had a shop here at the bottom of Lincoln Hill. They lived in a
:12:00. > :12:06.cottage, probably number 15, halfway up Lincoln Hill on the
:12:06. > :12:09.left-hand side. There's one solitary cottage there. Is there
:12:09. > :12:19.anything you don't know about Ironbridge? I don't know much about
:12:19. > :12:22.
:12:22. > :12:26.Ron, the cottage is on the drawing, they're here then, aren't they?
:12:26. > :12:30.Yeah, the cottage is right here. About ten of them here. Looking
:12:30. > :12:35.through there, there's whatlooks like a fireplace there. Would that
:12:35. > :12:38.have been in the house or not? would have been at the rear of all
:12:38. > :12:41.these eight or nine cottages. That would have been the remnants of
:12:41. > :12:44.limestone burning on this hill. you look closely, there's like
:12:44. > :12:49.walls on walls and steps, so all these cottages, these are the
:12:49. > :12:54.remains of the cottages that were all along here? Yeah, they were
:12:54. > :12:57.here probably until 1970. I've had a cup of tea in one of them. So Ron
:12:57. > :13:01.thinks number 15 has been demolished, but I'm not convinced.
:13:01. > :13:08.I think it could have just been renumbered. So in my new capacity
:13:08. > :13:13.as historian, I might do a bit of my own research.
:13:13. > :13:18.We are after number 15, you see. Yes, I don't know where 15 is.
:13:18. > :13:21.12. That's 14. Do you think 15 would be down or further up? Really,
:13:21. > :13:24.it's anybody's guess. I suspect it might have been on the road on that
:13:24. > :13:29.side, because that is also Lincoln Hill. The road just at the back
:13:29. > :13:33.here? Yeah, Lincoln Hill is up there, Lincoln Hill is up there and
:13:33. > :13:36.there's a junction up there and it's still Lincoln Hill up there to
:13:36. > :13:39.the brow of the hill. I've just spoken to a resident who
:13:39. > :13:44.lives at number 12. She's pointed me in this direction. It's got a
:13:44. > :13:48.good case that it could be up this road here.
:13:48. > :13:54.The more closely I look at number 16, the more I think that this
:13:54. > :13:58.could have been two cottages at one point. It was two cottages
:13:58. > :14:02.originally. The other one is next door to it. So what's the one next
:14:02. > :14:10.door down to it from that, it would have come up, 16, 15, it's
:14:10. > :14:13.definitely two. This could be the end of the line. I've actually
:14:13. > :14:19.spoken to someone who knows all about the history of these two
:14:19. > :14:24.cottages here and this is number 16 Lincoln Hill. We think at some
:14:24. > :14:29.point there was two cottages here. If you look at the bricks, we think
:14:29. > :14:34.that this could have been the path. We think this was the front door to
:14:34. > :14:40.number 15. And if that is the case, then 15 Lincoln Hill is where the
:14:40. > :14:45.Speake family lived. But am I right? I've invited
:14:45. > :14:49.historian Nick Barrett back to test out my theory. Now I've done my own
:14:49. > :14:54.bit of research. I actually think that they lived here. Well, I've
:14:54. > :14:56.been doing a bit of research of my own as well. Not to check up on you,
:14:56. > :15:02.obviously, but out of curiosity, because I was fascinated by their
:15:02. > :15:05.story. Back then, I picture this cottage being two cottages. Back
:15:05. > :15:09.then, they lived in... Working- class families lived in smaller
:15:09. > :15:12.cottages, could this have been two cottages?
:15:12. > :15:14.So Nick cross-references the old maps with the electoral register
:15:14. > :15:20.and something called the 1910 valuation office survey, which
:15:20. > :15:26.lists who owned and rented properties at the time. So a little
:15:26. > :15:31.more in depth than my research. Thomas Speake was not living at
:15:31. > :15:34.this property. He's not there. you sure, Nick? Absolutely certain.
:15:34. > :15:39.The maps that I've seen, they assign numbers to each of these.
