In early Victorian times, around the country a number of organisations were set up to make improvements in farming and to educate the labouring classes. One of the main initiatives were the founding of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1840.

In rural villages and towns local groups were also established including the Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society, in Shropshire, which aimed to provide a small library and museum to help spread knowledge to tenant farmers, smallholders and farm labourers.

At the opening of the Wenlock reading room, the founder and first president, local doctor William Penny Brookes announced that “The inhabitants of this neighbourhood will be provided with a good library of well selected useful and improving works which contain an ample store of information... of practical value to the agriculturist, mechanic and artificer”. Within a very short time, the project began to provide not just information on new agricultural methods and botany, but also lessons in the arts and music.

Dr Brookes soon decided to improve more than just the minds (and the farming abilities) of the local population. In 1850 he started Olympian Classes “for the promotion of the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Wenlock and especially of the working classes, by the encouragement of outdoor recreation, and by the award of prizes annually at public meetings for skill in Athletic exercise and proficiency in Intellectual and industrial attainment”.

The first Olympians meeting was held in October 1850 and included not just classic athletics but also country sports such as quoits, cricket and football. The Games soon became very popular and attracted competitors from as far away as Liverpool and London, as well as crowds of spectators. The competitions also began to include some eccentric activities such as piglet-catching and blindfolded wheelbarrow racing.

Within a decade Brookes had taken his vision further and introduced separate county games. In 1865 he helped to establish the National Olympian Association. At the inaugural event of the latter, the 440-yard hurdle was won by 18-year-old cricket player, WG Grace, fresh from scoring a double century at the Oval the day before.

Soon Brookes set his sights even higher and began to negotiate with the city of Athens in order to revive the Games internationally. His ambition was achieved in the final decade of the century with the help of a persuasive young French aristocrat, Pierre de Courbetin, who was in England researching physical education in schools. The International Olympic Committee was founded in 1894, and the first modern Olympic Games were held two years later in Athens in March 1896. Sadly Brookes had died just 17 weeks before the Games.

This year the 2012 London Olympics are recognising the inspiration of Wenlock by giving the name to one of their strange cartoon mascots. Within the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, an Olympian trail has been established so that visitors can follow in the footsteps of William Penny Brookes and see the sites and buildings associated with the games. Leaflets on the trail can be download from or picked up at the Museum which also has a display of Olympic artefacts. The next (and 126th) Wenlock Olympian Games will take place from July 8 to July 21, 2012.

The programme, which has been expanded to celebrate the London events, can be found at www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/ olympian-games/index.shtml n