The Longden Coleham drill hall is a former military installation in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

History

The building was designed for the Shropshire Rifle Volunteers and was completed around 1865. The unit evolved to become the 1st Volunteer Battalion, The

King's Shropshire Light Infantry The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in the Childers Reforms of 1881, but with antecedents dating back to 1755. It served in the Second Boer War, World War I, World War II and Korea ...

in 1883 and the 4th Battalion, The King's Shropshire Light Infantry in 1908. The battalion was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. A Squadron,

Shropshire Yeomanry The Shropshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1795, which served as a cavalry and dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and as a cavalry and an artillery regiment in the Second World War. It w ...

were also based at the drill hall at the time of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Following the cut-backs to the Territorial Army in 1967, 4th Battalion, The King's Shropshire Light Infantry evolved to become the 5th Battalion,

The Light Infantry The Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Light Division. The regiment was one of four 'large' regiments formed after the 1966 Defence White Paper through the amalgamation of units of the Light Infantry Bri ...

in 1972 and the 5th (Shropshire and Herefordshire) Battalion, The Light Infantry (Volunteers) in 1988. After the unit moved to the present Copthorne Road Army Reserve Centre in the early 1990s, the Longden Coleham drill hall was decommissioned and acquired by Barnabas Community Church.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Shrewsbury Drill halls in England