SOUTH DERBYSHIRE
HERITAGE NEWS
The design and heritage newsletter of South Derbyshire District Council & Sharpe’s Pottery
Twenty Years of Magic
Issue 25
Summer 2007
Keith Foster writes:
The Magic Attic celebrated its 20th birthday in April
this year. To mark the occasion we have developed a
new internet web site (www.magicattic.org.uk) where
you can get a taster of what we have.
Doesn’t time fly? In those 20 years we have progressed from a
dusty loft in a late 17th century barn into part of the restored
Sharpe’s Pottery Museum. Our opening hours have increased
from 4 to over 14 per week and our visitor numbers have increased
from “a handful” to 135 per week. Storage facilities have greatly
• This is how we started.
improved - we started with only a pile of newspapers and now our
newspapers are housed on easy access, high density shelving.
We have a growing collection of local Company records and we
now have a whole suite of internet connected computers, the
latest laser and photo printers and full multi-media display and
projection facilities. We also have over 20,000 photographs
covering virtually all aspects of the area with most of them available
in digital format. Our earliest photo is an 1843 daguerreotype.
The ethos of the Attic has remained the same; we are still staffed
by volunteers and none of them receive remuneration. We still
attempt to give a personal service and try to assist and help all
visitors, although unfortunately not as well as we would like
during the busier times.
• Some of our current shelving.
A Little Surprise!
On 25th May, a plaque was unveiled at Sharpe’s Pottery
in recognition of James Whitaker’s past and continuing
contribution towards the preservation, repair and
conversion of the listed buildings. James was lured to site
through the device of a tea party, and was greatly
surprised when the plaque was revealed, sneakily
hidden underneath a picture in the café area!
James’ grandfather Solomon Whitaker, builder, built bottle
kilns and was one of the consortium of businessmen that
bought Sharpe’s Pottery in 1924. The Whitaker family
later became sole owners and are still the freeholders of
the site today. Without the goodwill, enthusiasm and help of
James and his co-directors, the Sharpe’s Pottery Museum
could not have become a reality.
• James and Lesley Whitaker by the plaque at the unveiling
Heritage News - 1
Windows Into The Past
Keith Foster writes:
This year’s Festival of Leisure at the Maurice Lea Park in
Church Gresley takes place on the weekend of 23rd – 24th
June. Visitors will have the opportunity to view a selection
of prints taken from the glass negative collection of the
Burton Mail, now in custody of the Magic Attic.
The negatives are being scanned and printed by the Magic
Attic and have proved to contain an important record of the
industrial and social history and heritage of the area. Many
of them are a century old. The project was financed by a
grant from the Lottery Heritage Fund which enabled the
Attic to purchase specialised computers and scanning
equipment. Purpose made storage equipment, such as
acid-free envelopes and boxes, also acquired by the grant
money, means the negatives should be preserved for
another 100 years.
Over the last two years a team of volunteers have spent
over 12,000 hours working on the project. To date some
8000 negatives have been preserved and scanned with
approximately 1000 still to be completed, although most
of the remaining examples are considerably younger and
currently have less historic value.
Some 80% of the photographs have been printed onto
postcard sized prints, filed and catalogued. All these can
be examined by visitors in the Attic and there is an
opportunity for visitors to add comments about the subject
matter – many are of unidentified places or events. A
representative sample of the photographs has been printed
onto 10"x 8" photographic paper and mounted in frames
for exhibition at the Festival of Leisure.
Descriptions of the photographs will be available in a
catalogue that will be available for purchase for a nominal
fee.
Thomas Cook’s Birthplace
Remembered.
It was forty years ago this Spring that the insignificant cottage
no. 9 Quick Close in Melbourne was reduced to rubble. As a
building it scarcely merited a second glance, but to many the
demolition was an act of gross vandalism as this simple semidetached house of c1800 was the birthplace of Thomas Cook the
travel agent almost two hundred years ago. It was new when
Cook was born there in 1808, but had little else to recommend it
being a simple one-up one-down house about 13 feet square.
Quick Close was originally a field for growing “quick” or hawthorn
for hedging, a mainstay of Melbourne’s early gardening industry.
