Why is it called wenlock

Two alien-looking characters representing the Olympic and Paralympic Games, respectively , each with a single massive eye made of a camera lens, the pair is likely to fascinate fans far more than the mascots of Olympics past, simply by virtue of their appearance. Add in the ability for anyone to make fully customizable versions of them, or read their engaging back story, and you've got a pretty good diversion to check out between events. Iris was one of a multitude of agencies, companies, and even studios including Pixar, among others that responded to the Olympic committee's call for mascot submissions, and made it through a grueling month process -- which was also highly secretive -- before finally winning the commission.

True to Olympic tradition, the characters have characteristics that pay homage their native country: The mascots are made of steel "representing the steel and mining industries in the U.

The characters also come complete with a fully-realized origin story -- which "War Horse" author Michael Morpugo formally fleshed out -- in which Wenlock and Mandeville, who are forged from the steel from the last girder to go up in London's Olympic stadium by a soon-to-retire steel worker, and then brought to life by a rainbow.

The legacy of the Olympic venues is also a big theme this year, with plans for many of them to be disassmbled and taken to locales around the world after the Games. Much Wenlock is home to the Wenlock Olympian Games. These famous games and Dr. William Penny Brookes, the founder, are thought to have inspired the modern Olympic Games that began in , only 6 years after Baron Pierre de Coubertin the founder of the International Olympic Committee visited the Games.

In , Dr. It held its first games in the same year. A band-led procession led officials, competitors and flag bearers down the streets of Much Wenlock to the field where the games would be held.

The games went from strength to strength attracting many competitors from all around England. Brookes insisted that the games would not exclude any able-bodied man from the games. This caused many to criticise the games — and Brookes — saying that rioting and unacceptable behaviour would occur. Instead the games were a huge success!

Brookes was so determined for the games to be open to all men that when the railway came to Much Wenlock, the first train was planned to come to the town on the day of the games and Brookes insisted that the working class men were allowed to travel free.

Brookes was also Director of the Wenlock Railway Company. The games were held in different towns each year and it is from the Shropshire Olympian Games that the modern Olympics are thought to have taken the idea of host towns or cities and countries in modern days to take responsibility for the financing of the games.

It held its first festival in at the Crystal Palace. The festival was a huge success and attracted 10, spectators and competitors, including W. G Grace who won the yard hurdles. So in July this year I attended the st Wenlock Olympic Games, accompanied by Professor Geraint John, our Senior Advisor at Populous, who has a particular interest in the history of the Olympic Games, following his receipt of the Coubertin award in for outstanding service to the Olympic Movement.

The Games are held at the sporting facilities attached to the William Brookes School and include events in the pool, hall, and track and fields around the site. Brookes conducted his research at the school into the positive effects of physical education on students and this drove his lifelong ambition of having school sport incorporated as a mandatory part of the national education curriculum — something which he saw realised just before his death in In , as Coubertin was garnering support for a revival of the International Olympic Games, Brookes invited him to visit Much Wenlock to discuss their similar ambitions and organized a meeting of the Wenlock Olympian Games.

Coubertin would go on to establish the International Olympic Committee in , prior to the running of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in , just 4 months after the death of Brookes.