:15:39. > :15:43.This one is definitely only numbered as number 16. So in 1910
:15:43. > :15:48.this wasn't two buildings, it was one? It was only one building, it
:15:48. > :15:51.was number 16. You've disappointed me. I'm very sorry. I hopefully can
:15:51. > :15:55.give you some good news. It looks like he was living, at the time of
:15:55. > :15:59.the 1911 census, in number 15. At some point later, certainly by late
:15:59. > :16:04.1913, he was in number 11. But the 1910 records show that he was in
:16:04. > :16:09.property number 12. He was on a weekly rent in number 12. I guess,
:16:09. > :16:13.having a large family, nine children, he needs space. Now if
:16:13. > :16:17.times are hard and you can't afford to live in a large house, he'd have
:16:17. > :16:20.to downsize. Numbers 12, 13 and 14 were all grouped together. And at
:16:20. > :16:23.certain points in time he was living in each and every one of
:16:24. > :16:28.those. He would literally move from place to place. Not that many
:16:28. > :16:31.possessions, perhaps - it all goes on rent and food. You wouldn't have
:16:31. > :16:35.large amounts of furniture. Many of these houses would be ready-
:16:35. > :16:39.furnished, with just bed space. Of course, this is a very different
:16:39. > :16:43.time. It's hand to mouth existence. Yes, in this sense, very common.
:16:43. > :16:47.I've made the common mistake most amateur historians make. I wanted
:16:47. > :16:51.that cottage to be number 15. I looked for the evidence to back up
:16:51. > :16:54.my theory. Next time I will do it Nick's way. It's very easy to jump
:16:54. > :16:57.to conclusions. Because you desperately want it to be true, you
:16:57. > :17:00.seize on one piece of evidence and forget all the other bits. It's
:17:00. > :17:04.like doing a jigsaw puzzle. You've got the first clue, but it may not
:17:04. > :17:06.be the whole picture. That's why you have to keep going back and
:17:06. > :17:10.asking questions maybe of people you've already spoken to. Go back
:17:10. > :17:13.to house number 12 where you've met someone and you think this can't be
:17:13. > :17:16.the right house - it's over there. Actually you re-appraise what you
:17:16. > :17:19.found. How many metaphors do you want to use - jigsaw puzzles,
:17:19. > :17:26.layers of onions. It's about depth and perception and getting your
:17:26. > :17:29.teeth into it, and he's done that so well.
:17:29. > :17:32.So I'm making good progress, by understanding a bit more about this
:17:32. > :17:34.one family, I'm learning how difficult life would have been in
:17:34. > :17:37.the early 1900s here in Ironbridge, especially with nine children.
:17:37. > :17:40.Moving house from week to week and constantly looking for work.
:17:40. > :17:50.However, there's still one mystery I haven't solved and that's where
:17:50. > :17:51.
:17:51. > :18:01.the three brothers died. I found records of the deaths of Percy and
:18:01. > :18:01.
:18:01. > :18:11.Alfred, who were killed in battle a year apart.
:18:11. > :18:14.
:18:14. > :18:18.Got him. He's Speake, Ironbridge, I can't find anything about H
:18:18. > :18:23.Speake, Henry or Harry as he was known. Neither can anybody else
:18:23. > :18:26.I've spoken to. We certainly found that there were two brothers who
:18:26. > :18:32.appear to have been killed in the First World War. Alfred, who died
:18:32. > :18:37.in March 1915, and Percy, who died in April 1916. We haven't been able
:18:37. > :18:44.to find, I think you thought there was a Harold or an H. Yes, there's
:18:44. > :18:48.three Speakes on the memorial itself. There was an A, a P and
:18:48. > :18:51.another one. There's one I cannot find any information on at all, one
:18:51. > :18:59.of the brothers. He's on the war memorial, but I contacted lots of
:18:59. > :19:03.people in the area and none of them But then I make a breakthrough.
:19:03. > :19:07.We've tracked down Naomi Hindly. She's the granddaughter of Daisy
:19:07. > :19:15.Speake, the youngest of the Speake children. So today, I might uncover
:19:15. > :19:19.the mystery of where and how Harry It's probably the final piece of
:19:19. > :19:22.the jigsaw to be honest, to speak to a relative of those brothers and
:19:22. > :19:32.she might be able to just shed a little bit more light on the
:19:32. > :19:37.
:19:37. > :19:41.Hello. Naomi, yeah? Yeah. Richie. Pleased to meet you. You
:19:41. > :19:45.OK? I like the dog. He ain't going to bite me, is he? No, he's not.
:19:45. > :19:47.How are you, you OK? I'm fine, thank you. We have another of
:19:47. > :19:52.Alfred and Percy's brothers commemorated on the Ironbridge war
:19:52. > :19:57.memorial, H Speake. At this moment no trace can be found of H Speake.
:19:57. > :20:02.We think he was killed with the brothers. He wasn't actually killed
:20:02. > :20:07.in the war. So, he died at a later time in the Beeches Hospital. He
:20:07. > :20:10.wasn't killed in the war, so hence probably there are no records.