But in 1796 a street was laid out up the middle and it was gradually
developed to house the growing population of late Georgian
Melbourne.
Cook was himself employed by a Melbourne gardener, and always
retained an affection for Melbourne despite living a life of hard
toil there and leaving at the age of 20. His substantial Victorian
house in Leicester was called “Thorncroft”, deliberately
synonymous with “Quick Close” where he was born.
Cook’s first organised tour in 1841 was to take delegates to a
Temperance rally, to demonstrate against the evils of alcohol. Cook’s
employers in Melbourne had been fond of alcohol, and Cook’s
initial objection to it seems to have stemmed from the time and
money wasted in the public houses, as well as the debilitating
physical effects. It might thus be argued that Cook was indirectly
spurred to success by having had a miserable time while employed
in Melbourne!
Guides for tourists in the local area often cite Melbourne’s
association with Thomas Cook as a feature of the place, but there
is little to see for it apart from the handsome quadrangle of memorial
cottages (1890-91) that Cook built in Melbourne shortly before
his death.
The Melbourne Historical Research Group is remedying the
situation in a small way by the erection of a memorial on the exact
site of the birthplace, which is now a Council-owned grass verge
at the highest point on Quick Close. A large piece of granite from
Bardon Hill Quarry at Coalville is now in place, ready to receive a
cast bronze plaque that was manufactured last year. Completion
of the project only awaits finalisation of arrangements for an official
unveiling by a suitably selected person.
The Festival tent, supplied by South Derbyshire District
Council for the Magic Attic, will also house small exhibitions
on the history of Linton Chapel, Drakelow Estate and Hall
and the history of football in and around Newhall.
• The Burton and Ashby light railway depot, Swadlincote,
(from the Burton Mail glass plate collection.)
• The birthplace of Thomas Cook in Melbourne, demolished 1967
Heritage News - 2
New Curator at Sharpe’s Pottery,
Emma Ward, Sharpe’s new curator,
introduces herself:
with tacky souvenirs I had a bag dedicated to
guide books, quizzes and audio transcripts
from historic properties!
Once I had delivered my report and faced the
terrifying ordeal of a presentation in London I
once again hit on a stroke of luck. The end of
the fellowship coincided with the
advertisement of an apprenticeship in textile
conservation. This was again with the
National Trust, based in their new studio at
Blickling Hall in Norfolk. Sixteenth century
tapestries, Georgian dresses and silk
damask curtains - I couldn’t resist!
“I’m sorry – where?” When I joined the team
at Sharpe’s Pottery Museum at the end of
March I had a fast track learning programme
whereby every time I answered the phone it
generated more questions than answers.
Though I am a Derbyshire lass through and
through I hail from North Derbyshire and
the place names down here in the south
are a whole new world to me.
I always knew I wanted to work in the
heritage field. I grew up as a typical 2.4
family, the .4 being made up of our family
dog. My dad was an Electrician at Markham
Colliery, which contrasted greatly with his
love of Sunday trips out to historic properties
with us all in tow. I had a love of history which naturally led me to
study History and History of Art at university. This, together with
my fond childhood memories, led me to work for the National
Trust.
When I left university I won the National Trust Arkell European
Travelling Fellowship. This involved researching methods of
interpretation provided to families at historic properties both here
and in Europe. I was incredibly lucky as I was doing the obligatory
3 months travelling anyway and so fitted my research around my
plans. Where most young people come back from travelling
After a few years I was craving Derbyshire
once more. So when a position came up at
Hardwick Hall, a matter of miles from where
I grew up, I jumped at the chance. A few
years on again I took the position of House
Steward at Nostell Priory. This was an amazing experience. As
House Steward I lived in a flat in the main mansion, having the
gardens and lake as my own personal playground once the
public went home.
Sharpe’s Pottery Museum brings new challenges for me,
wrapped up in the familiarity of a strong Derbyshire feeling of
community. Sharpe’s to me is a hidden gem with phenomenal
potential and a strong passion driving its existence. I hope over
time to play an integral part in taking Sharpe’s forward to new
audiences, while strengthening its myriad of existing links to the
people of South Derbyshire.
Bretby Hall in 1816.
