Much Wenlock - England 1999

1809	On August 13th William Penny Brookes was born as the oldest son of the local surgeon of Much Wenlock.
1827	Brookes went to London to study at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals. Later he went to Paris and Padua (Italy) for further studies
1830	Brookes`s father died of thyphoid.
1831	William became a doctor, went back to Wenlock and took over his father’s practice.
1835	He married Jane Clare Talbot of Bridgnorth.
1841	He was appointed to a Justice of the Peace and Commissioner of Roads and Taxes. Through Brookes’s initiative the “Wenlock Agriculture Reading Society” was formed.
1850	The “Olympian Class” was evolved from the “Reading Society”. It fought for the introduction of Physical Education in schools.
1859	Brookes sent £10 to be presented to the winner of an event in the 1st Athens Olympian Games organised by Zappas. It was awarded to the winner of the ”Long or Sevenfold” - race.
1860	The "Olympian Class" was renamed the "Olympian Society".
1861	Through Brookes’s initiative the “Shropshire Olympian Society” was formed.
1865	Brookes proposed the formation of the “National Olympian Association” (N.O.A.) at a meeting convened in Liverpool.
1866	Their first Festival at “Crystal Palace” in London was a great success attracting 10,000 spectators.
1870	William Penny Brookes appointed to a member of the “Royal College of Surgeon”.
1871	Brookes started a study which should demonstrate the necessity of P.E. in schools.
1880	He was in contact with the Greek authorities advocating the holding of International Olympic Games in Athens.
1885	Brookes`s wife died.
1890	His activities brought him some national and even international recognition culminating in the visit of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Brookes and Coubertin started organising the 1st International Olympic Games in Athens.
1895	On 10th December William Penny Brookes died.
1896	1st International Olympic Games were hold in Athens.

Dr. William Penny Brookes was a successful country doctor who had a wide practice in the country.
Besides he did a lot for Shropshire County and its people. It is said that ”Outside his practice he had devoted more time to the
service of others than most men, and had striven
with untiring zeal, amid great discouragement, to improve the environment...”
W.P. Brookes was very involved in local affairs. He was an active magistrate of Much Wenlock. Later, in 1841 he became
a Justice of the Peace and a Commissioner for Roads and Taxes.

7 WILMORE STREET, MUCH WENLOCK
William Penny Brookes grew up in this house, opposite the parish church, later Lloyds Bank. The front remains virtually
unaltered. Today it is in private property.

GASLIGHT IN SHEINTON STREET,
now converted for electricity.
William Penny Brookes founded the Wenlock Gas Company, so he ”brought the gas light to Much Wenlock”.

THE CORN EXCHANGE
The first stone was laid in 1852. W.P. Brookes proposed there should be ”a large and handsome room for lectures or
public meetings with an additional room for your library and a house for the librarian”. Now there is an archive and
the town council.

GUILDHALL
William Penny Brookes played an important role in the renovation of the Council Chamber in the Guildhall.

SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY
William Penny Brookes also brought the railway to Much Wenlock, what was an important event in the industrial history of
Much Wenlock.

Besides he was a respected botanist. In 1843 he established the first museum in Much Wenlock where hundreds of
examples from his herbaria and fossil collections could be seen.

In 1841 W.P. Brookes founded the Agricultural Reading Society and in 1850 he formed the Olympian Class. (see 3.1.)

W. P. Brookes was a persistent campaigner for the inclusion of physical education in schools.

Besides he was a respected botanist. In 1843 he established the first museum in Much Wenlock where hundreds of examples from his herbaria and fossil collections could be seen.
In 1841 W.P. Brookes founded the Agricultural Reading Society and in 1850 he formed the Olympian Class. (see 3.1.)

W. P. Brookes was a persistent campaigner for the inclusion of physical education in schools.

Many years of his life W.P. Brookes fought for the inclusion of physical education in schools. As a doctor he soon realized the value of physical exercises and ”never tired, year after year , of impressing the vast importance of education in gymnastics and its superiority over military drill in developing the muscles of the body.”
He had a large correspondence with prominent philanthropists and statesmen of his time in order to urge on the Government the supreme importance of physical education being made compulsory in elementary schools.
In 1868, 1870 and 1890 the Wenlock Olympian Society petitioned Parliament on this subject.
William Penny Brookes devoted more than 40 years to the sport in Britain. Finally, physical education became a part of the curriculum in National schools (about 1888). Having reached this destination Brookes said:
” Happily for the aristocracy and the upper section of the middle classes in the country, the masters in our universities and large grammar schools are so thoroughly imbued with the Greek and Roman ideas on this subject that they wisely endeavour in the training of youth to secure a just balance and a proper exercise of all the facilities of man. I shall be thankful to hear that the Educational Congress at Manchester decided to recommend bodily training as a branch of education in our national elementary schools for the sake of those who come after us, to prevent the degeneracy of the great nation.”

Excerpt from the report of meeting of the National Physical Recreation Society, London

1.	That the system of education in which mental training is excessive and bodily training neglected is injurious to the health, strength, usefulness, and happiness of the people, and dangerous to the welfare and safety of the nation.
2.	That one half-hour a day, in the afternoon, and not too soon after a meal, should be devoted to bodily training.
3.	That the bodily training of boys under eight years of age should consist of marching and free exercises, with or without music.
4.	That the bodily training of boys over eight years of age and under eleven should consist of marching, running, light dumb-bell and wand exercises, with or without music.
5.	That the bodily training of boys over eleven years of age should consist of marching, formation and drill exercises, running, dumb-bells, Indian clubs, horizontal and parallel bars, with or without music.
6.	That girls and boys should be taught swimming where practicable.
7.	That the bodily training of girls under eight years should consist of marching and free exercises, with or without music.
8.	That the bodily training of girls above eight years of age should consist of marching, figure marching, running, free exercises, light dumb-bells, wands or light Indian clubs, with or without music.
9.	That children considered by medical men too weak for bodily training should be exempted therefrom.
10.	That such bodily training should be compulsory in all National schools receiving Government grants.
11.	That the cost of gymnastic apparatus should be defrayed one-half by the Government, and the other half by rates in case of Board schools, by subscriptions in the case of Denominational schools.
12.	That the exercises should take place in the open air in fine weather, or otherwise in schoolrooms, the desks and benches, which should not be fixed to the floor, being removed to the ends of the rooms.
13.	That measurements of the circumference of the chest, arms and legs, and of the height and weight of the body, should be registered half yearly.
14.	That the candidates for the office of a National schoolmaster or schoolmistress should be instructed in the training colleges to teach suitable physical exercises.

These resolutions made under the influence of W.P. Brookes where a first step in the development of physical education as a compulsory subject at school.

William Penny Brookes organised the 1st Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850 (see chapter 3).
He started the rivival of the ancient Olympic Games which - after a long preparation with Baron Pierre de Coubertin – turned into reality in Athens in 1896.

"After Brookes" death almost nobody remembered him and his work. Because of taking over Brookes` ideas and work, Coubertin got all the honour and respect. Baron de Coubertin was honoured by history as the self styled founding father of the Olympics. But in Much Wenlock the people know better. They have their own local hero, a doctor named William Penny Brookes, who was ahead of Coubertin by almost half a century in revi-ving the ancient Olympiad.
Much Wenlock is called the cradle of the Modern Olympic Movement. Juan Antonio Samaranch (president of the IOC) planted an oak tree in Much Wenlock in 1994.”

Since the death of Brookes, the people of Wenlock have been able to keep the Olympian Games going with some gaps, notably during the two world wars. In recent years the society was gone from strength to strength with a larger than ever athletic programme.
Other events include Fencing, 5 - a - side Soccer, Bowls, Swimming, Volleyball, Archery, Karate and Clay Pigeons Shooting. From 1981 athletic events for disabled have been incorporated into the programme.

In 1889 Coubertin asked for help in English newspapers for his ”Congress on physical education”. So William Penny Brookes invited Coubertin to visit the Much Wenlock Olympian Games. In October 1890 they met and shared their ideas about the modern Olympic Games. When the 27 years old French aristocrat came back to France he wrote in an article for ”La Revue Athletique” about the impression the old Doctor had made on him:

”If the Olympic Games that modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survives today it is due, not to a Greek but to Dr. William Penny Brookes. It is he who inaugurated them forty years ago, and it is still he, now eighty-two years old but still alert and vigorous, who continues to organise and inspire them.”

In putting forward the case for Coubertin, Brookes said:
“It must be pleasing to you to know that across the Channel the talented, noble minded, and patriotic French man, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, is fighting the same battle for his country by promoting a love for manly sports, which he pro-perly considers to be a necessary sequel to physical education in the national schools, which is the law in France. We heartily wish him all success.”

The “Wellington Journal” and “Shrewsburry News” on Saturday, October 25th, 1890 wrote about Brookes` friendship to Coubertin:
“The Friendship reached it’s piek when both Brookes and Coubertin met each other in October 1890, when Coubertin steped by in Much Wenlock. Coubertin came back from a business trip from Rugby and Birmingham. Coubertin talked about the journey and wrote some quite interesting essays about his days in Much Wenlock. Especially for Pierre de Coubertin the city council organized a special festival or also called the autumn festival in connection with the Wenlock Olympian Society.
Pierre de Coubertin whose desire was it to introduce athletics more largely among his own countrymen, adopted the idea for training of athletes. Dr. Brookes, who is an untiring advocate of physical education among the younger, was on this occasion largely instrumental in bringing about this meeting. The attendance of the visitors was very limited because the day actionally was an unfortunate one, it rained from morn till eve. The inhabitants of Much Wenlock still showed their respect to Dr. Brookes and Baron Coubertin.
The procession was formed at the Gaskell Arms in the following order: Herald, mounted on a white pony; the Ironbridge Volunteer Band; Mr. Benson, president; members of the committee, bearing flags and banners ; school girls, carrying baskets of flowers; boys bearing indian clubs; tilters and tent pegers; members of the Shropshire Yeomany Cavalry. Over the entrance to the beautiful Linden Fields grounds a triumphal arch was erected, saying `Welcome to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, and prospe-rity to France`.
Arrived on the grounds the first duty to perform was one similar to which Dr. Brookes has performed with much gratification many times before, and certainly on more favourable, although not more auspicious occasions, namely, the planting of a tree in commemoration of the visit or patronage of some distinguished gentlemen, and the gentleman so honoured on Wednesday was naturally the guest of the day, and the tree so planted was a very promising golden-leaf oak.”

Dr. William Penny Brookes and Baron Pierre de Coubertin exchanged their experiences in a large number of letters. These letters also tell us about their great respect for each other and the beginning of a friendship.
On the following pages there are some examples for their large correspondance found in the archives of Much Wenlock. Of course, we can only present a small number of documents. As we are not professional translators we only want to summarize the main ideas.

“Brookes` and Coubertin`s idea was it to organise international Olympian Games and also, concurrently, to bring mass physical education for all to the world. Brookes had worked for a revival of the ancient Games – but always in Greece. Coubertin´s idea was to envisage Games which moved from city to city, continent to continent. In his last letters to Coubertin, Brookes wrote that he thought the new conception splendid – superior to his own – and that the Festivals would make a profit, to be distributed among the participating nations. A brillant anticipation of what today we call `Olympic Solidarity`.”

Dr. William Penny Brookes and Pierre de Coubertin finally started organising the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. Regrettably, W.P. Brookes, called by the young Coubertin “my oldest friend”, had died just four months before the first Games. So the “King of Shropshire” did not see his dreams come true.