Wingerworth Deer Park 1920
In 1920 the deer park belonging to Wingerworth Hall was put up for sale by auction by Major Philip Hunloke. The park covered 110 acres, and along with the ponds, tennis and cricket grounds, and keeper’s lodge, was part of a lot of almost 125 acres. Much of the information for the following blog comes from the Wingerworth sale catalogues produced for the auction.
Wingerworth deer park with some modern roads superimposed. All of the park is now covered with housing, apart from the land to the west of Allendale Road in the north-east quadrant. Of the ponds, only Smithy Pond, the Lodge Pond and part of the Island Pond remain.
Longedge Lane forms the northern boundary of the park, Hockley Lane the eastern, and New Road and Nethermoor Road the western boundaries. The main carriageway through the centre of the park remains in use today, and is called Central Drive.
Our walk commences at 1, Hockley Lane, or Park Lodge, on the north-eastern corner of the park, heading south down Hockley Lane. In 1920 Park Lodge was described as a superior residence called the Keeper’s House, stone built and slated, with four bedrooms. It is a Grade II listed building.
From A Wingerworth Historical Miscellany by David G. Edwards
Park Lodge, 1 Hockley Lane is one of a number of typical Victorian houses in Wingerworth. It dates from 1851: that year, the census enumerator entered ‘one house building’, which must have been Park Lodge, between the entries for Wingerworth Hall and another lodge at the lower end of Lodge Drive. No building is shown on that site on the tithe map of 1843. In the 1861 census, the house was occupied by Joseph Davis, his wife Elizabeth and a visitor, Anne Archer. Joseph Davis was born at Ewell in Surrey about 1819. The 1851 census recorded him as a riding master, White’s county directory of 1857 as a horse breaker, and the 1861 census as retired valet, but in a codicil to his will in 1855 Sir Henry Hunloke, leaving him an annuity of £52 and rent-free occupation of the house in Wingerworth Park, described him as his groom, who had given him over 20 years faithful service. Joseph was still at Park Lodge when Adelaide and Frederick Hunloke inherited the Wingerworth estate in 1864 but left soon afterwards. A tombstone in the churchyard records that Elizabeth died in Chesterfield in 1898, aged 81, and Joseph in Rotherham in 1900, also at 81. The next occupants of Park Lodge were William Smithson, his wife and their young family. William was born in London and was coachman to the Hunlokes.
Hockley Lane curves down and round the eastern boundary of the park, coming to the farm settlement which gives the road its name, passing some large properties on the left, one of which, Springwood House, was advertised for sale recently with a carp lake, bluebell woodland, tennis court and aircraft hangar.
Hockley Farm was occupied for some years by the Madin family, and was described in 1920 as a moderate sized holding of 49 acres. Mr F.R. Madin purchased the property from the Hunloke estate for £7,900, and it was sold after his death in 1931 to Mr J. Perkins.
Nearby at Hockley Mr and Mrs Vickers had a cottage and nursery garden. Mr Vickers bought the property from the Hunloke estate in 1920 for £700, but was said to be so stressed and depressed by the purchase that a few months later he committed suicide (Sheffield Ind. 22 November 1920, et al.). His widow, Mrs Fanny Vickers, lived to a great age and was well-known for having a market stall near the pump on Chesterfield market. She gave an interview to the Derbyshire Times on the occasion of her 90th birthday, when she was still running the nurseries with the assistance of her grandsons and son in law (Derbyshire Times 26 March 1943). She died in 1946, aged 93.
From Hockley Lane, our walk takes us straight on across the bottom section of the appropriately named Deerlands Road to Nethermooor Road, and a right turn leads us along the south western boundary of the park, now heading north and uphill.
On the right, one of the several ponds on the park, the Smithy Pond, can be seen. In 1920 there were seven lakes or ponds in the park, and this was the largest, covering more than 5 acres. The pond provided power for an ironworks in Wingerworth. Dr Edwards writes that ‘no remains of this bloomery-cum-smithy have been uncovered, but iron slag which may have originated from it can still be seen in the upper surface of the dam of the pond’ (Edwards, Miscellany). The public house here opened in 1992. Many will remember this pond as the Lido. For more, see the Victoria County History blog here: https://derbyshirevch.org/2023/03/wingerworth-and-its-lido-railway/
Instead of climbing all the way up to the crossroads at Hill Houses, when reaching the twin lodges at the entrance to the park, turn right and walk through the middle of the deer park, along Central Drive.
In 1920 these double entrance lodges to the park were sold as 4-room detached cottages which were then occupied by estate servants, rent free. The purchasers were required to put up a boundary wall between the lodges and the deer park, the plots having been marked out ready for sale.
Behind the left hand lodge the Wall Pond, now called the Lodge Pond, of just over an acre gives pleasant views across to Allendale Road.
Continue up Central Drive. Most of this road, like most of Hockley Lane, is unadopted.
Central Drive takes us all the way back up to Hockley Lane, and a left turn finds us back at the Park Lodge, completing the circuit.
For information used in this blog I am indebted to Dr D.G. Edwards, whose extensive research is also being used to produce a Derbyshire Victoria County History spin-off book on Wingerworth. Search for, and follow, Derbyshire VCH on social media to keep up to date with their publication announcements.
North Wingfield 
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