Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Thankful Villages

I was talking to a friend recently about the Thankful Villages.

These were first identified in the 1930s by Arthur Mee. They are the villages where all the soldiers came back from the Great War, which of course explains the "thankful".

The nearest one to Leicester, where I live, is Teigh.

Like the others, Teigh is tiny. All the villages are very small, and probably unknown to most people who live further than a few miles away. Larger places would certainly have lost some of their men.

While talking about these, I said I would dig out a list of the villages, but I didn't realise how difficult this would be. Most books simply ignore them.

So here is a list of the Thankful Villages.

Buckinghamshire - Stoke Hammond

Derbyshire - Bradbourne

Essex - Strethall

Glamorgan - Colwinston

Gloucestershire - Brierley; Coln Rogers; Little Sodbury

Herefordshire - Middleton-on-the-Hill

Hertfordshire - Puttenham

Kent - Knowlton

Lancashire - Arkholme; Nether Kellett

Lincolnshire - Bigby; High Toynton

Northamptonshire - Woodend