Brocton, Staffordshire

Brocton was once well known to servicemen as a World War I Military Training Camp, remnants of which can still be seen up at the top of Chase Road.[5] J.R.R. Tolkien came to Staffordshire in August 1915 when he served his military training at an Army camp on the ancient forest and Royal hunting ground of Cannock Chase, Stafford. The military camp near Brocton was situated on the high ground of the 100 square miles (260 km²) of the chase, with its rolling moorland, unusual rock formations, and far-reaching views leading to dense forest all around. In March 1916 Tolkien married Edith Bratt and they moved into accommodation in Great Haywood, a small village on the edge of the Chase. Walking from the camp to his wife's house at the Presbytery in Great Haywood, Tolkien would have passed through the many-changing wild landscapes of the chase and past the great sessile oaks of Brocton Coppice, many of which still stand at over 1000 years old.

As well as a centre where soldiers completed their basic training in the First World War, Brocton Camp also acted as a Prisoner of War Camp from 1917 until the end of the War.[6] The prisoners was separated from the basic training area by barbed wire and fencing. It is estimated that by the time the war ended Brocton Camp housed estimates of between 5,000 to 6,500 prisoners which placed it on the more expansive end of Britain's POW camps in the First World War.[7]

In September 2013 it was reported that Staffordshire County Council would excavate the World War I model battlefield near Brocton, which had been constructed by German Prisoners of War held in a camp on nearby Cannock Chase and guarded by soldiers of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade (Earl of Liverpool's Own). The model of the village and surrounding area of Messines in Belgium, which included replica trenches and dugouts, railway lines, roads, and accurate contours of the surrounding terrain, would be open to public view for a few weeks before being buried over again to ensure its preservation.[8][9][10] The excavation is revealing amazing details of the 40 metre square battlefield, which is said to be perfectly preserved. "Staffordshire County Council will be using laser-scanning technology to re-create the site as a 3D interactive model that can be explored online." [11]