Probate inventories of goods in ordinary houses become increasingly
rare after about 1740, but for large country houses very detailed
inventories may still be found from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
One such inventory for Bretby Hall was recently noted in the National
Archives, and was made in 1816 following the death of Philip, Earl of
Chesterfield. He began building Bretby Hall around 1812, but died
before it was complete. The inventory lists all the rooms in turn, starting
at the top of each part of the house and working down, as seems to have
been usual. It is a wonderful record of the house as it was furnished
when new.
Sometimes the room names refer to the decoration, including for instance
a “Leopard Calico Room”, and sometimes to the person who used the
room. Hence there are rooms occupied by Lord Stanhope and by the
“in-laws” - Lord John and Lady Isabella Thynne (with separate
bedrooms as was the norm for the aristocracy) and the Marchioness of
Bath.
The house had “all mod. cons.” In the Butler’s Room there was “A Beer
Machine” – not, alas, for making instant beer: it had five levers and lead
pipes to the cellars underneath, and was obviously an early version of
the pumps seen in public houses today. In a recess by the new Library
there was a large engine “to supply various parts of the House with
Water”. The incomplete state of the house is hinted at by the reference
to “The New Chimney Pieces and slabs, not set, made by Westmacot
now at Chesterfield House”, valued at £915 12s.
Working with the inventory alongside whatever old and modern floor
plans of the building can be assembled, it should still be possible to work
out exactly which room was which, and therefore to see how much of
the incomplete Bretby Hall was habitable when the Earl died. The
inventory helps by informing the reader roughly where he is in the
house. For example, after the “Oil Cellar” we are told: “Here Ends the
Old House, now ascend by the best staircase to South East Attics”.
Some of the pictures listed would be of great interest from an architectural
and historic garden point of view, and one wonders whether any of them
might still survive unregarded at Highclere Castle, where the family
descendants still live. In the Breakfast Room there was “A Birds eye
View of old Bradby Hall” valued at £10 - possibly the well-known print
published in 1707, or perhaps a painting from which the print was made.
In the Earl’s study there was “A design for Bretby Hall by Wyatt” valued
at £52 10s, “A design for the Chapel by Wyatt” valued at £35, and a
drawing by Lady Thynne of Repton Church valued at £8 8s.
“2 Pencil Drawings of Cottages”, also in the study, might have related to
the village cottages that the Earl rebuilt in ornamental style. Perhaps most
tantalising of all is a reference to “A Drawg of the old Brick House at
Bradby” in a Dressing Room, valued at £5. It could refer either to the old
Hall demolished in 1781, or to the modest brick house that replaced it
and which was later swallowed up in the present Bretby Hall.
The inventory also lists items in the grounds and gardens and (more
surprisingly) also in the schools, cottages and farmhouses in Bretby
village. It includes 3 new cottages at the Park Farm, Gypsy Cottage,
Park Farm House, Groves’s Lodge, Mr. Gordon’s house and cottage
adjoining, Bradby Farm House (where Lady Chesterfield had a parlour),
Dicken’s Cottage, the Girls’ School and cottage adjoining, the Boys’
School, Mr. Martin’s house, Weston’s Lodge, Croxall’s Lodge and the
Keeper’s Lodge. The Hall grounds included a circular summer house
and four painted seats by the large Cedar of Lebanon in the long walk.
The archive at Highclere Castle is very disappointing in relation to Bretby
so the existence of the 1816 inventory is particularly satisfying.
Heritage News - 3
Greens Pottery – a listed building “at risk”.
T
he condition of the old T. G. Green
factory at Church Gresley, empty and
decaying, is one of the most
important listed building issues in the
district at the moment. The manufacture of
Cornish Blue is continuing at the modern
Mason Cash factory next door, but the
original factory is now completely deserted.
There are recent reports of the lead being
stolen from the valley gutters of the factory,
which threatens to greatly accelerate its
decay.
The four bottle kilns in the old factory are
Grade II* listed structures. Only about 1 in
50 listed buildings is listed Grade I, the
highest grade. About 2 listed buildings in
50 are listed Grade II with an asterisk (known
as “Grade two star”), which is the next
highest grade, the remainder being listed
Grade II. The Green’s bottle kilns are thus
in the top ranking 6% of the country’s listed
buildings.
