The Bramley History Community Archive

The logistics of events occurring on this day must have been nothing less than a mammoth task for all concerned.  The secrecy involved in what was such a mammoth operation was truly amazing.  It seems many of us knew there was something really huge about to happen with the movement of service personnel, tanks and other machinery and equipment all around the country.  And yet - the BIG secret was kept.  Can you imagine this happening with today’s media coverage?

For those of us who lived through this time and whose memories can remember the event it is difficult to believe that, indeed, sixty years have gone by so quickly.

Likewise, for those who lost loved ones and friends, plus those who returned from service so badly injured or so shocked by what they had seen and experienced during the war, that they were never to be the same again, must have left an indelible memory in the minds of the families of those brave service men and women.

We all owe them so much and yet, surprisingly, Bramley does not have its own War Memorial, although various of our churches have recorded the names of members of their congregation and others, who gave their lives in the war effort whilst on active service, e.g. St. Peter’s Church have approximately 213 names recorded in their crypt.

A wintertime photograph of St. Peter's Church, Houghley Lane, Bramley, before the church was partially rebuilt. The alter had been facing North when the church was originally constructed in the 19th century, and so when it was partly demolished in the 20th century, they made sure that the alter was, and correctly, facing Eastwards. The church's bell tower and steeple, has been kept as it was and still forms a part of the newer church.

However, after World War II ex-servicemen and members of the British Legion here in Bramley did obtain The Old Vicarage at the top end of Whitecote Hill and renamed the building the New Bramley Memorial Club, but the club has now become the Old Vic pub and is alive and well.

The Old Vicarage, as it was known in the 19th century, with its lovely doorway and windows. After the Second World War, ex-servicemen and members of the British Legion obtained this house and re-named it the New Bramley Memorial Club. The premises are now in use as a public house.

2006