A PROJECT which will research and record the backgrounds of buildings in Lickey Hills Country Park which date back to The Great War has received £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The cash was awarded through the HLF’s First World War – Then and Now programme and the structures on Bilberry Hill will be looked into.
They are unusual, possibly unique, consisting of two gun butts for testing field guns, a partially demolished munitions store, a gun emplacement, two Army mess rooms and a toilet block.
There were other buildings which have since been lost, including a bunker and a possible officers’ mess and stable block.
The project will be carried out in partnership with the Lickey Hills Society and the Birmingham Park Ranger Service and will be supported by the Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service.
To mark the Centenary of the First World War, the project will enable local people in Lickey, Rednal and surrounding areas, to come together to uncover and preserve the heritage of this unique site from the First World War.
The aim is to find out more about the type of work undertaken on the site during The First World War and the military units that were involved.
The work will be carried out by volunteers who will have been trained in the various research and recording tasks that need to be undertaken.
Information as it is gathered will be used to create informative boards and a leaflet, along with a teacher’s pack as an educational resource to be used for when schools visit.
The information will also be made available on the Lickey Hills Country Park website and with relevant museum and archive collections, allowing the public to discuss, contribute, share and research information about life on the home front.
The culmination of the project will be marked with a series of events open to the public so the results of the research can be shared.
Jill Harvey from the Lickey Hills Local History Society said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and can’t wait to start investigating, researching and recording the site.”
A special launch event was held on Monday (March 20) which saw an introduction from Jill, a talk from Sue Beardsmore from the Heritage Lottery Fund, re-enactors from the Worcestershire World War One project and a guided tour of the site by head ranger Steve Hinton.
There was also a display, featuring lots of pictures and a Lickey Hills Society member Val Hunt made a special ‘Trench Cake’ using a First World War recipe. The cakes used to be made by mums and sent to their sons serving on the frontline.
One of the photos showed the quarry with the field guns and three or four soldiers. One of them has been identified as Hudson Copeland Roberts, although it is not yet known which regiment he or the others were in. He moved down from County Durham and fell in love with a local girl who he married.
His daughter-in-law, hearing about the project, was at the event on Monday with some more photographs.
She urged anyone who wanted to be involved or anyone who has any information or photographs relating to the site to email [email protected]
