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Historical notes on Stretton-under-Fosse
Scroll down to read about Sir Thomas Mallory, the silo tragedy and recollections of old Stretton under Fosse with information about local charity "Poore's Piece" and the origin of the WW1 shelloutside the village hall.
The manor of Newbold Revel, known originally as Fenny Newbold, belonged to Geoffrey de Wirce in 1086 where he held 8 hides of land in the area, probably including Stretton-under-Fosse.
Medieval times
This land came to Sir Hugh Revel around 1235 and as was the custom of the time, he conferred his surname on the estate calling it Newbold Revel, as we know it today, perhaps thinking that this was a more superior sounding name than Fenny Newbold, with its connotations of damp and bogginess. In 1299 his son William had a grant of free warren there and in 1316 William made the estate over to his son John in tail and in 1327 John in his turn was granted free warren.
Sir John, a knight of the shire, was a prominent man in the local area; he left three sons but all three died without an heir so that the estate was divided between his three daughters. Alice, who married Sir John Malory of Winwick, Northamptonshire in 1391, became the owner of Newbold Revel and the couple settled the manor on themselves in tail. The estate came to their son, the famous author of Morte d'Arthur Sir Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory at Newbold Revel
Sir Thomas Malory was the reputed author of the famous English translation of the classic tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table called ‘Morte d’Arthur’, completed in 1470 with beautifully written stories of very human men and women which still find relevance today. He was lord of the Manor of Newbold Revel and spent much of his time in the local area.
Sir Thomas is thought to have been born in 1399 and his father, John Malory, was recorded as lord of Newbold Revel in 1406.
The Revel area was more wooded in medieval times and Sir Thomas would have hunted there in his youth. He would have ridden to see the Mystery Plays in Coventry alongside the Smite Brook across the lands of Coombe Abbey, through Caludon deer park and crossing Gosford Green, where tournaments were held.
Malory was in the service of Sir Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick from 1414 till Beauchamp’s death in 1439. He then took up service with Beauchamp’s son Harry, later created Duke of Warwick by Henry VI, till Harry’s probable murder in 1446. He was first recorded as a knight in 1441 and would therefore have been knighted by Henry VI, to whom he had thereafter a strong allegiance. Malory was returned as MP for Warwickshire in 1445 – 6.
Malory had a long term vendetta with the Duke of Buckingham, a Yorkist, and was alleged to have ambushed him in Coombe Abbey Woods in 1450. The accusation did not surface until 15 months after the alleged attack. Although held in custody for many years he was never tried for this, or any other of his alleged crimes. He requested trial by his Warwickshire peers but this was never forthcoming.
Again in 1450 he is alleged to have had an affair with Joan Smith, a married woman from Monks Kirby and to have abducted her. During that year he is also said to have extorted money from Monks Kirby residents.
A year later he is alleged to have stolen cattle at Cosford and caused damage and stolen 6 does at Caludon.
Following these alleged escapades the Duke of Buckingham and a posse of 60 men at arms arrested Malory at Newbold Revel and imprisoned him in a moated manor house at Coleshill. Two days later he escaped by swimming the moat and returned to Newbold Revel. He immediately gathered a large group of local men and raided Coombe Abbey, taking hundreds of pounds worth of money and valuables. The reason for the attack is not known but its timing hints that Sir Thomas wanted to retrieve something – perhaps his own valuables but also, very likely, papers that may have implicated him in more serious crimes than those of which he stood accused, possibly saving his own life.
In 1451 Sir Thomas was charged with his crimes at Nuneaton, where he must have gone voluntarily, but he was not tried. He was kept in custody and moved to London where he was transferred between different prisons for two and a half years, between periods of bail. He was pardoned by Edward IV in 1462.
He is next heard of campaigning with the new Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville, (Warwick the Kingmaker) in1462. In 1464 Malory was back again in the local area as he witnessed a marriage settlement for John Feilding of Monks Kirby.
He joined the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses and was three times excluded, as a Lancastrian rebel, from Edward IV’s pardon between1468 and 1470.
He died in 1471 and was buried at Greyfriars Church in London, which is now destroyed, but his burial inscription described him as a valiant knight.
His alleged misdeeds, when seen in the context of his times, are not so shocking. Some incidents may have been inflated so that his enemies could have him imprisoned and at other times he could have been protecting his own property or claiming rent that was overdue. It is even possible that he was a spy during the Wars of the Roses. When he was accused in a London court of his crimes he is recorded to have stated that he was ‘in no wise guilty’.
Newbold Revel, called Fenny Newbold in the time of Sir Thomas Malory, was a moated manor house with 3 large fishponds. It was not remote from the centre of things in those days, being on a main route to London and near to Coventry, an important centre for government and pilgrimages. Parliament met there in 1404 and 1459 and Lancastrian kings and queens often held court there or in Leicester or Kenilworth.
There are remains of the 15th century manor within the existing building, which dates from the beginning of the 18th century. The original manor house was so solid that parts of it were incorporated into the new building, for example the pastry ovens and kitchen chimney stack, which give a slight lack of symmetry. The thickness of some of the internal dividing walls shows that at one time they were actually external structures.
RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD STRETTON-under-FOSSE
There has been a settlement at Stretton-under-Fosse since at least the 16th century, judging from the number of lath and plaster dwellings in the village street, many of which are listed buildings. A village would have grown up naturally around a large manor such as Newbold Revel, the history of which dates back to before the Norman conquest, when it passed to King William from a Saxon noble named Lewin. The most famous owner was Sir Thomas Malory, the author of Le Morte d’Arthur, who was born in the early 15th century and spent much of his time in the local area, as a young man hunting in the Revel woodlands.
This kind of information is relatively easy to acquire from sources such as the County Record Office but details of more recent events and people are at risk of being lost when all those who lived through those times are gone and no-one has thought to keep a record.
Peter Wallace, who farmed in the village for 40 years at Home Farm, has always had a fascination with the past and has provided most of the following information. He listened to and preserved the reminiscences of people like Will Crofts, of Manor Farm, and other elderly residents whose lives spanned the 19th and 20th centuries.
Much of the village’s history is intertwined with that of Newbold Revel, whose owners held most of the village in their estate, or the Manor Farm, which was run by generations of the Crofts family from 1790 until the death of Will Crofts in 1980.
At about the same time as John Crofts took over Manor Farm from his father in 1863, Edward Wood purchased Newbold Revel and the house eventually passed to his grandson whose overriding enthusiasm was cricket. He built the Cricketers Wing on to the house where visiting players were hosted when they came to play matches on the Pavilion Field which is adjacent to Brick Kiln Spinney; even W. G. Grace is believed to have played there. Squire Wood’s hospitality and facilities were so enjoyed by leading cricketers of the time that Warwickshire Cricket Club fumed that they “seem to prefer to play for Mr. Wood than to play for their County”.
THE CRICKET GROUND AT NEWBOLD REVEL
The Wood family sold Newbold Revel and its farms to Colonel Heath in 1898 for £255,000. Col Heath was a brick manufacturer from Staffordshire and it is he who is responsible for the decorative blue brick and black tiles seen on many of the village houses. He was a member of the Staffordshire Yeomanry and held camp weekends at Newbold Revel before the First World War.
In 1911 Leo Bonn, an Austrian banker, became the next owner of Newbold Revel, living there in great contentment for the rest of his life. He was a popular figure, a member of the Atherstone Hunt who also took a practical interest in agriculture and sport. A deaf person himself, he founded the National Bureau for Promoting the General Welfare of the Deaf which we now know as the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). Leo Bonn died on November 28th 1929 at Newbold Revel and the estate was broken up and sold in 1931. His son, Major Walter Bonn who served with distinction in the First World War, erected the Village Hall in 1932 for the use of villagers in memory of his father.
Newbold Revel was purchased by the Seventh Day Adventists after the death of Leo Bonn and although its ownership and history are well documented it is not common knowledge that, requisitioned by the War Office for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, agents were sent there to be trained before being dropped into enemy territory in Europe, first having their teeth thoroughly checked by a Rugby dentist to ensure that dental problems did not interfere with their dangerous mission! The relics of war time usage can still be seen in the form of large concrete blocks and staples at the rear of the house which were used to restrain the radio mast.
Home Farm remained part of the Newbold Revel estate throughout its many changes of ownership until it was bought by Peter Wallace in 2003. The house is ancient, dating from at least the late 16th century and is of cruck beam construction. There is evidence that the land has been farmed for many hundreds of years as horseshoes dating from the 11th century to the 1930s have been found there.
There was an ice house in the park, in use until the First World War and a weighbridge was situated adjacent to one of the barns. Smite Brook, which ran through Home Farm land, must at one time have been a much bigger watercourse because it was dammed for trout fishing and there was also a watermill which pumped water up into the Revel gardens. A fire pond was situated in Home Farm paddock and used by the fire tender kept at Newbold Revel and crewed by their staff and local men, including Sergeant Tomlinson from 43 Main Street.
THE VILLAGE FIRE BRIGADE
The village celebrated Edwards VII’s coronation in 1902 in the Dutch barn at Home Farm and every child was given a plate, one of which is still in existence. The tradition was repeated for George V’s coronation and in 2002 a barbecue was held to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s golden jubilee, when every child in the village received a commemorative mug.
Will Crofts, the last of his family to farm in the village, believed that Manor Farm was bought by the Crofts in 1797. A brick in the gable of the house with the date 1862 and the initials ‘JC’ testifies to the fact that major rebuilding was completed in that year.
One of Will Crofts’ employees, George Braine, had worked on the land all his life and had a farming vocabulary of medieval words, defying interpretation by listeners unused to his speech, when he conversed with the village blacksmith, Mr. Jackson. The Crofts’ lives at Manor Farm were uneventful until in 1934 the tragedy of the silo occurred (see separate article, below).
Stretton is now a residential hamlet but in the 1880s it had a school, which is now 11 Main Street and a reading room where 20 Main Street now stands, whilst the Congegrational chapel in New Road attracted worshippers from a wide area as no non-conformist chapel could operate within 6 miles of a church in a town. Next to the school was a butcher’s, in a ‘mud’ cottage and there were two slaughterhouses, one at 41 Main Street and the other at Home Farm.
The Union Jack pub was built in the late 19th century; its name was supposed to be unique in the British Isles. The village had two other pubs, one being at 43 Main Street which had stables in its yard and another was the Rose and Woodbine, now the thatched cottage at 2 Main Street.
Farming used to provide the main occupation for the village’s inhabitants. As well as Home Farm, part of the Newbold Revel Estate, there was Malt Kiln Farm where the Estate Agent lived and where the malt kiln for Moxon’s Brewery at Easenhall could be found. The barn housing the malt kiln, which was on the site of Revel Barn and Malory Barn in Main Street, was used by the Air Ministry in the Second World War to store aeroplane parts, mainly for Wellington bombers. There were also Manor Farm and Brierley’s Farm, the latter bought by the Croft family in the 1920s; it was next to the Old Forge, where the village blacksmith worked on well into the 1980’s.
Mr Wood, who owned the Stretton Estate consisting of six farms and General Lloyd, a large landowner at Withybrook formed the Stretton Farming Company in 1880. Home Farm at Stretton and Home Farm at Withybrook were each built to exactly the same plan as part of this company, with the weighbridge and slaughterhouse being at Stretton.
Farriers Court was built on the site of the Old Forge’s outbuildings in 1992, whilst the outbuildings of the three other farms were converted to dwellings as Home Farm Barns in 2006, Malt Kiln Barns in 2000 and the Manor Courtyard in 1990.
The Silo Tragedy
A tragedy happened in Stretton under Fosse on Friday 13th June 1930 which became national news and is still remembered by local people.
It was a fine, early summer day. The weather had been good for some time and exceptionally warm for early summer so the haymaking was progressing well. Farmer William Crofts, of Manor Farm, was a progressive farmer and four years previously he installed a silo tower on his farm. This was a new way of making cattle cake: the new mown hay was placed in the silo and trampled flat by the men. Eventually it would be cut into chaff, drawn up a steel pipe and then turned into cattle cake.
The silo, about 30 feet tall, had four doors at different levels and once the hay passed the level of each door, that door was sealed shut and entry was obtained via a ladder through the door above.
It was the job of the farm workers at this time of year to trample the hay; they would routinely do this whilst waiting to start other work or when their work was finished.
At 8.30 am on Friday 13th June the farm workers were going about their usual tasks: Ernest Brain, a waggoner, had fed the horses and got them ready for their working day; George Smith, the cowman, was cleaning out the cow pen, having already done some work in the silo; George Jackson, a farm labourer was preparing to get on with trampling hay in the silo. Mr Crofts was still breakfasting at the Manor Farm House, and Len Conopo, his stockman, was still at home, fearing he would be late for work.
Once Ernest Brain had finished his work with the horses he made his way to the silo where his companion, George Jackson, was already working, to help him with trampling the hay until it was time to take the horses out into the fields. Ernest climbed the ladder and pushed open the door to the silo, expecting to jump in and get on with his work. To his horror he saw George sprawled on his side on top of the hay, apparently lifeless. Almost at once Ernest himself felt a choking sensation and realised what had happened: the oxygen level in the silo must have dropped alarmingly, knocking out George – or worse. Ernest struggled to the door, feeling his breathing becoming more and more difficult and rapidly getting weaker and weaker. As he reached the door he grabbed it to steady himself and managed to shout for help.
The cowman, George Smith, had seen Ernest Brain go up into the silo; he now turned at the sound of a cry to see the alarming sight of his work mate struggling to escape through the door of the silo, slipping back inside even as he watched, as though he had collapsed. With no idea of what was happening but with the one thought that his friend was in great danger, he ran to the silo and climbed the ladder. He could see Ernest Brain in the doorway, grey faced and at the point of collapse but as he attempted to climb inside to help, George Smith was hit by the fumes and fell back down the ladder.
Recovering quickly, he ran to the farmhouse and came back with Mr Crofts, explaining what he had seen as they ran. Mr Crofts sent George for some rope and ascended the ladder but by the time George returned with the rope, he found Mr Crofts also dead inside the silo. He immediately ran to get further assistance at the farm house.
Mr Crofts’ son Frederick, a young solicitor was at home preparing to leave for his office in Rugby. Hearing the shocking story from George Smith he immediately rang Rugby Fire Brigade.
At this point, Len Conopo was called from his breakfast by George Smith’s wife who told him there had been an accident in the silo. Len ran to the scene and climbed the ladder to look in the silo. To his horror, he saw three men inside, almost certainly dead. George Jackson lay facing the door; nearby was Mr Crofts who had collapsed in the act of rescuing him with the rope and not far away, facing the door, lay Ernest Brain.
Once inside the silo, Len checked the three men for signs of life and tried to get them out; however he soon began to feel ill himself and had to climb outside for fresh air, then ran for help.
Frederick Crofts, who had wrapped a wet towel round his head, arrived at the scene of the tragedy in an attempt to rescue his father but William Crofts was already dead. Although the potency of the fumes was by now much reduced, it was still strong enough to make Frederick Crofts feel weak under their effects, forcing him to retreat from the silo. Returning to his grim task soon afterwards with Len Conopo and Dr. Allot from Brinklow, between them they managed to rescue the bodies of the three dead men.
The silo some time after the disaster
William Rudge, a science master at Rugby School, tested the gases from the silo 3 or 4 hours after the accident and found that they contained 50% carbon dioxide. He believed that, at the time of the accident, the oxygen content of the air would have been only a quarter of that necessary to sustain life, with carbon dioxide being 10 times stronger than was safe to breathe. Examined by the Coroner at the inquest on the 3 men, he stated that the presence of such a high ratio of carbon dioxide was the undoubted cause of their deaths.
In his evidence at the inquest, held in the Mission Room at Stretton-under-Fosse, Dr. Allott stated that the cause of death ‘was asphyxiation through the inhalation of gases carrying such quantities of carbon dioxide as to be incompatible with life.’ Death, he said, would have taken place within a minute.
It was never explained how such an immense build up of this dangerous gas occurred; men had worked safely in the silo for the 4 years it had stood on the farm with never any sign of danger. The exceptional June heat, especially on the night preceding the accident, may have caused more rapid and concentrated fermentation of the grasses stored in the silo.
The funerals of all three men were attended by large numbers of relatives, friends and neighbours from the surrounding area and further afield and the Vicar of Monks Kirby, the Rev. Peacock, paid tribute to the men in his sermon the following Sunday. All three men were buried in the churchyard at Monks Kirby; on Ernest Brain’s grave in St Edith's churchyard are written the words: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’
William Thomas Crofts came from a well-known farming family; he was born at Church Lawford, farming at Cubbington until taking over Manor Farm on the death of his father in 1907. His eldest son William was in Australia at the time of the tragedy; he returned home to Stretton soon afterwards and took over Manor Farm, running it until his death in the 1960s. He never married.
George Jackson, the first man to be killed in the silo, was born in Stretton, the son of Ezekiel Jackson the local blacksmith.
My thanks to John Cleaver of Pailton who confirmed details of the tragedy and Mr Southam of Monks Kirby, who showed me the graves of the men in St. Edith’s churchyard. They were related to Ernest Brain and were small children in Stretton at the time of the silo tragedy. Thanks also to Bill Summers for lending me his treasured copy of The Advertiser, dated Friday June 20th 1930 which contains a full report of the inquest on all three men and details of their funerals. The accident was first reported in the late edition of The Advertiser on Friday 13th June 1930 and again, with fuller details, on Tuesday 17th June. Microfiches of The Advertiser are available to view at Rugby Library.
POOR’S LAND
RCN 219821
Until the 18th century much of England consisted of open fields that were farmed by a system of crop rotation. Farmers had strips in each field and also rights over the common pasture, meadows, heath and woodland. The system of open fields, strips and commons was complex and encouraged uneconomic smallholdings. Enclosure (often spelt inclosure) was therefore undertaken. This involved pieces of land in different ownership being swapped and amalgamated but also the division of common land between those who had previously enjoyed rights over it. The new larger fields were then enclosed with hedges or ditches dividing the land of different owners or occupiers. At first enclosure was often carried out by private agreement but from the late 18th century land was enclosed by Acts of Parliament: between 1760 and 1797 there were about 15000 private enclosure acts.
An Award for the Ancient Township of Stretton under Fosse is dated 20th May 1772 and was made under an Inclosure Act of 1771 and in so far as the Poor’s Land is concerned is in the following terms.
“AND the said Commissioners do hereby set out ascertain allot and award unto and for the said Sir Francis Skipwith and his Heirs IN TRUST for the poor of the Township of Stretton aforesaid All that Plot of land situate and being in the said Upper Field as the same is now set out and containing five Acres two Roods and thirty-six Perches and bounded on the North East and Part of the East by certain old Inclosures in the Liberties of Street-Ashton and Stretton aforesaid On the remaining Part of the East by the fourth Allotment hereinafter awarded to the said William Bentley On the North West by the several Allotments hereinbefore awarded to the said Master Fellows and Scholars and their Lessee The Mounds and Fences for Inclosing which same Plot of land above awarded for the use of the Poor the said Commissioners do hereby award order and direct shall be made and for ever hereafter maintained and preserved on the North East and East Parts thereof against the old Inclosure and on the North West against the Allotment hereinbefore awarded to the said Master Fellows and Scholars and their Lessee shall be made and for ever after maintained and preserved by and at the Expense of the Owners of the same Allotment for the time being”
There is no accompanying map but I have seen a map produced by a researcher some years ago and held by Warwickshire County Record Office which shows the area of land as the second field below the road from Withybrook to Street Ashton to the East of the Fosse Way.
An entry in White & Co’s Directory 1874 makes reference to “Poor’s Land” – On the inclosure of the open fields of Stretton-under-Fosse in 1771 about five acres and a half of the land was originally set out for the poor to cut fuel. It has been cultivated, and the amount of rent, we believe, is distributed in coals to all the resident poor. The children of this township are entitled to go free to Monks Kirby school.”
In 1853 the Charity Commission for England and Wales was established and Commissioners were appointed with a view to establishing a record of all the charities in the various counties. That for Warwickshire was completed by 1890 and the text of the entry is in the following terms.
“TOWNSHIP OF STRETTON-UNDER-FOSS.
Poor’s Land.
There is a field, containing about five acres and a half of land, in the township of Stretton-under-Foss, originally set out, on the inclosure of the open fields in 1771, for the poor to cut fuel. It has been improved and cultivated, and is now let to William Perkins and William Morson, as yearly tenants, at the rent of 12l. per annum. The rent is received by Mr. Harris, the agent of Sir Grey Skipwith, bart., and the amount distributed in coals, each poor cottage in the village of Stretton having a portion delivered at his door. All the resident poor partake of the distribution. Coals are set at about 8 d and 9 d per cwt.
The children of Stretton-under-Foss are entitled to go free to Monk’s Kirby school.”
In 1918 Sir Grey Humberston D’Estoteville Skipwith of Honington Hall in the County of Warwick was one of the three Trustees of the Poor’s Land Charity and wished to be removed from his trusteeship and the Charity Commission took this opportunity to produce a Scheme for the regulation of the Charity. The Order of the Charity Commission was sealed on the 25th June 1918 and is the Governing Document for The Poor’s Land Charity and the principal provisions are as set out below.
The land is described as 5 ½ acres or thereabouts in the Ancient Town-ship of Stretton under Fosse, let to various tenants at rents amounting to £3 in the year 1917 and was under the Order vested in The Official Trustee of Charity Lands.
All sums of cash now or at any time belonging to the Charity and not needed for immediate working purposes shall (unless otherwise ordered) as soon as possible be invested under the authority of a further Order of the Charity Commissioners in the name of “The Official Trustee of Charitable funds.”
There are to be three competent persons appointed as Trustees.
The Order appointed the First Representative Trustees, William Thomas Crofts and Benjamin Tomlinson, to hold office for 4 years from the 25th June 1918 and that every future Representative Trustee shall be appointed by the Parish Council of Stretton under Fosse. Each appointment shall be made for a term of 4 years at an ordinary meeting of the Parish Council and the appointee need not be a member of the Council.
The Order then appointed the First Cooptative Trustee, Arthur Howard Heath, and the Cooptative Trustee shall be a person residing or carrying on business in or near the Ancient Township of Stretton under Fosse to hold office for five years again from 25th June 1918. Every future Cooptative Trustee shall be appointed by a resolution of the Trustees to be passed at a special meeting to hold office for five years.
There are a number of administrative provisions governing acceptance of office by trustees, determination of their trusteeship, meetings and proceedings of Trustees, appointment of one of their number or another person as Clerk, and Management of Real Property.
The Scheme deals with Application of Income and General Provisions in the following terms;
24. Expenses of Management. All charges and outgoings payable in respect of the said land, and all the proper costs, charges and expenses of and incidental to the administration and management of the Charity, shall be first defrayed by the Trustees out of the income of the Charity.
25. Benefit of Poor. Subject to the payments aforesaid, the yearly income of the Charity shall be applied by the Trustees in such way or ways as they think best for the benefit of the poor of the Ancient Township of Stretton under Fosse.
26. Appropriation of Benefits. The appropriation of the benefits of the Charity shall be made by the Trustees from time to time at meetings of their body, and not separately by any individual Trustee or Trustees.
27. Trustees not to be personally interested. No Trustee shall take or hold any interest in the said land otherwise than as a Trustee of the Charity and no Trustee shall receive any remuneration or be interested in the supply of work or goods at the cost of the Charity.
28. Charity not to relieve Rates. The funds or income of the Charity shall not in any case be applied in aid of rates for the relief of the poor or other purposes.
29. Questions under Scheme. Any question as to the construction of this Scheme or as to the regularity or the validity of any acts done or about to be done under this Scheme, shall be determined conclusively by the Charity Commissioners, upon such application made to them for the purpose as they think sufficient.
David Collins
January 2009
Thanksgiving Week - Stretton under Fosse
The story behind the 15 inch shell
standing outside the Village Hall
Financing the First World War was not only by Taxation, in Britain this paid for less than a quarter of the war’s ongoing costs, but by a variety of means one of which was Domestic Borrowing and in particular by war loans making use of Bonds, for example in June 1915 the second war loan was launched with Bonds of £5 and £25 the units being repayable in 1945 or at the government’s option after 10 years.
The amounts raised were prodigious for example between October 1917 and September 1918 war bonds raised £1120 million. Some of the larger cities staged a Tank Week, in the course of which a tank proceeded through the main streets. The Tank Week in Leicester in January 1918 appealed for £1 million: it brought in twice that amount. In the week preceding 5th November 1918 over £30 million was raised it being noted that no less money was required even though Austria Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria had signed an Armistice.
In October 1918 “Feed the Guns” campaigns were held, Manchester raising over £19 million, Liverpool over £8 million and Birmingham over £7 million in War Bonds. After the Armistice with Germany Special War Bond thanksgiving efforts were organised in many districts the Chancellor of the Exchequer pointing out some of the many purposes for which money was still required – for the work of demobilisation, to smooth over the inevitable dislocation of industries, to prevent the risk of unemployment for the men returning from the various Fronts, for reconstruction and improvement of social conditions.
“Feed the Guns Week” for Rugby Rural District North and Monks Kirby Rural District area took place18th to 23rd November 1918. A gun was taken round the villages.
Stretton under Fosse responded nobly to the appeal for special efforts during Thanksgiving Week and headed the list of villages visited by the gun in the Rugby Rural District by more than doubling the quota of £5 per head of the population. Bonds and Certificates purchased during the week amounted to £2889 14s 6d, the population of the village being 276 - an average of £10 9s 5p per head. Where the quota was exceeded a large shell was given to the village, and Stretton’s 15” shell now stands in pride of place outside the village hall.
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