Normally in our Then and Now series we feature general scenes such as streets, places and houses, comparing how they look now, to how they looked many years ago.

Today in our last look at Reeves Iron Works in Bratton we centre on people, with a very graphic – and topical – picture of men heading off to war.

We have learned that the iron works started in a small blacksmiths shop in Stradbrook with the blacksmith Thomas Pepler Reeves in 1799. Thomas Reeves started a business which he later developed with his two younger sons, Robert and John, producing agricultural machinery such as corn-drills and ploughs.

This business built into an internationally renowned industry, bringing gas to the village at the turn of the last century followed by a telephone service.

As the century progressed, however, the firm declined in the face of the development of ever larger and more complex agricultural machinery in the farming industry.

In 1914 there were 69 employees at the iron works. Many had been in the works all their working lives and their fathers before them.

Then came the outbreak of the First World War, and there was much enthusiasm. Many rushed to enlist and when the village set out en masse to take the ‘King’s shilling’ they had a great send-off.

Our archive picture this week is that scene, outside the Duke Hotel, with the works behind them, and was taken in August 1914. It shows the cavalcade of cars carrying the village men to sign up.

OJ Reeves is driving the first car, besides which a Mrs Skull is bidding him a fond farewell, while on the left hand edge of the picture you can just see Nelson Reeves as he steps forward to remove her and let the men get on their way.

Today there is a Reeves Commemorative Plaque near the spot where the men had their village send off. The family firm closed in 1970 and the plaque is made up of a large spur wheel, illustrating how the Reeves Iron Works was once a large cog driving the village’s prosperity.