The soldier …… the Hall and a thank you ….

Now I like the way a story takes an unexpected twist and, in the process, sheds fresh light on the life of a soldier of the Great War.

Sidney Albert Taylor, 1916

And so, it is with Sidney Albert Taylor, who in 1916 was recovering from wounds in the small village of Woodstock in Norfolk.*

The story was prompted by the discovery of a picture postcard with his photograph on one side and an upbeat message to a Miss I. A. Taylor of Gateshead on the reverse.

It was slim pickings but I found Miss I.A. Taylor, who turned out to be Sidney Albert’s sister and from there the story unfolded back into the later 19th century with their births and early lives and in the case of Mr. Taylor forward into 1939.

But what was missing from the piece was just exactly where he had spent his time as an invalid in that tiny Norfolk village.  My Wikipedia tells me that it is a small village which in the 2001 census had a population of 362 in 157 households, and ten years had increased by just 37 people.**

And judging by Street Google the place will not have been so different 108 years ago.

In the story finished buy adding “I will go looking for where in the village he spent his time recovering from his wounds, but I suspect it has gone”, but has so often happens I got drawn away.

Daily Express, November 20, 1916

I did wonder about whether he was in a private home which had been given over to the Red Cross.

It was a practice that you can find all over the country in the Great War, where the owners of large houses and even modest ones, turned them over to be used as hospitals.  It was an act of generosity which in many cases saw the building remain a medical facility after the conflict.

Alternatively, many recovering soldiers were looked after in converted church halls, and even schools.

Woodbastick Hall, circa 1914

But I doubted Woodbastick would have had a large enough church hall or school which would have done the business.

And there I left it.  

So, I was very pleased today when I received an email from Terry who wrote, 'Dear Andrew, You wrote, I will go looking for where in the village he spent his time recovering from his wounds, but I suspect it has gone. 

I think I’ve found where he stayed and you’re correct, it has gone. “Lost Heritage, Woodbastwick Hall, Location, Woodbastwick, County, Norfolk. Year demolished, 1971, Reason, Poor state of repair - possibly demolished to avoid listing. The photo is of the hall just about the time of WW1, taken from the website."'**

And that was perfect because the site offers up the history of the Hall and some nice pictures, which can be viewed by following the link.

The message from Sidney Albert, 1916

The added bonus was a newspaper account of seven wounded soldiers arriving from the Battle of Ypres to recover the Red Cross Auxiliary Hospital, at Woodbastick Hall.

Now The Red Cross carries an online site detailing all their medical establishments during the Great War, and I may dip into it …… but of course I may be beaten to the research by Terry, which just leads me to thank him.

Location; Norfolk

Pictures; Sidney Albert Taylor, 1916, from the collection of David Harrop,Woodbastick Hall, circa 1914, courtesy of Matthew Beckett,  and newspaper clipping courtesy of Terry. 

*A photograph ..... a postcard ..... and the search for a sister ....Sidney Albert Taylor ...... https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/02/this-is-sidney-albert-taylor-sometime.html

** Woodbastwick, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbastwick

 ***Woodbastick Hall, Norfolk, http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/houses/lh_norfolk_woodbastwickhall_info_gallery.html

A photograph ..... a postcard ..... and the search for a sister ....Sidney Albert Taylor ......

This is Sidney Albert Taylor, sometime during the Great War.

Sidney Albert Taylor, 1916

The picture postcard was sent to his sister from the village of Woodbastwick in Norfolk, where he was recovering from an injury, and his message to Ann Isabella was upbeat.

Message home, 1916

And that is pretty much it, but like all young men from that conflict he deserved to come out of the shadows, and in the process the story became not him but the search for him and along the way presented a series of coincidences which brought him closer to me.

So, the starting point for the search was the name and address on the card.

I have to say I had no expectation that 23 Devon Gardens would still exist, but it does, or that it would be so easy to find Ann Isabella.

She was just a set of initials and a surname, which even for the most determined researcher can be a tad daunting.

But the historical records offered her up.  

She was born in Gateshead in 1889, her father was a “boiler man” and for at least the first decade after her birth the family lived on Papermill Square, and by 1911 just round the corner at 84 Victoria Road.

Miss I. A. Taylor, 1916

Sadly, the area has been extensively redeveloped and apart from the Independent Primitive Methodist Chapel there is little that she would have recognized, and today there is every indication that the chapel may not be with us for much longer.

As for their home, this was a 4 roomed property into which squeezed her parents, three siblings, and for a while another brother and sister.  And there amongst her siblings was our Sydney Albert, who had been born in 1894 and at the age of 16 was an apprentice at a paper mill.

I don’t know when he enlisted, but given that the postcard was dated 1916, he may have signed up shortly after the outbreak of war and was possibly one of the Durham Pals.*  Or he may have been a reservist called back to the Colours.

What I can be sure of is that he was not in France in 1914 or 1915, as his medal record show he was not awarded either the 1914 or 1914- 15 Star, and that in 1916 he was still in the Durham Light Infantry, although later in the war he appears to have been transferred to the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.

He survived the war, and was discharged in 1919, with the classification of “Disabled”.

Recovering in Woodbastwick, 1916

The records show that he went back to his old occupation in a paper mill.  In 1922, he was at the Team Valley Paper Mill, and was still there fifteen years later when he gave his occupation as “Paper Bag Machinist”.  

There are at present few details on the Mill but the National Archives** records that company records for 1895 through to 1963 are lodged at the Durham County Record Office.***

For the curious, both his 1922 home at 27 Telford Street, and his 1939 house at 23 Brighton Road have survived. They are located just a short walk from where he had lived before the war. 

I have yet to discover when he married Violet Mabel, who was from Cornwall, and where and how they met may remain a mystery.

I do wonder what he made of his time at Woodbastwick in Norfolk. 

It is a small village which my Wikipedia tells me in the 2001 census had a population of 362 in 157 households,  in 2001, increasing to a population of 399 in 168 households at the 2011 Census.****

I will go looking for where in the village he spent his time recovering from his wounds, but I suspect it has gone.

Woodbastwick Village Green, 2005

Leaving me just to reflect on the way you can be drawn into the story.  

My father was born and grew up in Gateshead not far from where Mr. Taylor lived and remained in the area until the early 1930s, while my maternal grandfather was also in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment during the Great War.

Funny old world.

Location Gateshead, Norfolk

Pictures; Sydney Albert Taylor, and the picture postcard, 1916 from the collection of David Harrop, and Woodbastwick Village Green, Roy Douglas, 2005, This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Roy Douglas and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

* Durham Light Infantry, 18th Battalion (Durham Pals), Durham at War, Durham County Record Office, https://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/story/12528/

** Team Valley Paper Mill, National Archives, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F176058

*** Team Valley Paper Mill, D/TVP, NRA 35658 Team, Durham County Record Office http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/

**** Woodbastwick, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodbastwick