Today me and Jemima headed to Station Road in Aldridge. The road has been renamed Poppy Road for 11 days (1st – 11th November 2018), as the wonderful people from The Great War Project in conjunction with Aldridge Local History Society, have transformed the road into a beautiful, very moving commemoration for the 100th anniversary of the Armistice.
The road is absolutely full of poppies. I think I read recently that the road now has over 25,000 poppies on it, I saw one house having another delivery today, so I’m sure the numbers will have gone up further. Many have been knitted by the local community, made by school children and the wider community. A tribute from one generation to another.
Walking along the road, amongst the thousands of poppies, you can see silhouettes of servicemen, displays, booklets and poems, honouring the local people of Aldridge village who endured the Great War of 1914-18. Everyone, who made a sacrifice or suffered as a result of the war. This display is for them. A huge thank you for all that you did and went through, for the people of then and the people of today.
Station Road has been used as it was the last place that many servicemen and their families saw each other before heading off to war (or their war work in the munitions factories). Their journeys to France, Germany, Belgium, Turkey, India, Russia , Italy, Greece, Iraq, Egypt and many other places started at this station platform, on this road.
The station no longer exists, but the memories are still there. So many of these people didn’t return home. For others, the memories are there of meeting loved ones who returned on this platform, many needing to go to one of the two military hospitals in the village. I imagine The Red Lion was the pub where men had their last pint before heading off. Or the celebratory pint on their return. If only walls had ears, I bet it could tell some stories. Station Road was the gate in and out of the war. And everyone who stepped into it, deserves this very fitting tribute and commemoration.
As we walked down the road, it was nice to stop and talk to different people who had also come to visit and to pay their respects. Many were happy to see me showing Jemima and explaining about why the road was decorated. As I said to some of the people I chatted to, I’m unsure how much she understood, but as we returned to our car later and I asked her about our trip, she said “The men were very nice men” and “Mummy, I loved those flowers, they are beautiful” and if that’s what she took away from the walk, aged 2, that’s good enough for me.
I particularly liked that not only were over 60 of the houses decorated, the Air Cadets, Old Railway Nursery, The Red Lion Pub were decorated too AND Network Rail had allowed their railings to be decorated and Amey had allowed the lamposts to get involved too!
I recommend parking in Aldridge and taking a walk up this road. Don’t zoom down it in your car, just to glance quickly at the poppies. Walk down it, read about the servicemen, there are 16 silhouettes representing former residents of those houses who lost their life in the Great War. A further 40 plus posters of silhouettes in residents windows, remembering those who served and survived. Many have information sheets for you to read, one house had a booklet that me and Jemima read through.
If you pop to Aldridge Library before your walk (maybe you could park next to the library?) you could collect a leaflet telling the individual stories of each person, or pop into The Red Lion who i’m told will also have leaflets available. The ages of some of the servicemen that died, really got to me. So young. So heartbreaking. A very emotional walk.
A poem by John McCrae (1872-1918), a Canadian Lieutenant Colonel is shared on your walk down the street, this verse stood out for me;
“We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.”
