SINCE 1793 the Alden family of South Oxford have been butchers to the city.

At the time the First World War broke out the Abingdon Road-based firm employed about 70 people, mostly from the tiny suburb of Grandpont.

When a third of those men volunteered to go and fight for their country in northern France, it tore the community apart.

It was even more difficult for the families of the four men who never came home.

In total, 66 men from Grandpont died fighting for their country and are now named on the Grandpont war memorial in St Matthew’s Church on Marlborough Road.

Tomorrow historian Liz Woolley, who lives on the street, will open an exhibition she has spent the past year working on, which aimed to find out more about those 66 men.

She will also unveil a trail around Grandpont that leads to all 66 houses where a family lost a father, son or brother.

Matthew Alden, who now directs the Alden family business Meatmaster and lives in Abingdon Road, has been helping to create the exhibition, digging through century-old company archives and even visiting the old family farm, now the Four Pillars Hotel in Abingdon Road, to find out more about the four men the company lost.

One of them, John Benson, was a cousin by marriage.

A Lance Corporal with the 5th Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, he was killed in action on September 25, 1915, aged 19, at Ypres in Belgium.

Mr Alden, who now has a young family of his own, said: “It is astounding to think about.

“The company now employs 65 people so it is a similar size, and I look at everyone who works there now and just think how brave those men were.

“It’s inspiring, and there is a real sense of pride. We must never forget.”

He said the thing that had really struck him about Ms Woolley’s project was the strong sense of community in Grandpont at that time.

In the early 20th century that part of Oxford was much more isolated from the rest of the city, and many of the houses had not been built.

Ms Woolley, 47, said: “Grandpont was only built in the 1880s, so this happened just as it was getting going.

“To lose 66 young men in the space of four years for this relatively small suburb is a sobering thought.”

Emma Hill, who has been helping create the exhibition, said: “The information supplied by relatives like Matthew and passed down through families is often quite hard to piece together using official records and we found people contacting us about our 66 men have actually given us some of the most interesting information, particularly photos and letters.

“We hope that the trail will bring history alive for our local community and that even more information on our men may come to light.”

The exhibition will open from midday to 4pm on Sunday and run at the church until July 4.

* More at southoxford.org