HAVING written with co-author Bernard Lowry the story of the auxiliary patrols in this part of the country, Mr Wilks, volunteer researcher for the Defence of Worcestershire Project, is now set on collecting information relating to the 12 battalions of Home Guard recruited in Worcestershire.

"This was a force approaching 20,000 in numbers and would have been responsible for defending the county from attacks by invading German forces," he explained. "Their role was primarily to hold up and delay the German forces for as long as possible while the Home Defence forces of the regular army assembled and manoeuvred for a counter-attack."

Many road blocks, pillboxes, gun emplacements and other weapons positions were provided for the Home Guard to fulfil their role and for the last eight years or so Mr Wilks has been recording them for the Defence of Worcestershire Project being run by the county archaeological unit.

"There is still much work to do," he said, "but it is my intention in due course to write up the story of the Defence of Worcestershire during the period 1940 to 1944, including the role of the Home Guard in that defence."

Mr Wilks is looking to interview any surviving members of the Home Guard to establish their part in the defence of the county and anyone else who can remember where the defences were constructed. He is particularly interested in Home Guard order papers which were issued to officers and would like to contact the families of former Home Guard officers who may have such papers stored away in their lofts.

"For the Evesham area specifically, I would like to establish the extent of the defences in and around the town which, from 1942 onwards, was designated as an Anti-Tank Island and prepared for all round defence," Mr Wilks said. "Before that the town provided part of the defences along the Avon Stop Line, a ready-made anti-tank barrier which, together with the River Severn and other water features such as canals, formed an almost complete circle of defences around Birmingham and the Black Country. This key armaments manufacturing area would have been an early objective for capture by invading Germans and would therefore need to be protected at all costs."

The Defence of Worcestershire Project is also recording civil defence sites, including air raid warning posts and air raid shelters, as well as Women's Land Army hostels, sites used for the storage and manufacture of war materials, sites used by the various regular armed forces, including the RAF and those used by the Territorial and other volunteer forces going back to the 18th and 19th centuries, their drill halls and rifle ranges.

Anyone able to contribute to the research can write to Mr Wilks at 26 Lower Ferry Lane, Callow End, Worcester WR2 4UH phone 01905 830581, or telephone Colin Jones, a fellow volunteer, at the County Archaeological Service Office on Friday mornings on 01905 844544.