The information currently available online is presented on Picture Spennymoor, and on the North East War Memorials Project. This master list on Picture Spennymoor is a good place to look for a soldier if you aren't quite sure on which local memorial your ancestor was remembered.
A War Memorial Plaque in St David's Church (C of E), Tudhoe is described on the NEWMP site - click here to see a page about the plaque. Click here to read about my research into each man named on the plaque.
There are some war graves in St Charles' Churchyard (page on NEWMP here, not much research done there, but all have details posted up from CWGC).
A great deal of research has already been done by John & Jim Grainger into the men remembered on the Spennymoor War Memorials (Tudhoe Colliery, Spennymoor etc). As many of the Men remembered on the "Fallen" face of the memorial on Tudhoe Village Green were also remembered elsewhere, so the Graingers have already researched them heavily. Most of the results so far displayed on the pages here about the Soldiers who'd died therefore appear as a result of the assistance & generosity of John & Jim Grainger.
I'd like to acknowledge their advice and their help in my work here - they've been invaluable! My research now will focus on the men who returned and are remembered on the War Memorials of Tudhoe.
Village Green War Memorial
There are just 4 men who are remembered on both Tudhoe memorials. Click on the words (just below the title bar) which describe the location of each Memorial (e.g. Village Green, St David's, etc.), to see the names in alphabetical order, and read how the research is going for each man.
The War Memorial on the Village Green (see map) commemorates those who fell in the War, but (unusually? ***) it also lists those from the village who served in the War and were lucky enough to return. The NW panel, facing into the village, commemorates those who gave their lives.
A link here takes you to the Picture Spennymoor site which lists all the names & has good images of each panel in turn (click where it says NE or so on, next to the names).
This Research Project is in its Infancy
I am in the tentative first stages of attempting to put together information on those remembered here - see the traffic light system in the right-hand column!
I have looked in the CWGC casualty lists for those men listed as fallen on the NW panel, and
found some possible matches for the named fallen. Other information will be gleaned from the military records, Census of 1901, 1911... but the best source must surely be the proud kinfolk of these men??
Display a Poster?
If you would like to assist this project by displaying a poster locally, then please do email me. Currently posters have been sent to the local churches, The Green Tree, and Spennymoor Library. Anyone without internet access can leave a note (with their contact details) for me at the desk of the Lovely Librarians of Spennymoor Library. They have offered to pass them on to me here, and I'm very grateful for their assistance!
If you have any information at all, then please make a comment at the end of any post... or send email to
mrstrellis(at)snail-mail(dot)net
(The email address is disguised like that to try & prevent computers sending Spam. But you are a human, so you can work out that you need to replace (at) with @, and so on!)
History of the erection of Memorials in Tudhoe
At Spennymoor Urban Council meeting held on the 27th January 1919, a letter was read from villagers of Tudhoe stating that as 50 of the village boys had been on active service, 'it was the unanimous wish that a fitting war monument should be erected on Tudhoe green in some suitable place', and they appealed for permission to have it erected. The council granted them permission.
Major Soltan-Symons DSO of Tudhoe Village was officer in charge of a 3 day peace celebration which began in Spennymoor on Saturday 19th July 1919.
with Thanks to John & Jim Grainger for passing on this little piece of history.
You can see an old photo of the Spennymoor Cenotaph here; it was unveiled in 1922.
The history of War Memorials is discussed in this interesting article on the Imperial War Museum site.
***
Was it very unusual to find men named on Village War Memorials who had returned home after WW I??
I'm keeping my eye open now, but I don't remember ever seeing another War Memorial like this one!
Main source (apart from Google) was the Great War Forum.
- One found in Grindon, Staffs: the Waterfall War Memorial in the church.
- Another, a plaque in a church in St Mary's Church (Beverstone – Gloucestershire), Interestingly, it has three plaques in the porch - one commemorating those who were killed, one for those wounded and one for those who served.
- Also a few others in Gloucestershire, such as Yanworth War Memorial.
Here's an interesting piece of research into The Thankful Villages who lost no men at all in The Great War. "It was also said that such villages have no war memorials - or that if they do, they are a thankful reminder of all who served."
Further Reading
Photos of local men from ~1914/1918: Harker, ...
Photo of the young men of Spennymoor in Happier Times (1910, outside Vane Arms) or (1910, Town Band).
Photo of Spennymoor dated 1916 (Clyde Terrace).
Another search for a Great War hero from the DLI: Lieut Brown. See also a roll of honour project for Evenwood.
Useful sources of information when researching Military History: here
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