An Instrument Of No Advantage

Some Notes on the Organ at St Lawrence Church, North Wingfield

In 1727 parishioners organised a petition against Lemuel Gladwin’s proposal to install an organ in the church, stating that to would be ‘of no advantage’ but would only put them to more expense. The petition was obviously ultimately unsuccessful, as thirty years later, Mr Anthony Greatorex (1730-1814) was organist at North Wingfield. The parish registers record the Greatorex family living at Locko Lane until circa 1766, when Mr Greatorex moved to Leicester to become organist of St Margaret’s church. While the family were living in North Wingfield, Thomas, son of Anthony and Ann Greatorex of Locko, was baptised at North Wingfield on 22 October 1758. Thomas Greatorex became a distinguished organist and conductor, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Portraits of Anthony Greatorex and his wife by Joseph Wright of Derby, now in the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA. The portraits are not dated, but are presumably of the couple who once lived in North Wingfield. Thomas Greatorex was said to possess several valuable telescopes, and his father (if it is he) appears to be holding one here.

The organists who succeeded Anthony Greatorex for the next 100 years are unknown to me, but the rector from 1799 to 1822 was the Rev Henry (Harry) Hankey who was a keen musician. A skilled violin player, he led the band at the third Chesterfield Subscription Concert, held at the Assembly Room at the Angel Inn (Derby Mercury 19 November 1818). It seems likely that he would have made sure that there was music played in his church. It may not have been organ music, though, as when the Rev Samuel Butler inspected the church on 10 July 1823 he reported that the organ was out of order. At this time the organist’s salary was set at £8. (M.R. Austin (ed.) The Church in Derbyshire in 1823-4. Derbyshire Archaeological Society Record Series v.5, 1972).

Twenty years later the organ was in some sort of working order again, but in May 1866 a ‘Lover of Music’ wrote to the Derbyshire Times complaining that “sometimes I could fancy it thought itself grown too old in the service, and fain would be mute, rather than compel anyone either to sing or listen to it. Sometimes it seemed something like the squeak of child with the whooping-cough, and the end of a tune generally died away with a sound resembling something between a hiss and a groan” (Derbyshire Times 16 May 1866).

In the mid nineteenth century George Cupit of Danesmoor was organist. Along with his salary Cupit had some land courtesy of his position, and also worked as a joiner for the Clay Cross Company. He died 24 November 1886 but had probably given up his musical duties before this date, as Mr Whitworth, and then the curate’s sister Miss Alice Wood, both subsequently took on the role of organist before 1886, the latter residing in the parish from 1879 to 1886. (Interview with Thomas Allibone in Derbyshire Courier 15 February 1910).

This newspaper report of a funeral of a member of the Cupit family mentions Mr George Cupit, organist at North Wingfield for 40 years. Derbyshire Times 5 June 1936.

After 1890 organists had a much better instrument to play on. On 21 June 1890 the Derbyshire Times reported the opening of the new organ at North Wingfield church. Three special opening ceremonies were arranged to raise funds to pay for the new instrument which had cost £435. It was been built by C. Lloyd & Co. of Nottingham, and transported to North Wingfield by rail to Clay Cross station.

Derbyshire Courier 21 June 1890.

Until shortly before his untimely death aged 52 in 1903, the organist was Mr W.H. Newbould, the headmaster of Tupton Boys’ School. The rector wrote in the parish magazine “Mr Newbould had been organist and choirmaster here from Mr Darby’s days, and had made the services, from the musical point of view, among the best in the neighbourhood.” (Thirteen years at North Wingfield: a record of events compiled from the parish magazine from 1897 to 1910 (n.d.), 21).

Mr Newbould was succeeded by Mr Herbert Butterworth (1868-1946), who had been organist at Clay Cross, and also worked as an accountant for the Clay Cross Company. For a time Mr Herbert also had a quadrille band, led the Clay Cross Volunteers Band for sixteen years, and was conductor of the Clay Cross Choral Society for six years. He gave regular recitals round the district in aid of church funds. Mr Butterworth resigned from his position in 1941, after nearly 40 years.

I leave the last word on the organ to an anonymous note on a church leaflet:

“Over the last hundred years the instrument has been cared for by the original builders, then by Henry Willis & Sons, and currently by A. Cragg Organ Builders (Midlands). In the early years of the incumbency of Canon Joyce the organ was completely overhauled including the replacement of the original pedal board, and then late in 1980 the instrument was, as many members of the congregation will recall, cleaned and overhauled at a cost of £3,253. So with loving care and attention the organ built in 1892 [sic] should continue to give good service in leading the worship well into the 21st century. Let us hope that there will be organists to see that this will be so.”

