The Charlton Mound
   Dr. Pierre Ceresole, son of a former President of The Swiss Republic,  had started a movement called the International Voluntary Service for Peace in 1920 when he went with volunteers of different nationalities to a war torn village near Verdun in Nothern France, where they worked for five months erecting temporary homes for the returning population, and helped them recondition the street and gardens.    

In 1924, an avalanche destroyed the homes of peasants in the Swiss Alps, and IVSP went to the rescue.  The same year a landslide ruined another village, and since the damage could not be repaired by paid labour. 

The Mound can be seen on the other side of the Bridge

IVSP undertook the task. Similar schemes were organised in the following years, but the largest scheme was in 1928, when the state of Lichtenstein was flooded by the river Rhine, at the cost of many lives. Volunteers to the number of 710, from 20 different countries, offered their services, and after six months hard work in ridding the land of flood debris, the yield of crops was three times greater than before the flood took place.

  In 1930, appalling floods destroyed a wide area of Southern France, hundreds lost their lives, and thousands were left homeless. Lack of money made it absolutely necessary for the clearing of the debris to be done by voluntary labour, and IVSP undertook the work in the village of Lagarde. By strict economy IVSP was able to return £150 of the money contributed towards their food, to the hard hit peasants, but the spirit of cooperation demonstrated by IVSP volunteers so impressed the peasants, that when they learned that IVSP was undertaking to help the unemployed miners of South Wales, they decided to send the £150 to them.

Right: Rev Gordon Cartlidge

    For two summers IVSP worked in Brynmawr, South Wales, in cooperation with local men, constructing a swimming bath, paddling pool, and a park, out of old pit mounds. During the winter the local people built a Nursery School. Another scheme was at Rhos in North Wales, where help was given to local people to construct a park.

  A 200,000 ton pit-mound namely the "Charlton Mound" ("otherwise referred to as a miniature Wrekin") was the biggest of 200 similar disfigurements near Oakengates. It was blocking the expansion of the town, and loomed menacingly over the railway bridge and Memorial Gates of Hartshill Park, casting a shadow and creating a forbidding atmosphere. Inspired by the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Rev J.E.Gordon Cartlidge, work started on July 14th 1933 to remove it. The Wrekin Brewery Company made a voluntary gift of the site, the Surveyor and the Clerk to the Council gave their services free, and the Lilleshall company lent equipment. Fourteen members of the IVSP and their leader Dr Pierre Ceresole were the first to dig.

Why was there a need for help to do this? Well, the industries of Oakengates had gradually disappeared with none being replaced. The result was that the vision and possibilities of the inhabitants had been getting narrower    The scheme helped boost morale at a time when unemployment was rife, and spirits were low. The depression was hitting hard, and war was brewing in Europe, especially in Spain.

The students food was provided entirely out of their own funds raised from outside Oakengates. Whatever benefits accrued from the scheme went to the community and not any private individual. One very touching point about this work was that one member of the party, an unemployed Swiss watchmaker had been working on the scheme throughout the winter. He had twice made the journey from Switzerland on a push cycle and the International Leaders were thinking of transferring him to the great re-construction work being done by the movement in India.

The Charlton Mound scheme was to be the subject of many arguments. At first it was the proposed site for new council offices  but late in 1936 other property was purchased. In 1938, Oakengates' "Mountain of Friendship" - came to a standstill as a result of a grant being refused towards levelling- When the Committee had recovered from the shock, they started clearing a site for a bus terminus and car park, and £250 was granted by the Council. Due to under-estimation it was necessary that another £100 should be granted to complete the roadside scheme, but this had been rejected.

The Charlton Mound arrowed. In the distance is the Wrekin.

Shifting the spoil July 2nd 1920, below Holy Trinity Church

Charlton Mound 5.gif (10062 bytes)

I.V.S.P. Plan of the Charlton Mound 1935

Rev. Cartlidge proposed that an appeal for funds be launched to complete the work, as there was no other way left open to them. . The International Voluntary Service for Peace offered its services in order that this object might be accomplished. The first piece of land levelled, was used to provide a space for huts for the unemployed as there was nothing at all for them in the district.

After several years of hard work, the site for the bus terminus was completed. Now the space houses amongst other things, Charlton St Surgery, and Cartlidge House - a home for elderly people, named after the man who had organised the scheme, and given back strength the people of the town.

The site of the Charlton Mound today