Bromsgrove on the Home Front

The Bromsgrove Society invite you to step back in time and discover ‘Bromsgrove on the Home Front’ at a free drop-in event to mark 80 years since the end of World War Two.

The event takes place on Saturday 15th November between 10am and 4pm at the Methodist Church Centre on Stratford Road, Bromsgrove. Everyone is welcome, there’s no need to book, just come along and find out about life in and around Bromsgrove during 1939 to 1945.

Displays, artefacts and information will be provided by volunteers from Avoncroft Museum, the Bromsgrove Branch of the Royal British Legion, Bromsgrove School, The Norton Collection Museum, Remember the Fallen, Lickey Hills Local History Society, Austin at War and Worcestershire Police History. The Bromsgrove Society’s own illustrated displays will include the results of research undertaken by Vice-Chairman Pat Tansell who has organised the event. 

Items of memorabilia collected by a local couple will be exhibited along with “Dig for Victory” and “Make Do and Mend” displays created by Bromsgrove Society volunteers. All Saints Church will be providing information from their archive about how the war affected church members and residents of the parish at home and overseas. 

All the displays and activities will be suitable for all ages.

Visitors to the free event will be able to read and hear extracts from audio recordings made twenty years ago for the "Bromsgrove's War" project. Some of the display material created during the project will be on display again, thanks to the Norton Collection Museum. 

In advance of the event, the team from The Lemon Tree Café will be making a Woolton Pie using an authentic war time recipe. The pie will be on show next to information about rationing and wartime cookery.

Age UK North Worcestershire are getting involved by gathering memories from people who remember the War. They would love to hear your personal or family stories about the Home Front in Bromsgrove. To share copies of written memories, documents or pictures, please drop them off at the Age UK Shop, 140 High Street in a sealed envelope marked 'Home Front event'. Memories can also be shared on the day or by contacting Pat Tansell in advance via email newsletter@bsoc.co.uk

The Methodist Centre’s Coffee Bar will be open for refreshments during the morning.

Bromsgrove Society Chair, Jo Slade, is looking forward to the event. She said "I am enormously grateful to all the individuals and organisations who are contributing to this Home Front remembrance event. It is so important that we keep alive the stories of the past, and remember how life was for the residents of our town during the war. Pat has worked tirelessly to bring everyone together and I hope many people attend on 15th November."

This look back at Bromsgrove eighty plus years ago has been made possible thanks to grant funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund administered by the District Council, the Andrew Harris Charitable Trust and Bromsgrove Arts Alive.