Lost 17, Abandoned 1

Black clouds gather over the county ground in 2016, a season in which Derbyshire failed to win a single county championship match.

Much has been written about the history of Derbyshire County Cricket Club by more knowledgable writers than I, but I thought it would be interesting to take a brief look at the disappointing 1920 county championship season from a local angle, considering the contrasting fortunes of three cricketers from this area; Thomas Forrester of Pilsley, Allen Turner of Heath, and Guy Jackson, born at Ankerbold. One was at the end of his time with the county, one apparently didn’t quite make the grade, and the third was at the start of a successful cricket career.

There is a good deal of information about the careers of all Derbyshire players available online, particularly at the DCCC Heritage website, for those who wish to know more.

The 1920 Season

Notorious in the history of the club, the 1920 season saw Derbyshire lose 17 of their 18 county championship matches, the other match being rained off. The side, struggling to rebuild after the war, lost heavily and were especially poor in the batting department. More details of the season can be found in the excellent Old Ebor blog here:https://oldebor.wordpress.com/category/derbyshire/

The batsmen of the team have lost their form – is it true that they have also lost their nerve? The bowling is reduced to one slow to medium bowler… The worst feature of all, however, is the absence of a single young player to whom we can turn with hope or confidence… What can be done to avert the perpetuation of such tragedies as have been enacted in the first three matches? (Derby Daily Telegraph – Tuesday 25 May 1920).

Tom Forrester 1873-1927

Image: heritagederbyshireccc.com

Thomas Forrester played two matches in the 1920 season, 15-17 May against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane, and 19-20 May at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, against Lancashire. Both were 3-day matches which lasted less than 2 days.

Thomas Forrester (sometimes Forester) was born in Clay Cross in 1873 but raised in Pilsley. He began his working life as a schoolteacher, and came to prominence whilst at teacher training college in Birmingham, subsequently playing for Warwickshire for about three years.

He joined Derbyshire in 1902 and played three seasons for the county as an amateur. He retired due to pressure of work but rejoined the county team in 1910 and became established as a regular. A capable left-hand bat and right-arm bowler, in 1912 he took 7-18 against Nottinghamshire. In WWI he was awarded the DSO and rose to the rank of major.

By the start of the 1920 season Major Tom Forrester was 45 years old, and the match at Chesterfield proved to be his last, as he broke down after bowling 20 overs and was unable to bat at all. This loss of one of the old hands was a blow to the Derbyshire team.

Major Tom Forrester was later landlord of the Willow Tree at Pilsley. He died in Nottingham in 1927.

Allen Turner 1891-1961

Allen Turner was born at Heath in 1891. He worked as a clerk for Hardwick Colliery Co. and played football and cricket for the colliery teams. He was given a chance to play for the struggling county side for the match against Leicester at Derby 11-13 August. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported that ‘ Still another recruit will be introduced in the Derbyshire side for the last home match…. This is Turner, a medium fast bowler, of Hardwick Colliery, who has been spoken of as one of the best bowlers in the Derbyshire League.’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Wednesday 11 August 1920). He only bowled 13 overs, but took a wicket and made 2 runs in each innings. Derbyshire collapsed in their second innings and lost the match by an innings and 14 runs.

Turner was also selected for the match against Nottingham at Trent Bridge 26-28 August which Derbyshire lost by 197 runs. Although he bagged a pair batting, Allen Turner’s bowling performance was perfectly respectable, with 3-66 and 2-28, a five-wicket haul, which makes me wonder why he never played for the county again.

Guy Jackson 1896-1966

The name Jackson instanly identifies our man as a member of the wealthy family associated with the Clay Cross Company. Guy Rolf Jackson was the son of the chairman, and had a privileged upbringing coming to prominence as a cricketer playing for his school team, Harrow.

Painting of G.R. Jackson: meisterdrucke.com

After distinguished service in the war, G.R. Jackson made his county championship debut for Derbyshire in July 1919, shortly after his 23rd birthday. He was to go on to have a long career with the county, playing some 280 first class matches and captaining the team 1922-30.

