MEMORIES
AND INFORMATION - STAFFORDSHIRE
NEWBOROUGH
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Newborough is a village in Staffordshire
lying between Abbotts Bromley and Burton-on-Trent. We are
greatly indebted to Mr. Les Mosedale and to Mr. Mark Taylor
for providing the information which is contained on this
page.
Like any village of a similar size throughout
the land Newborough had its own Home Guard unit. Mr. Mosedale
and his brother Charlie (seen right) were
members. A photograph was taken of the unit in 1943 and
this is reproduced below. By the time that it was taken
Les was serving in the Royal Navy but his younger brother
was still a member and is seated 4th from the left in the
middle row. It is an unusual photograph in that it includes
two ladies: female members of the Home Guard were only officially
permitted after April 1943 and even then they had to be
content with a non-combatant role and a badge as the only
form of uniform.
Newborough is situated about three miles
from what was once RAF Fauld, formerly a large gypsum mine
which was used to store ammunition. At 11.11 a.m on November
27th 1944 some 3700 tons of the contents exploded, with
catastrophic results over a wide area and resulting in a
death toll of 78. The explosion was said to be the largest
of the war involving conventional explosives and the crater
is still to be seen to this day. Another website - The
Fauld Explosion - provides additional information on
this disaster. Regrettably it is likely that some of the
men shown a year earlier on the photograph were amongst
the victims.
