In order to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1, research was undertaken to find out more about the names that can be found on the village’s War Memorial.

Once that task had been completed it was felt that it would also be fitting to remember those who served and survived the war and also what the village demography would have been like during this period of history. The research has been completed and is presented here.

Britain entered the war on 4 August 1914 but it is not possible to pin point information from that precise date onwards, so anything in 1914 is taken as being acceptable.

This information can be found below and gives names of residents, where they lived along with other information such as age and profession. The population information shows those people who lived in West Moors at some point during the war years. There are 1095 people shown here but, due to a lot of coming and going, at any given point in time the population would have been about 700 to 750.

The information has been compiled mostly from public documents but there has been significant contributions from descendants of past residents. The information sources are; National Census returns 1841 to 1911 inclusive; Parish (civil and ecclesiastical) records; Births, Deaths and Marriages records; Wills and Probate records; Military and World War 1 records; St Mary’s First School log books; electoral registers; jury lists; trade and profession directories; and various newspapers and journals.

The map shows the geographical extent of West Moors at that time and highlights some interesting features, of which some can still be seen. For some households the actual home they lived in can still be identified.

Every effort has been made to keep the information as accurate as possible but, due to the size of the task, it is inevitable that there will be some mistakes and omissions. Please accept our apologies if there is an error and please let us know what it is so that we can put it right.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all who have helped in any way with this project and, especially St Mary’s First School, Oakhurst Community First School and West Moors Middle School who made such a success of the exhibition based on this information at the library over the summer.