Captain Jackson was a fine left handed batsman, but in 1920 he was out of form. In the nine county matches he played between May and July his top score was 14, and he was out for a duck six times. his average for the season was 5.11, and this was perhaps why he did not feature in any more matches that season. It was said that he had stood down to give his cousin Anthony Jackson a game or two. It would be two years before he scored his first century in a county championship match, at Cardiff in June 1923, when he was run out after making 102.

Captain Jackson lived at Higham Cliffe for many years, and died at Chesterfield Royal Hospital on 21 February 1966.

And Finally…

The performances of Derbyshire in county cricket team in 1920 are probably best forgotten, but there was at least one positive. This season saw the debut of one of their great wicketkeepers, Harry Elliott (1891-1976) of Scarcliffe. He played for the team for 27 years, and also for England 1927-1934. He later became a test umpire.

A Comedian with cause to remember Clay Cross

W.G.’s stage manager Frank Danvers

The Era 9 January 1886. 

The Kino Hall, Picture Palace and Hippodrome variously entertained Clay Cross folk in the first half of the twentieth century, but before that the booming town had to rely on touring companies with portable theatres for the provision of theatrical entertainments. One such was the company managed by a Sheffield man, William Green Vickers (known as ‘W.G.’), who brought his ‘Alhambra Theatre’ to Clay Cross in the 1870s and 1880s.

The Era 27 July 1873.

W.G. learnt his stagecraft as a bit-part provincial actor before forming his own company in 1872. He then toured with a wooden flat-packed building with a canvas roof, which when erected could hold (his daughter said) up to 2,500 people. Like the generations of touring actors before him, he offered a different play almost every night, and his daughter declared that they could sometimes stage thirty different plays in a six-week season. These were mostly rational dramas, melodramas and farces, the traditional theatre fare, not circus type variety shows. W.G. considered himself a proper actor, and if Shakespeare was staged, W.G. would often take the lead role himself.

It is hard to know what the theatre in Clay Cross would have looked like. W.G.’s son in law, Alec Finlayson (Eric Vane), performed in portable theatres in the 1880s. He reported that the ones he played in as a young man held from 300 to 400 people, and admission ranged from 3d. to 1 shilling (5p). The stage was placed on the three wagons used to transport the building, and the audience accommodated on backless benches. Although the theatre was usually pitched in a convenient field, gas was then laid on to provide adjustable lighting, and to add to the fire hazard the auditorium was warmed with coke fires. In these companies the actors themselves put up and took down the theatre, and travelled in caravans, and though the caravans were often quite luxurious, Finlayson said it was a hard life. W.G. ‘s portable theatre may have been very much like this, though W.G. Vickers and his family appear to have used lodgings in the various towns they visited, rather than caravans.

In the autumn and winter of 1872-3 W.G. and his company spent a long season at Castleford in their ‘Alhambra Pavilion’ and then they came south to Derbyshire the following spring. They were in Ripley in April and May 1873. The ‘Alhambra Theatre Royal’ did very well in Ripley, finishing their season with a traditional run of benefit nights for the actors, just as theatre people has done for generations before them. In June the company moved their theatre to Ilkeston, and then on to Clay Cross in July 1873.

Mr Danvers

When the company went to Ripley in 1873, W.G. had engaged a new actor named Frank Danvers, who was also the stage manager. Although only in his twenties, Danvers was clearly a capable man. He had worked as a stage manager at the old Theatre Royal in Chesterfield in 1869-70, and had recently spent some time touring in Scotland before joining Vicker’s company, where he took leading roles as well as overseeing the day to day running of the performances.

Derbyshire Courier 11 December 1869. Frank Danvers visited Chesterfield over the 1869-70 winter season, working as stage manager for W.H. Beresford.

Frank Danvers was born John Horits Bosworth in Medbourne, Leicestershire in 1846, the son of a wheelwright who had moved to Birmingham in the 1850s. Young John Bosworth began his working life as a metalworker, but became an actor in the 1860s, changing his name to go on the stage. Frank Danvers is the name of a character in a play entitled The Scamps of London by T. Moncrieff, first performed in 1843. The surname Danvers may have caused some problems; he risked being confused with several other actors and variety acts also using that name. He later added his real surname, Bosworth, as his middle name.

In mid July 1873 W.G.’s company was staging an adaptation of an old drama called Leola, the Corsican Maid, which they advertised in more sensational terms as The Man with the Hand of Death. Frank Danvers playing the villainous Hammonde Beeph, fired a pistol loaded with powder to make the sound of a gunshot. The pistol unfortunately exploded in his hand, damaging his thumb and breaking his forefinger.

