Woodford Short History
A World at War
In 1913 a group of dignitaries gathered on Sharman’s Hill near Charwelton. The German Kaiser, Sir John French, Winston Churchill and others watched military exercises involving the use of the railway. A year later they would be commanding the forces bent on each other’s destruction.
Woodford saw the impact of the Great War but perhaps to a lesser extent than other places. Because of the importance of the railway to the movement of equipment, horses, and troops, many men stayed in their jobs on the railway. Even so, 24 local men gave their lives in the conflict, their names recorded on the war memorial erected in the church yard two years after the end of the war.
The place of some of those that went to fight was taken by women. They served as locomotive cleaners at the railway works and helped on the farms. Women also worked in the Dent’s Glove Factory which opened in 1916.
The village doctor was also the medical officer for the Home for Wounded Soldiers at Eydon