:20:10. > :20:15.Beechers Hospital was just a stone's throw from the house.
:20:15. > :20:20.Absolutely. He never died in the war? No. He didn't die in the war
:20:20. > :20:23.at all. Four brothers went, two were killed. Two came back. I think
:20:23. > :20:27.she was quite proud that her brothers actually went. But she was
:20:27. > :20:30.young at the time. I think she used to point out on the war memorial
:20:30. > :20:33.that they were all there. We used to laugh because Harry was actually
:20:33. > :20:37.there and didn't actually die. She went, well he got his name there,
:20:37. > :20:41.but he didn't actually die there. She was quite... Did she have any
:20:41. > :20:46.pictures at all? I've got a few pictures that she's written on the
:20:46. > :20:54.back of. Funny enough, Harry. That's Harry there. That's Harry.
:20:54. > :21:00.Later on in life, obviously. Funny teeth. Right, OK. So just, again it
:21:00. > :21:05.backs up the story. Because he's a lot older here than he would be in
:21:05. > :21:08.the war. Yes. So he came back. I'm a little bit surprised, to be
:21:08. > :21:11.honest. I thought the three brothers died in the Great War.
:21:11. > :21:15.Only two did. That would explain why Harry Speake, H Speake, there
:21:15. > :21:18.was no record of his death or anything like that. A little bit
:21:18. > :21:22.surprised. In a way, I mean, it must have been terrible to lose two
:21:22. > :21:25.sons, but at least they didn't lose three sons, that's all I can say
:21:25. > :21:30.about that. I think it's brought closure to the story now on the
:21:30. > :21:36.Speake family. Very proud of them, actually, and speaking to a
:21:36. > :21:40.relative, I think it's just capped it off nicely. But my journey isn't
:21:40. > :21:43.over yet. Nick told me to concentrate on what interests me.
:21:43. > :21:48.Well, there's another name I want to know more about that's Maurice
:21:48. > :21:54.EA Darby. He was one of the soldiers listed on the neighbouring
:21:54. > :21:57.village Coalbrookdale's war memorial. If, like me, you grew up
:21:57. > :22:01.around here, you'll know the name Darby. My school was even called
:22:02. > :22:04.Abraham Darby. It was the Darby family that built the iron bridge
:22:04. > :22:13.and for over 150 years, they owned the largest ironworks in
:22:13. > :22:17.Coalbrookdale. Round here they're an industrial dynasty. Come on. I
:22:17. > :22:20.know Maurice Darby is a direct descendant of the family. I'd love
:22:20. > :22:24.to know more about his life and how it compares to working class Speake
:22:24. > :22:27.family. He came from a totally different background. His family
:22:27. > :22:31.were very, very wealthy. It was just interesting, obviously, he was
:22:31. > :22:35.killed as well, finding out about him. His life was totally different
:22:35. > :22:38.to the Speakes. They were working- class, hard, hard grafting people,
:22:38. > :22:40.I'm not saying he wasn't hard grafting, hard working, but he led
:22:40. > :22:47.a totally different life. I'm heading to Coalbrookdale Archives
:22:47. > :22:55.to see Gillian Cramton. Hopefully she'll help me fill in the missing
:22:55. > :22:58.gaps. Maurice is born in London. That's the life that he knew. He
:22:58. > :23:02.was educated at Eton. He went to Sandhurst. He would have been very
:23:02. > :23:04.well aware of the company, I'm sure, when he came up here. But he wasn't
:23:05. > :23:10.actually involved in the ironworks. Generations before that, all his
:23:10. > :23:13.family are from this area, but he had no real connection living here?
:23:13. > :23:16.I think he would have had other relatives living, but certainly no
:23:16. > :23:22.connection to the actual industry itself in terms of him knowing
:23:22. > :23:25.anything about how to run an ironworks as his forefathers did.