Danvers was taken to the hospital in Clay Cross. This was managed by Dr William John Wilson, who patched up his wounds. Danvers was apparently not too badly injured, as he was back performing on the stage at Castleford a few weeks later.

The former Clay Cross Hospital, built in 1864, now 119 High Street, from Clay Cross and the Clay Cross Company by Cliff Williams.

Sheffield Independent 21 July 1873.

Danvers was to return to Clay Cross with W.G.’s company the following year, but this time without incident. He parted from W.G.’s company a few years later and can be found touring as an actor-manager in both the north-west and the north-east of England. However he found himself back in the Midlands and up in court in Clay Cross in 1887. By this time he was manager of his own company, and he was being sued for non-payment of wages by one of the workmen employed to erect his portable theatre.

Derbyshire Courier 12 November 1887.

Frank Danvers was acquitted and went on to tour and manage touring companies for nine more years, becoming a star of some note in the provinces. He died in Liverpool on 23rd June 1896 aged 42.

The Era 4 July 1896.

A Walk Round A Deer Park

The front of Wingerworth Hall, facing north-east. The deer park lay on the land sloping down behind the mansion.

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.

The deer park, based on the 1920 sale catalogue map.

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.

Photo: David G. Edwards, 2010.

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.

Photo: David G. Edwards, 2012.

Photo: L. Phillips 2023

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.

Wall or Lodge Pond. Photo: L. Phillips, 2023.

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.

Old King Cole

Looking for the story behind another another pawnshop ticket led me to the following newscutting:

Cutting from The Derbyshire Times Saturday 20 August 1932.

At the Clay Cross Carnival in August 1932 Mr Charles William ‘Bill’ Quemby rode on a cart seated above a giant lump of coal, dressed as ‘Old King Cole’, attended by six miners. His throne was decorated with pit props and safety lamps, and his dray was drawn by three horses supplied by the Clay Cross Company’s farm.

As the parade was processing along Bridge Street one of the rear wheels on this dray collapsed, and his attendants had to jack it up and make repairs before it could continue.

When Old King Cole arrived at the Welfare Grounds, the enormous lump of coal was put on display as a ‘guess the weight’ competition. It was said to be the largest sized block possible to be got out of no.2 pit.

The parade included vehicles themed ‘Lady Godiva’ , ‘Just Married’, and ‘The Circus Comes to Town’, but first prize was won by the New Tupton Hospital Committee with “Hospital Side Ward’. The Derbyshire Times reported that the carnival was a financial success, raising money for the Clay Cross and District Hospital Fund.

The CXCo.’s dray was, of course, given the ‘premier award’.

Background

The Quemby family lived near Loughborough in the 19th century. Mr Quemby married Miss Sarah Harris in 1888, and the family moved around, coming to Derbyshire circa 1906, when one of their three sons was enrolled at Shirebrook Junior Boys School.

Mr Quemby later found employment with the Hepthorne Lane contractor T. Beighton, and then with the Clay Cross Company, becoming a foreman, and working on the construction of the Ashover Light Railway. The family lived on Holmgate Road for more than thirty years. When Mr Quemby died on 30 January 1940, he was much respected, and described as ‘one of the best known employees of the Clay Cross Company’.

Mrs Quemby must have visited the pawnbroker not long after moving to Clay Cross. We can’t know now whether she was raising money on behalf of a neighbour, or whether it was for her own family. Times were hard, but worse was to come. The Quembys lost two sons during WWI. Their eldest son, Leonard, was lost at sea on The Arcadian in 1917, and their second son, Charles William, died in a German POW camp in 1918.

Finally, I also found another cutting featuring Mr Quemby:

Sources

• Derbyshire Times Saturday 12 May 1917 (Leonard Quemby’s obit.)
• Derby Daily Telegraph Wednesday 17 August 1932
• Sheffield Daily Telegraph Wednesday 17 August 1932
• Derbyshire Times Saturday 20 August 1932
• Derbyshire Times Friday 13 September 1935
• Derbyshire Times Friday 2 February 1940 (Mr Quemby’s obit.)
• Derbyshire Times Friday 18 June 1943 (Mrs Quemby’s obit.)

A Walk Down Church Hill

OS SK46SW 1955

Strictly speaking, this should be a walk down Market Street or Wingfield Lane, but I have decided to use ‘Church Hill’ for the short stretch of road running south to the river Rother and Erewash Valley railway line from North Wingfield Church towards Clay Cross.

