From the Feb. 1, 2013, Birmingham (Britain) Post by Ben Hurst.
During the First World War, Cannock Chase became a huge depot (camp) for training soldiers destined for the trenches along the front lines.
Two depots were built, each of which could hold 20,000 troops, the size of a British infantry division back then. On the site, the Messinaa Ridge trenches, a battlefield near Ypres, had been recreated. It cost 80,000 pounds to reconstruct it.
Work started on it and it was built with permission of Lord Litchfield who owned the land. The camps were known as Brocton and Rugeley and they were used to train soldiers for trench warfare until 1918. Generally they would train for two months there.
It is thought that German POWs built them.
Practice Makes Better. --Cooter
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