Thread: Captain Webb, Dawley, Shropshire

Captain Matthew Webb, born in Dawley, was the first person to swim across the English Channel.

captain webb memorial : Dawley Heritage

Great images, nice to see such a lovely restoration. I think the English Channel Swimming community would like to see these images, we are much more familiar with the Captain Webb Memorial in Dover& most are not aware of the Dawley link. I'm going to link to this post on my Open Water swimming website.

There's also a memorial plaque to Captain Webb inside Ironbridge Church. Interestingly, the only place the church authorities would allow it to be placed was above the front door as it was considered that he'd committed suicide so he shouldn't have had a memorial on church property. It used to be that suicides weren't permitted a churchyard burial.