This is a short section of the A6175, and and today it is officially called ‘Market Street’. On the the 1967 6 inch OS map the road is simply the B6037 extension of Market Street, but on the 1955 6 inch OS map and earlier maps the road was named ‘Wingfield Lane’ .

Circa 1910-20

Benchmarks show a steep fall of about 22 metres (circa 73 feet) in just 290 metres (about 317 yards) of road down from the church to the river. According to my (admittedly inexpert) calculations, the hill has a gradient of 8%, with the road curving gently to assist the climb. This gradient is considered steep even for good cyclists, though mercifully it’s only a short climb here.

2021

Today, standing at the top of the hill, the eye is drawn to massive building works along the river and railway corridor that divides modern North Wingfield parish from Clay Cross. Hundreds of houses are being built on the old Clay Cross Works site, whilst industrial units are being thrown up at an impressive pace on the other side of the A6175. A new set of traffic lights at the entrance to the housing estate is the only measure provided to give a break in traffic and assist pedestrians trying to cross this extremely busy road.

1849

On the left, at the time of writing, is a nine acre field sown with grass for fodder once known as Deer Folds. It was once part of the church glebe lands. The 1705 terrier describes a 10 acre field butting south on the river, north and west upon the highway, called ‘ The New Close’ which appears to be this field, so the name ‘Deer Folds’ is of later date.

On the right, North Wingfield churchyard runs almost the length of this stretch of road. The churchyard has been extended down the hill over the years, and maintenance has long been a challenge.

Nottingham Review 12 April 1850

Increases of population in our district in the 19th century soon filled local burial grounds. The churchyard extension of 1887 was the third extension, and the second while the Rev G.W. Darby was rector. There was another extension in 1907 paid for by an additional rate levied on parishioners expected to raise £120, and with Clay Cross Company providing free cinders and ballast for the paths. In October of that year the rector wrote in the parish magazine:

It will have been a great satisfaction to all interested, to observe that the work of laying out the new part of the churchyard has begun. The committee accepted the lowest tender, which was that of Mr T. Beighton, amounting to £87.4.6. Our sexton has been busy also cutting the grass in the older part, and the churchyard is beginning to look more tidy. We have to than Mr Gill also for much help, including the kind gift of a scythe. It is a great encouragement when parishioners show their love for the old church by lending a hand in this practical way.

Walking down to the bottom of the hill, on the left-hand side is the entrance to a small nature reserve of 4 hectares along the side of the river and railway line. It is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, who tell us that ‘in an area where there are few other wildlife habitats, the reserve is a useful refuge for a variety of plants and animals, including the water vole, which has now become scarce in many areas’.

To the right is a public footpath which leads to a bridge across the railway giving a view of the northern end of the Clay Cross tunnel, or alternatively you can take the path round the bottom of the hill, coming out at Hepthorne Lane.

And finally: did they have consecrated potatoes? In 1917 the land at the bottom of the hill earmarked but not yet used for the churchyard extension was temporarily turned into potato plots.

Derbyshire Courier 17 March 1917

Every Ticket Tells a Story

Pawnbroker’s tickets from the shop of Francis W. Campbell, High Street, Clay Cross, 1910.

Mr Payne pawned a silver Albert chain and a medal on the 24 May 1910.

Mr Frederick Payne’s parents David and Fanny moved to Clay Cross in the mid 1850s, and he was their third child, and the first of their ten children to be born at Clay Cross. He was born in 1856, and probably had a typical upbringing for the times, his family flitting between Clay Cross, Holmgate and Tupton. In 1877 both his mother and his younger brother Matthew died (aged 17) within the space of two months, which must have been devastating for the family.

Mr Payne married Mary Stevenson at North Wingfield the following year, and they were living with their two children at Bircumshaw’s Houses, Waterloo Street Clay Cross in 1881. Meanwhile, his 18 year old brother Alfred, perhaps reluctant to become a coal miner like the rest of the men in the family, signed up for 6 years service in the 57th Brigade and departed for Scotland for training in May 1881. He was severely wounded in Egypt in 1882, and received an Egyptian Campaign medal.

Frederick Payne’s wife Mary died aged just 29 in January 1889, and his father died in Chesterfield Workhouse less than a month later. Mr Payne and his children were boarding with a family on Eyre Street in 1891, and the following year he remarried. By 1901 he and his second wife Sarah had a 3-roomed home on Eyre Street, and four children all under eight years of age. His two children by his first wife had gone to live with relatives.

