The Hanleys Village Society organised a history open day for Saturday 12 August. The exhibition at Hanley Swan Village Hall showed the development of the villages of Hanley Castle and Hanley Swan through the stories of the people who lived there, both the major landowning families of Lechmere and Hornyold and the ordinary villagers. It covered life in war-time Hanley, including the US hospitals on the Blackmore estate and the 1944 collision between two Wellington bombers that killed a number of Canadian aircrew. The display was well illustrated by many photographs, old postcards and maps. Archaeological exhibits included fragments of Roman and medieval pottery and the local metal detectorists showed off their finds of coins from various periods. Volunteers supplied coffee, tea and some rather good cakes.
The new Hanley Castle parish website includes a history section which is worth a look if you have ancestors in this area:
Wendy Gillespie