:23:25. > :23:32.Maurice's father, he was the last Darby to be associated with the
:23:32. > :23:40.company itself. Yes, with the Coalbrookdale company, Alfred Darby
:23:40. > :23:42.II, he was the last chairman from the family. He died in 1925. That
:23:42. > :23:49.ended the association with the Coalbrookdale company with the
:23:49. > :23:52.Darby family. He was the last person to be in charge. So with the
:23:52. > :23:56.family connection to Coalbrookdale at an end, Maurice was free to
:23:56. > :24:01.pursue his own dreams. After leaving school, he went to
:24:01. > :24:08.Sandhurst and became a captain in the Army. So aged just 20, he found
:24:08. > :24:12.himself in the trenches leading 100 men to battle. Only eight months
:24:12. > :24:19.into the war, Maurice was killed in action. But Gillian wants to show
:24:19. > :24:27.me an incredible artefact they have here in the archives. He was killed
:24:27. > :24:29.in battle in 1915, on the 11th of March. This is the letter that says
:24:29. > :24:37."I hereby certify that Lieutenant Maurice AE Derby, 1st Grenadier
:24:37. > :24:46.Guards, died of wounds received in action." And that his remains can
:24:46. > :24:54.be removed to England without any chance of infection. So, this was
:24:54. > :25:00.the letter that went to his family? Yes. To tell him that he was dead?
:25:00. > :25:02.Uh-huh. That's incredible, isn't it? Sent from France. Look at that!
:25:02. > :25:07.That's interesting, so they're saying then that his remains can be
:25:07. > :25:13.returned to England without any infection. So it's more or less
:25:13. > :25:18.saying he's dead, but you can come and... Come and collect his body.
:25:18. > :25:20.Come and collect him. That was unusual. I was going to say, that
:25:20. > :25:25.would be unusual. So Maurice's body was repatriated,
:25:25. > :25:28.brought home and buried here in Shropshire in Little Ness. This is
:25:28. > :25:34.common practice nowadays, but the soldiers and officers of the First
:25:35. > :25:38.World War were usually buried where they fell. It must have been so
:25:38. > :25:41.rare for someone to be killed on the battlefield, you know, Word War
:25:41. > :25:51.I, and yet the family goes over, you know, across to France, and to
:25:51. > :25:54.bring him back, to actually find him. They probably didn't know
:25:54. > :26:04.where he was. They were given permission. They must have been a
:26:04. > :26:05.
:26:05. > :26:08.family that was well thought of, well respected. Here he is. Maurice
:26:08. > :26:11.AA Derby, Lieutenant, Grenadier Guards, killed in action March 11,
:26:11. > :26:14.1915, aged 20. I've traced a distant relative of Maurice's, Mark
:26:14. > :26:24.Hamilton Russell, and I've arranged to meet him at the family home,
:26:24. > :26:35.
:26:35. > :26:38.Dudmaston Hall in Quatt, Shropshire. I wonder if he knows just how
:26:38. > :26:44.unusual it was for the body of a soldier killed in the First World
:26:44. > :26:47.War to be brought home? Did you know that there were
:26:47. > :26:50.probably only about four or five people ever to be brought back from
:26:50. > :26:54.the First World War, who died and had their bodies brought back? Did
:26:54. > :26:58.you know that? I didn't, but I did know he must be one of very few.
:26:58. > :27:02.Yes, it was actually his uncle that went and got him back. It says that
:27:02. > :27:05.it was on a night-time, so while the battle was more or less going
:27:05. > :27:07.on, or just after the battle was going on rather, his uncle actually
:27:07. > :27:17.went out to the battlefield, literally sifting through bodies
:27:17. > :27:20.and actually found him. Wow, no, I didn't know that. That's amazing.
:27:20. > :27:26.Can you imagine a 20-year-old boy in that position, in a war like
:27:26. > :27:29.that? It's extraordinary, isn't it, and not just a boy as you say, but
:27:29. > :27:34.also to have such responsibility looking after... A company
:27:34. > :27:37.commander at the age of 20, looking after in the region of 100. 100,
:27:37. > :27:41.some men and some other boys and have to be the person that they all
:27:41. > :27:46.look up to and has all the answers to all the dangers that they're
:27:46. > :27:49.facing. Mark, have you found it interesting? Amazing. I've learned
:27:49. > :27:52.some history about my family which I never knew. I've learned some
:27:52. > :27:58.very intimate and, at the time, would have been very emotional
:27:58. > :28:04.aspects of the family. And I thank you very much for bringing it to my
:28:04. > :28:06.and I will distribute that to my family's attention. It's been eye
:28:06. > :28:16.opening and somewhat emotional to discover some facts about the
:28:16. > :28:21.
:28:21. > :28:24.So, that wander up the High Street I grew up on has taken some twists
:28:24. > :28:30.and turns and each of them's led to another story, another surprise,
:28:30. > :28:40.another surprise. Ironbridge, a place I thought I knew so well, a
:28:40. > :28:43.
:28:43. > :28:46.place I'm getting to know all over Discover your own place in history
:28:46. > :28:49.by joining us at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry on