A DEDICATED researcher has revealed the defence plan for Wyre Forest set up in anticipation of a German invasion during the Second World War.

Mick Wilks, 68, a former county council town planner, has been researching his book on the defence of Worcestershire for 13 years and believes Wyre Forest was an important area in any proposed resistance.

One plan was to turn Kidderminster into an anti-tank island complete with outer defences, road blocks, barbed wire fencing and battle headquarters, defended by the Sixth Worcestershire Battalion Home Guard.

Mr Wilks said: "For my own interest I needed to understand the pattern behind the various defences. I found the story as it unfolded fascinating and it needed to be written down while there are still eyewitnesses to draw on."

Part of the importance of Wyre Forest lay in the manufacture of armaments with carpet manufactures in Kidderminster and Stourport changing production entirely while facilities from elsewhere were moved to the area.

Mr Wilks said: "The production of armaments, particularly small armaments, was crucial to the effort. Nobody was buying carpets in 1940."

Bewdley Bridge was a vital crossing point and defended by a number of road blocks, fortified buildings, weapons positions and a pill box . The former riverside bandstand was even sandbagged to provide a defence post.

Mr Wilks was disappointed by the continuing loss of traces of the evidence. In Stourport, a gun emplacement by the Civic Centre was removed six months ago while the former drill hall has also been demolished.

He added: "Kidderminster is the only area that has decent preservation of defences in Wyre Forest.

"People in Kidderminster are very lucky the pillboxes at Summerfield are still intact."

Mr Wilks, who lives at Callow End, near Worcester, relied heavily on eyewitness accounts, including one story that a former Stourport power station was used as a navigational tool by Luftwaffe airmen. He said: "Perhaps its survival, unscathed by any air attack, is owed to the supposed usefulness to the Luftwaffe? "

Mr Wilks described the initial response to the government the call for a national defence force.

He said: "At Kidderminster the first man had registered before Anthony Eden had even finished his broadcast and the police were inundated by several hundreds volunteering."

The book contains 60 detailed drawings and maps as well as more than 150 photographs.

Mr Wilks is a volunteer researcher with the Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service. The Defence of Worcestershire costs £14.95 and is published by Logaston Press.