The Peace Walk: Celebrating 800 years of worship in Willenhall

At 11am on a bright, chilly November morning, members of St John the Divine congregation and the Willenhall Local History Group met outside the Library, ready to set off on a Peace Walk.

Ouside the Library

 The aim of this walk, part of the two-day Peace Festival in Willenhall, was to pass by the various places of worship in our locality, and reflect on Willenhall's historic role as a place of peace, shelter and acceptance. We set out along Remembrance Road, where we encountered Paula wrestling with some self-setting tree roots in the flowerbed by the Hagard car park. (Bulbs and hardy perennials have now been planted there as part of the Peace Festival.)

Those tree roots were stubborn- but they did come out in the end

We passed by the Free Church, which is set in a peaceful oasis of green set back from Remembrance Road.

The Free Church, Remembrance Road

After that, we headed upwards to St James Lane, where St Anne's Roman Catholic church is situated in beautiful, well-maintained grounds. Before the church was built in the 1970s, this area was open land with a large, perilous water-filled quarry pit. There were market gardens along the Lane, as well as prefabs (which had all mod cons and were quite popular with the residents)

Walking along St James Lane

The piece of land you see on the picture above, just before the presbytery and church, was once associated with the Shrapnel family. In the 1920s, Gordon, the great-grandson of General Henry Shrapnel, bought the plot and built a detached bungalow there. He constructed it out of concrete blocks, which he cast himself on the spot. There is no sign of the house now: the land was compulsorily purchased for £25 by the council to build prefabs, and now remains uncultivated, a haven for wildlife.

The name 'Shrapnel' has particular resonance at this time of year: General Henry Shrapnel invented the Bursting Bomb and gave his name to flying shards of metal. On a more peaceful note, he also designed a patent corkscrew: a special silver one was presented to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

On Dunsmore Avenue, passing by the side of St Anne's

     We continued our autumnal walk along Dunsmore Avenue: the name of this road recalls the Heath, across which medieval pilgrims  would trudge on their way to the Coventry Priory and Cathedral. At the time of Godiva, in the mid 11th Century, Coventry was an important place of pigrimage, to view holy relics such as the arm of St Augustine of Hippo, the head of St Osburg, and a piece of the True Cross.  

One of the History Group's most significant discoveries was the site of St James' Chapel, which was built around 1130 as a place of rest and prayer for the pilgrims who had crossed Dunsmore Heath on their way to Coventry. Ancient documents dating back to 1183 confirm that the chapel was  the property of Coventry Priory. By overlaying old maps with the street layout of Willenhall, we have located the site of the old chapel, which is on Knightlow Avenue. The plot has never been built on, but the reason for that is mundane rather than mystical: it's the junction point for several drains.





At the site of St James' Chapel

It was time to head back through the estate to St John the Divine,where we admired the new commemorative quilt. This was stitched by local residents as a tribute to their loved ones, including our late Chairman, John  Russell.






Many thanks to the Rev Katrina Scott and the church volunteers for the refreshments which we all enjoyed in the Church Hall after the walk. It was lovely to sit down together, have a cup of tea and a slice of cake and reflect on the words which Katrina had placed on the table:

May there be peace:

Peace between cultures

Peace between races

Peace between nations 

Peace between faiths