MENU
A Tribute to Bill Gwilliam MBE

A Tribute to Bill Gwilliam, MBE

Sports Articles

Worcester Regatta 1845

Worcester Regatta 1845

Worcester Regatta 1845  - Worcester Evening News 20-05-95

One of the more remarkable 'matchings' at the first ever Worcester Regatta over 150 years ago was when the crew from the then tiny village of Kempsey was drawn against Oxford University !

The David and Goliath clash did not, for some unaccountable reason, actually take place though Oxford rowed later at the regatta against a Bewdley crew, bumping their boat from behind under an arch of Worcester Bridge and claiming the race............... 


The Spring and Langon Championship Fight , Part 3 The First 32 Rounds

The Spring and Langon Championship Fight , Part 3 The First 32 Rounds

At 12.35 Spring arrived with Tom Crib as second, from Croome Court, where they had been staying as guests of Lord Coventry. Most of the nobility of the Midlands were present, including three peers, but Langon was nowhere to be found. Because of legal difficulties,

The Spring and Langon Championship Part 2 - 40,000 on Pitchcroft

The Spring and Langon Championship Part 2 - 40,000 on Pitchcroft

The match was arranged to take place on Pitchcroft, with the use of the grandstand, for stakes of 300 sovereigns aside, and handbills were circulated. So great was the demand for seats that wagons and temporary stands had to be used, and cost an extra 10

The Spring and Langon Championship Fight at Worcester Part 1

The Spring and Langon Championship Fight at Worcester Part 1

The greatest of the county matches, and one of the greatest prize fights of all times, took place on Pitchcroft on Januaury 7, 1824: when Tom Spring and Paddy Langon fought for the championship of England.Spring, a native of Warwick, was the reigning champion

Boughton Cricket Ground, W.G.Grace and R.E.Foster.

Boughton Cricket Ground, W.G.Grace and R.E.Foster.

W.G.Grace made his first appearance in the Midlands at the age of 20, and though only 20, he was easily the greatest cricketer in the country. The occasion was at the Boughton Cricket Ground, Worcester, in 1870, with a Worcestershire 22, and the United

A Tall Cricket Story

A Tall Cricket Story

Mr.Herbert Jenner who played in the first Oxford v Cambridge match in 1827, told the following story of a 'demon bowler' when he kept wicket: 'The bowler sent down a ball which broke the bat, the batman's leg, the middle and leg stumps, whizzed past me,

Cathedral Chimes and County Cricket

Cathedral Chimes and County Cricket

On the Worcster ground you cannot get away from the Cathedral. The great clock-bell booms. There are occasions when the match is in progress, when the great peal of twelve bells rings out, the very ground seems to vibrate. Every three hours the chimes ring

Cricket Interruptions at Worcester

Cricket Interruptions at Worcester

In the Minor Counties days a match with Berkshire was interrupted by a great black sow waddling from the adjacent piggery into the centre of the ground. In the early First Class Days, a Derbyshire match was stopped by a wild rabbit dashing between the players.

Cricket Facts

Cricket Facts

Ron Headley became the first Worcestershire batsman to aggregate 1,000 Sunday League runs at Newark in 1971 after 40 innings. Graeme Hick also completed his 100 runs against Notts but this time at Trent Bridge in 1987 during his 31st innings

The Dover's Hill Games

The Dover's Hill Games

A great annual sporting occasion during the first half of the ninteenth century was the Dover's Hill Sports. It was held on a grassy plateau above Broadway at apoint where the counties of Worcester, Warwick and Gloucester meet,

Boughton Cricket Ground

Boughton Cricket Ground

In mi- Victorian days Boughton was closely identified with the beginnings of Worcestershire county cricket. In 1865 the County Cricket Club was formed by Lord Lyttleton, supported by many local families including the Isaacs. A suitable field with a pavillion

Early days of Worcester Football Club

Early days of Worcester Football Club

The Club has never been a rich club or in the top flight, though there have been occasions when they have defeated some of the best teams in the country. The Club was formed by the amalgamation of two local teams, Berwick Rangers (Bath Road) and the Worcester

Michael Grundy writes:

No-one has done more in a lifetime than H.W ("Bill") Gwilliam to chronicle the history of the City of Worcester and County of Worcestershire. Importantly too, his prolific writings on the Faithful City's past have always been in a most readable, fascinating and absorbing form, full of colour and with a liberal sprinkling of humour.

After retiring from a distinguished career in teaching, Bill researched and compiled volume after typewritten volume on the history of the city and county of Worcester, covering a myriad of subjects such as folklore, pubs, crimes, newspapers, transport. rivers and, above all, "People and Places."

Eighteen years ago, when I began producing weekly features on local history for the Worcester Evening News, I received invaluable help from Bill, and I am sure many other local history researchers down the decades will have had cause to be equally grateful for his ready assistance.

Bill has always shown abounding enthusiasm for the extremely eventful and chequered past of Worcester and the county and has been a veritable font of knowledge on his painstakingly researched subject.

Little wonder that the Queen bestowed the MBE on him for services to the public. I know that the Buckingham Palace Investiture where he received the medal from Her Majesty was probably the most memorable day of his life.

Happily, Bill's vast writings are not being allowed to languish in numerous file folders on shelves around a bedroom at his Worcester home.

Two books of his work have already been published - "Old Worcester: People and Places" and "Worcestershire's Hidden Past" and are available in bookshops, having been produced by Halfshire Books.

I understand too that the Worcestershire Record Office has copied several of his volumes for the county archives, and I heartily applaud Pam Hinks for now so patiently making Bill's researches available to an even wider audience via the Internet.

Mike Grundy, Worcestershire Evening News