Welbury
Yorkshire
Welbury is a small village about seven miles to the north-east of Northallerton. It has an ancient history and was recorded in Domesday Book as Welleberga. The village is a small, peaceful place, surrounded by farmland, although the residents of today are largely commuters.
The village no longer has a school or Post Office, although the buildings which used to house these local institutions are still recognisable, though now converted to residential use. The village postbox still stands outside the last former site of the Post Office and the School House, built in 1858, still has its bell. There is a village pub, the Duke of Wellington, with records going back at least as far as 1841. The parish church, St Leonard's was founded in 1129 but a stone cross-arm has been dated on stylistic grounds as 9th Century.
By 1800 most of the land was owned by the 1st Baron Harewood, later to be created 1st Earl of Harewood, although during the 20th Century this was sold into private ownership. In 1852 the railway came to Welbury, and by 1900 there were 17 men employed at the station and marshalling yard nearby, although the only sign of this activity nowadays is the level-crossing to the south of the village.
| There is no war memorial in Welbury, but inside St Leonard's Church is
a framed Roll of Honour naming those who left the parish to serve in the
war. The Roll bears thirteen names, each with rank and regimental details
as transcribed below. The Roll of Honour is unusual, because it consists
of a pre-printed blank card, with a space for the name of the location to
be written in and (presumably) a blank space below for the names, ranks and
regiments although this is not clear, because the names appear on a further
sheet of plain, unruled paper, stuck onto the original card at some
time on the past after the underlying handwritten list became faded and difficult
to read.
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When we were researching the names on the Roll of Honour, we came across a problem in that one of the men named, William Stead, was killed in action in 1917 and is buried in Achicourt Road Cemetery, Near Arras, France. However Mike O'Carroll, who brought Welbury to our attention, told us that it was believed that Pte Stead did not live in Welbury, but worked there, on the railway, and was a resident of Bedale, about 14 miles away. He may well have lodged in the village, or on the railway premises, or he may have travelled to and from work by train from Bedale. What is certain, however, is that Soldiers Died in the Great War confirms Bedale as Pte Stead's place of residence. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records state that Pte Stead was the son of Robert and Mary Helen Stead of Sussex Street, Bedale, and Pte Stead is named on the Bedale War Memorial. There seems no doubt, therefore, that although the Welbury villagers wanted to remember him as part of their community, Pte Stead himself considered that he was a resident of Bedale and must have said so when he joined the army.
Welbury may well be unique in that is is a Thankful Village as far as we can tell, but it still has a fallen soldier it chooses to remember.
Text and photos - Tom Morgan
With thanks to Mike O'Carroll
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