HUNDREDS of people from Tenbury commemorated the centenary of the start of the First World War.

A special day of reflection and remembrance was held on the Burgage.

For once the sunny weather was hardly appropriate for an event that marked the start of a war that changed the World for ever including the way of life in Tenbury and the Teme Valley.

It marked the climax of many months of work by a group of people that has been organising the 2014 commemoration but not the end as other events will be staged over the next four years.

“There will be other events although nothing specific is planned and I am sure if we are spared we will do something to mark the centenary of the end of the war in November 1918,” said Richard Jones, one of the organising committee.

A small mock graveyard in the form of a First World War cemetery was prepared with the names of men from Tenbury who died in the Great War.

Two soldiers in the uniforms of 1914 stood at the front for a special service and the colours of the Royal British Legion branches were paraded.

A display was staged in The Pump Rooms including photographs, documents and artefacts from the 1914 to 1918 years.