The buildings enclosing the kilns also
count as listed because they are attached
to the kilns and provide an historic context
for them. To demolish the surrounding
buildings and leave the kilns in isolation
would not be an appropriate step, as the
kilns were housed within buildings from the
time they were built.
It is highly likely that a scheme to re-use
the site will involve demolition of large parts
of the existing factory buildings. Some areas
of demolition will not be contentious, for
instance the large steel-framed extensions
of the 1950s and 1970s, and the removal of
these would in fact allow the character of
the older buildings to be better appreciated.
The comparative significance of the older
parts of the factory is more difficult to judge
from a site inspection alone, so the Heritage
Officer undertook a brief historical study
of the site earlier this year to provide
background evidence on which the future
debate on re-use may be based.
Gr
een
Green
een’’s –
a potted
histor
y
history
Green’s factory was originally built
in 1871-2 on the bed of the former
Windmill Pool, drained in 1826. A
contract for the building of one of
the new kilns by William Waterfield
still survives. Green was already
active in the area. He had bought an
old factory on an adjacent site just a
few years before and, despite being
new to the pottery industry, quickly
made a success of it. The old and
new works operated side by side
until the 1960s, and most of the old
works was demolished in the 1970s.
Tales of the construction of the new
factory have an epic character to them:
Green was previously a builder, and
devised his own method of piling the
foundations for his new pottery on a site
which was still wet. It is said that the
55-foot tiebeams in the factory roofs
were towed from the Scandinavian pine
forests. When Green decided to enlarge
the making shops, he avoided
dismantling the roof by jacking it up two
or three courses each day until the
required height was reached. To ensure
an even lift, he sat astride the ridge of
the roof and signalled the workmen to
screw all the jacks at the same time by
blasts on a whistle. In directing his
workforce, Green used a “remarkable
vocabulary of oaths” that earned him the
name “Swearing Tom”.
The late 19th century was boom time for
the Swadlincote area, and successive
Ordnance Survey editions usefully chart
the growth of the factory. Extensive
gutting of the factory by a serious fire in
1904 was soon put right and growth
continued. At its height, the pottery had
eight bottle ovens, whose distinctive
shapes were complemented by three tall
chimneys and two lift towers.
In 1911 the factory was electrified,
bringing it into the forefront of innovation
and giving a sound operational
springboard for the introduction of
Green’s signature product – Cornish
blue – in the mid 1920s.
Perhaps one of the most interesting
issues during Green’s more recent
history was a proposal to demolish two
of the four listed bottle ovens in 1976.
The proposal was actually approved by
a Department of the Environment
inspector in 1978, despite some strong
objections, but the kilns were not
demolished during the five year life of
the permission, and the kilns survived
to be given a higher grade of listing in
1992.
Among the supporters of the demolition
proposal was the District Council itself,
which said: “They are symbolic of
poverty and harsh working conditions,
Heritage News - 4
so that retention of more than one or
two specimens on historical grounds
represents an oversentimental attitude
to conservation”. This school of thought
had another airing in 1989 when there
was a proposal to demolish the tall
landmark chimney (Grade II listed) that
now dominates the Morrison’s site.
Today, the bottle kilns and the chimney
are valued because they are locally
distinctive in an area which has lost
much of its former unique character. In
the 1970s, the harsh working conditions
of the potteries and pipeyards had been
experienced first-hand by the people
favouring demolition, so perhaps their
reaction can be understood. Green’s had
in fact celebrated the coronation of our
present Queen by demolishing one of
the oppressive bottle ovens to create
what was known as the “Coronation
(work)shop”.
Public opinion today has moved on.
Speaking generally, today’s local
community did not endure first-hand the
conditions complained of. A generation
on, the community is proud of its
forefathers who laboured valiantly in a
harsh environment, and is therefore far
keener to preserve the meagre physical
evidence that illustrates it. The wellknown quotation “The past is a foreign
country; they do things differently there”
certainly applies here.
Ticknall - Three ages of the Church.