In February 1898 Mr Payne’s son by his first marriage, James, enlisted and served in the army for 12 years. In that time he went to Malta, South Africa, and China, and was awarded the Queen’s South African medal.

Frederick Payne and another of his sons (also Frederick) both worked at Pilsley Colliery. Frederick Payne junior was injured there in March 1910 (though perhaps not too badly as he survived only to be killed in action in April 1917). Worse was to follow, as Mr Payne’s wife Sarah died in childbirth in December 1910 (due to lack of proper care), and he died at Eyre Street in November 1912. He left six children ranging in ages from 8 to 18.

When Mr Payne pawned the medal in 1910, was it his brother’s Egypt Campaign medal, his son James’s South Africa Campaign medal, or some other medal? We can’t know for sure, but we can be certain that the five shillings would have been very useful for his family in those difficult times.

Mrs Hearn pawned a pair of trousers on 18 August 1910.

Mrs Constance Jane Hearn (known as Jane) was born in Little Eaton in 1880, and grew up in Breadsall where her father, Robert Hazlegrove, was an engine driver at the waterworks. She was six years old when her mother died in 1886, and her father was clearly unable to look after all four children left to his care. In 1891 Jane and two of her brothers were in Shardlow Workhouse. In later years the Hazlegrove family appear to have been reunited, and her father was living at Trowell with her brothers on the census returns of 1901 and 1911. He died there in September 1911.

How Jane Hazlegrove came to meet Charles Hearn is unknown. he was a Londoner, but had come to the East Midlands work as a coal miner before 1890. and can be found living at Alton (Ashover parish) with his first wife Elizabeth in 1891 (they married at Ashover in 1890). Mrs Elizabeth Hearn died the following year aged just 24. Jane was living with Charles Hearn at Ripley by 1901, and in 1911 they were the parents of six children. The family had moved to Church Row on Church Lane, North Wingfield, circa 1906. At North Wingfield, Mr and Mrs Hearn lived next door to Mr Cornelius Corbett and his wife Emmie, a couple in their 30s with four young children. I believe the note on the bottom of the redemption slip refers to this family.

It appears that Mrs Hearn took a pair of trousers to the pawn shop to raise 2/6 for her next door neighbours. The Corbetts may have been raising funds to pay for a doctor. I venture to guess that Mrs Emmie Corbett was very ill. She died less than a month later, and was buried at North Wingfield on 13 September 1910.

Dinner: Butcher’s Meat and Garden Stuff

In 1767, 42 Derbyshire parishes formed themselves into the Ashover Union. The Union bought a large former bath-house at Ashover for use as a workhouse.

The Old Ashover Workhouse

Picture of the old Ashover Workhouse in Derbyshire Times Saturday 13 May 1905

A Subscription Poor House

John Farey. A general View of the Agriculture of Derbyshire. Vol III pp. 555-564.

Only Four Have Joined!

The Ashover poorhouse committee held a meeting 19 June 1773 and found they needed more inmates to lessen the expense of caring for each person.

Derby Mercury Friday 2 July 1773

A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded local workhouses in operation at Chesterfield (for up to 50 inmates), Ashover (60), Barlow (10), Dronfield (12), and Eckington (36).

The Rules in 1809

By 1809 61 parishes subscribed to Ashover Union, and there were 38 paupers in the workhouse. Maintenance payable to the workhouse was £10.8s. per inmate (Stephen Glover. The History of the County of Derby. 1829. Pt 2, p. 51).

John Farey. A general View of the Agriculture of Derbyshire. Vol III pp. 555-564.

John Farey. A general View of the Agriculture of Derbyshire. Vol III pp. 555-564.

Gathering Dung and Digging

In 1809 Mr David Watts and his wife were Master and Mistress, and had been so for some years. There were 38 inmates.

John Farey. A general View of the Agriculture of Derbyshire. Vol III pp. 555-556.

1833 – Tragedies at the Workhouse

In April 1833 inmate Elizabeth Lucas, an elderly woman, found dead in nearby stream, and in September a 27 year old man named George Bradley committed suicide by drowning himself in a trough of water.

Derby Mercury 17 April 1833

Derby Mercury 18 Sep 1833

1834 All Change

As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act North Wingfield parish became a member of the Chesterfield Poor Law Union (which formally came into existence on 19th October 1837). Others using Ashover became part of the Bakewell Union, who took charge of the workhouse at Ashover. The Bakewell Poor Law Union Guardians first met in August, 1838 in Bakewell’s town hall. The Ashover parish workhouse was rented as a temporary union workhouse. Bakewell’s new Workhouse was built in 1840-41 (now Newholme Hospital).

