Home Guard, Penn, Staffs.

Hi,

My maternal grandfather was in the Home Guard at Penn, Staffordshire.
Does anyone have any information and/or photos of the unit?

His name was Horace Davies and by 1945 he lived at Newhaven, Penn. According to my nan (now aged 98) he worked as a wet grinder at the Henry Meadows factory by day, and manned the anti-aircraft defences on Penn Common by night.

 

Might be worth a look on this link...........

http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/theme/default.asp?theme=325&originator=%2Fengine%2Ftheme%2Fdefault%2Easp&page=1&records=504&direction=2&pointer=1262&text=0&offset=36

 

Thanks, I'll take a look!

 

...or this:

http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscencesStaffsstaffshg.htm

 

I'll take a look at that too - thanks!

 

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I recently found a photo of grandad Horace's Home Guard unit (he's on the top left)

Penn Home Guard by jp1885 posted Aug 11, 2016 at 9:49 PM

 

Great to see that you have found such a wonderful photo of him.

Cheers

Geoff

 

Apologies not warranted. If you happen to know the location of the photograph (perhaps you're still local), it might also help future researchers.

 

Thanks gents!
Alas I don't know the location (or indeed what Home Guard unit it was), as I'm not local (though I still have family in the area).
All I know is, as mentioned above, Nan and Grandad lived at Newhaven, Penn. He supposedly worked as a wet grinder at the Henry Meadows factory by day, and manned the anti-aircraft defences on Penn Common by night, so I guess the photo is somewhere around Penn.

 

Oops, double post.

 

see my reply in the first post.
Patrick

 

Hi Patrick - thanks very much for your helpful comments. I'll follow up your suggestions!

 

Re Photo : It's on a road in open country side, trees can be seen in gap between houses where phone or electric poles are.
The HG have their backs to a wall or more likely a big open gateway, facing a biggish important building.
Possible a hospital, school or army barracks. due to the ornamental wall topping or gateposts at each end of the group.
whether they are still there today is a different matter.

 

Thanks - hopefully this will help narrow down my search.

 

Well, it's been several years but I've finally pinpointed the location of the photo, and it isn't in Penn at all!

It was taken at the work's entrance of the Henry Meadows factory, Cannock Road, Fallings Park, Wolverhampton.

I'm now pretty sure that Grandad, who worked at the factory, was in the work's Home Guard, not the Penn HG.

I don't know what battalion that would place him in though, or what his duties were (for example, were there any anti-aircraft guns situated near the factory, as family legend has it that that was what he used to guard?).