This photograph captures three
distinct periods in history. In the
foreground is an early market or
preaching cross. Behind it are the
remains of the church of St. Thomas
a Becket, and in the background is
the present church of 1842.
similar paintings (probably 17th century)
were partially uncovered when the west
gallery was removed during F. J.
Robinson’s “restoration” of the early
1880s. They were not kept but fortunately
they were photographed. A detail of Death
is reproduced here. He doesn’t look very
frightening; he looks more like he’s in
his garden, pausing to discuss the
weather casually with some fellow
skeleton while leaning on his spade.
The old church at Ticknall was replaced
by the present one in 1841-2. The main
body of the church was demolished in the
usual way, but the tower and spire were
blown up by gunpowder before an
emotional audience on 5th September 1841.
The reason for the survival of the two
remaining fragments is unclear, as the
remains are not extensive enough to be
particularly picturesque. Perhaps there
was a more practical purpose, e.g. to help
local residents ascertain the approximate
whereabouts of unmarked graves and
vaults both inside and around the church?
The cross is thought to have been moved
to its present location during the 18 th
century from a site nearby. Its purpose was
probably as a preaching or market cross,
though standing crosses were also erected
to mark the boundaries between parishes
or settlements; one such local example was
the long-lost “Judges Cross” at Calke.
Village crosses might also be places of
public proclamation or penance, and could
define rights of sanctuary. The Green on
the north side of the road opposite the
entrance lodge to Calke Park is traditionally
known as the Market Place, and one
wonders whether the cross might originally
have stood there.
The remains of St. Thomas a Becket’s
church consist only of a corner of the tower
and a fragment of the east end, including a
window. The appearance of the complete
building is known through surviving
illustrations and descriptions, which state
among other things that the figures of Time
and Death were painted at the ends of the
aisles. These twin characters seem to have
been popular in churches. Another local
example was at Newton Solney, where
The new church, built in an addition to
the churchyard made in 1834, was
designed by the prolific and capable Derby
architect Henry Stevens (1806-1873).
Stevens is known for a number of churches
in south Derbyshire, mostly in a Gothic style
but also including an exercise in neoNorman at Woodville.
More on upside – down
arches…
Thank you to all the correspondents who
wrote in with ideas about the “upside down
arches” (Heritage News 24), sometimes
including sketches. All agreed that the
arches were there in an attempt to cope
with the possible effects of ground
movement due to mining, but were at
variance regarding the more precise
reasons and principles of construction.
Peter Yates suggested that buildings on
unstable ground were mostly likely to
fracture where the structure was weakest,
i.e. alongside window openings. The upside
down arches at the bottom of a wall, under
the windows, would conduct any cracking
along the lower edge of the curve, hopefully
dissipating the movement gradually as it
Heritage News - 5
spread up to window level. As Peter noted
from his own knowledge of Newhall Church,
“the precautions taken were not entirely
successful, but it could have been worse”.
This seems plausible enough to me, and
may well be part of the answer, but a more
developed interpretation was offered by
Karen Birkett of structural engineers
Eastwood and Partners:
“If, at shallow level, foundation conditions
are poor then one must go down deeper to
find good bearing on the ground. This may
involve relatively deep excavation. The
cheap way out, at that time, was to
excavate small but deep foundation pads
and to place the load directly upon them
from a wall constructed as an ‘upsidedown’ arch.
“An upside down arch can be used to
distribute uneven loading from above more
evenly along the length of a foundation,
or to effectively place loading at points
immediately below the crown of the
inverted arch on a pile or deep pad. Now
we would use piers or piles and a ground
beam. Then they excavated deep pads, and
without reinforced concrete, or large steel
beams, constructed an upside down arch
to bridge weak lengths of foundation”.
Karen observes that the technique she
describes would only be useful in coping
with the effects of past, shallow mining: “In
sophisticated engineering practice this
could be effective and economic. However
one cannot necessarily presume that a
designer/builder knew what they were
doing”!
It would be interesting to know whether this
structural device was invented, or merely
evolved over time. It would also be
interesting to know whether it is enshrined
in any Victorian engineering literature.