Chesterfield’s new workhouse was opened in 1839, serving a union of more than thirty parishes. See https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Chesterfield/ for more information.

It Could Hold 200

At a discussion about the building of a new workhouse in Chesterfield to replace the existing two old houses catering for the Chesterfield Union area (Chesterfield and Ashover) it was remarked that Ashover Workhouse was capable of containing 200 inmates (Derbyshire Courier 25 Nov 1837). Preparations were made to move the inmates from the parishes in the Chesterfield Union into the new workhouse at Chesterfield.

Winding Up – the ‘divorce settlement’

Derbyshire Courier 28 March 1840

Meeting of Guardians of Chesterfield Poor Law Union Sat 21 March 1840. Chair: R. Arkwright Esq.

Motion by Mr Lee of Ashover – next Tuesday the Bakewell Board of Guardians intended to auction off the furniture etc of the Ashover Workhouse, from which they were withdrawing their paupers – as several other parishes had also contributed towards the cost of the furniture he thought it unfair that Bakewell should take all the sale profits. His motion was carried – and an inquiry set up to determine who should take what share.

‘… Fifty nine paupers were on Monday removed from the old workhouse at Ashover to the new one at Chesterfield.’

Derbyshire Courier 28 March 1840

Shipped out in Wagons

A letter to the editor reminiscing by ‘M.B.’ of Williamthorpe, .

Derbyshire Times 7 May 1887

Itchy Paupers – and Touchy Medical Officers

Derbyshire Courier 11 April 1840

Napoleon’s Home – Manchester

When Mr Mark Napoleon Elliott, a 55 year old bankrupt oil merchant died in Manchester in 1881, it seems unlikely that many would have known of his connection with an oddly-named public house in Derbyshire, ‘Napoleon’s Home’.

OS XXX SW 1884

You can find some information about Napoleon’s Home and the New Napoleon on the web site of Stretton Handley Church of England Primary School here: http://www.strettonhandley.derbyshire.sch.uk/woolley-trail/newnapoleon/

Here I take a brief look at the life of the man who is said to have given the public house its name.

Mr Mark Elliott was born in Crich in 1826, the son of a grocer named George Elliott. Members of the Elliott family lived at Woolley, in Stretton township, and by 1848 directories show that George Elliott had moved from Crich and was farming in Woolley Moor. The 1851 census lists him farming a smallholding of 16 acres. In the 1860s he is mentioned in newspapers as the landlord of a beerhouse, called ‘Napoleon’s Home’. The beerhouse was said to have been named after one of his sons, two of which he had nicknamed Nelson and Napoleon. ‘Nelson’ was probably George, Mark’s elder brother by two years, but there were also two other younger Elliott brothers named Alexander and Geoffrey.

By the time his father was mentioned in the newspapers in the 1860s, usually for minor transgressions against the licensing laws, Mark ‘Napoleon’ Elliott, had long departed from Derbyshire. He had, in fact, gone before 1851, when he was staying with a family in Manchester, and working as a druggist. In August 1857 Mr Mark Elliott was called up for jury service in Manchester, and was then listed as a drysalter of Fennel Street (his business address). The newspaper listed him as ‘Mark Napoleon Elliott’ (Manchester Times 1 August 1857), and he seems to have now formally adopted Napoleon as his middle name.

Derbyshire Advertiser 11 September 1857

The following month Mark Elliott returned to Derbyshire to marry Alice Bown, a daughter of the Atlow schoolmaster, at Wirksworth. The couple made their home in Liverpool, and then Manchester, and by 1861 Mr Mark N. Elliott was a drug and oil merchant employing 1 man and 1 boy. He was by then the father of 3 children, and the household included a domestic servant. Mr Mark Napoleon Elliott prospered in trade and became a man of some standing in Manchester. He was probably the adventurous Manchester gentleman named ‘M.N. Elliott’ who visited European battlefields in 1859 and 1870, tracing the exploits of Napoleon III.

Blackburn Standard 3 March 1877

Mr Mark Napoleon Elliott was the father of seven children, and his eldest son Mark Albert Napoleon (1859 -1911) was also given the Napoleon name. There were other connections in Mr Elliott’s life with the Napoleonic era; the family also lived at various times at Waterloo Road (Cheetham) and Trafalgar Street (Lower Broughton) in Manchester.

Manchester Courier 10 March 1881

1881 was a sad year for the family. Mark Napoleon Elliott’s wife Alice died in February aged just 54, and then the bankruptcy proceedings commenced soon after. Having lost his business with liabilities of £700, and moved to lodgings, Mark Napoleon Elliott died on 22 June 1881.

Macclesfield Courier 9 July 1859

Ormskirk Advertiser 15 September 1879

A Grassmoor Constable in 1815

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries local men were chosen to take turns in serving as officials to manage the township of Hasland. Their duties included levying rates for the benefit of the township for repairs to roads and assisting the poor, and keeping the peace, the latter the particular responsibility of the parish constable. From March 1815 to March 1816 Grassmoor man David Marsh was constable for the township of Hasland.

It is the indispensable duty of every constable where his services and authority are required to quell affrays and to preserve the peace, to repair immediately to the spot and to apprehend the affrayers. In such situations however, great presence of mind and discretion are necessary.

By the common law all constables are authorised to command affrayers to keep the peace and to depart…

David Marsh was 31 years old, the eldest son of William and Mary Marsh of Grassmoor, though the family were sometimes said to be of Grasshill. David seems to have divided his time between Grasshill and Whittington, where his wife’s family lived. He eventually moved to Whittington, and farmed at Glass Hill there; his son was born in Hasland township in 1818, but baptised at Whittington.

Constables are the principal engines by which the laws are to be put in execution, and it is of the greatest importance that they should be zealous, active and efficient…

The solemn oath administered to every constable on his admission to office [is] that “he shall well and truly serve our sovereign lord the King according to the best of his skill and knowledge” …

David Marsh was sworn in as constable at Chesterfield on 8 May 1815. He claimed expenses of 2/6 (12 ½ p) for every full day of work done for the township, plus other costs. On 22 May he accompanied seven men to Tupton for them to be sworn in, presumably as his deputies. They would have made their oaths before a local JP, William A. Lord esq. of Tupton Hall.

It is the duty of every Constable in cases of murder manslaughter or sudden death rendering an inquisition necessary to give notice of the same to the Coroner as soon as it comes to his knowledge and also on receiving his precept to return a competent number of lawful men within the constablewick or district to appear before him …

Even before his swearing-in, David Marsh began to keep his constable’s accounts, and his first entry records a charge for the inquest of Ann Taylor 0f £1 11s. 2d. There was another inquest, of Sarah Sales, later in the year, in October, for which he charged the township £1 4s. 0d.

Every constable in his ward or district is bound with purity and integrity to return a true list of all persons liable to serve in the militia and strictly to obey the precept he receives for that purpose without favour or partiality…

There were numerous administrative jobs for the constable, but one of the most significant of David Marsh’s tasks involved the war effort. Despite the conclusion of the conflict with the USA, and Napoleon’s surrender following Waterloo, the government was looking to raise the militia, and in the autumn of 1815 Marsh paid Mr Carter 6 shillings for militia notices, which he then distributed. He then compiled and submitted the list of potential volunteers to the authorities.

Derby Mercury 3 August 1815.

It is the indispensable duty of all Constables when authorised and required by the warrant of a Magistrate to use every exertion in procuring carriages and other conveyances for his Majesty’s forces while on a march it is a duty of great importance and ought to be performed with vigour and firmness at the same time …

In March 1816 Marsh was involved again in supporting the militia, when he organised transport for removing “the arms and accoutrements of the 9^th Light Dragoons from Chesterfield to Alfreton”. Mr Jones was paid 5 shillings for the use of his wagon, and Samuel Higginbottom was paid 2/6 for providing his cart.

Throughout the year David Marsh paid out sums of money, for rates, warrants and other disbursements, including 1 shilling for a brand to mark paupers’ goods, and £1 16s. 4 ½ d. for Hasland’s share of the cost of repairs to the Silk Mill Bridge at Chesterfield. His total expenditure for the year amounted to £48 18s. 2d.

…A Peace Officer on quitting his situation will have the satisfaction of reflecting that he executed the important trust reposed in him with fidelity and honesty, so as not only to have the approbation of his own conscience but the good opinion of magistrates, and the applause of the parish or community for which he served as a constable.

David Marsh’s account for his work as constable was originally held at Sheffield Archives in the Bagshaw collection, but has now been transferred to Derbyshire Record Office D7676/BagC/574/10.

All the quotations are from: Patrick Colquhoun. A treatise on the functions and duties of a constable (1803).