Plaque for “Castle Knob”
As a twin project to the Thomas Cook memorial at Melbourne, the
National Forest Company and South Derbyshire District Council
are providing an explanatory plaque on the castle site known as
“Castle Knob” at Castle Gresley. The site lies alongside the A444
near Toon’s carpet and furniture centre and preserves a rural
character despite the busy road and encroaching suburban
development.
Castle Gresley gets its name from the impressive earthworks off
Mount Road, a scheduled monument interpreted as the remains of
a substantial motte and bailey castle. It does not quite conform to
the textbook picture of a motte and bailey castle, and some have
even doubted that it ever was one, or at least that it began as one.
Nevertheless, the name Castle Gresley points to a castle somewhere
within the parish, and there is no more obvious site than this one.
Nothing at all is known of its specific history, but castles of this
type were introduced to Britain by the Normans after the Conquest
of 1066. They were built and occupied over the next two hundred
years or so, some having a fleeting existence and other surviving
to be rebuilt in a more advanced and developed form. The place
name “Castelgresele” is first documented in 1252, but the castle
may have been abandoned even then. It commands wide views
over the surrounding countryside, particularly towards the river
Trent on the north.
The centrepiece of the remains is the motte or mound, about 18
feet high, with a ditch around it and a broad flat area on top. The
top would have been edged with a stone or timber curtain wall. To
the south is the “bailey”, a large defended yard area which has
steep banks round the edge and adjoins the motte on its north
edge. This is where the lord’s hall and other living accommodation
would have been built, along with kitchens, workshops, stabling
I
for horses and accommodation for other animals. Other earthworks
nearby are interpreted as two further baileys,
The remains have been disturbed by a Ministry of Defence bunker,
installed shortly after World War II and now abandoned. Its access
hatch can still be seen. Also, the top of the motte was lowered to
provide a broader platform for equipment mounted there by the
Observer Corps. Nevertheless, it is likely that undisturbed evidence
of mediaeval buildings still exists underground over much of the
area, offering the chance that something of the castle’s history
may be discovered in the future.
Meanwhile, we can only guess at how the castle came into being.
One possibility is that it was one of the many “illegal” castles built
without the necessary licence from the King, during the so-called
“anarchy” of King Stephen’s reign (1135-54). This was a 19-year
period during which it was said that “Christ and all his saints
slept” and chaos reigned, while Stephen struggled to keep the
throne from his cousin Matilda.
If the castle was built then, its builder would have been William de
Gresley, who also founded the Augustinian Priory in Castle
Gresley’s counterpart settlement of Church Gresley. Part of the
priory church there remains as the present parish church.
The descendants of William de Gresley could still be found as
country landowners in the nearby parishes of Drakelow and
Netherseal into the 20th century. One of them was Sir Nigel Gresley
(1876-1941), the brilliant steam locomotive engineer who produced
the “Flying Scotsman” and the “Mallard”. “Mallard” still holds
the record as the fastest steam locomotive in the world. Sir Nigel is
buried in Netherseal churchyard.
The plaque will be installed during the summer.
“Anchor Works” study reprinted
n 2003, the District Council compiled an
historical appraisal of the Hepworth’s
pipeworks site in Swadlincote, formerly the
“Anchor Works” of James Woodward Limited
and since partly redeveloped for the new
Morrison’s store.
Only about three dozen copies of the document
were produced, as its aim was mainly to ensure
that the history of the site and its buildings was
properly understood before any demolitions
were considered and consented to. Thereafter,
it would serve as a permanent record of what
had been there.
In response to the level of interest shown, a run
of 200 copies has now been produced including
some slight revisions and amendments. They
are available for purchase from the Civic Offices
or from Sharpe’s Pottery, price £6.50.
They can also be obtained by post by sending a
cheque for £7.25 per copy
(payable to South Derbyshire District Council)
to Customer Services,
South Derbyshire District Council,
Civic Offices, Civic Way,
Swadlincote, Derbyshire DE11 0AH.
Please include a covering note to say what
the cheque is for, and write the code
“29236 366” on the back.
Meanwhile, at the Hepworth’s site, discussions
are now underway concerning the
redevelopment of the southern part of the site,
where the remaining old buildings still stand
vacant. The main works chimney, which is a
listed building, was repaired as part of the
Morrison’s project, along with the blacksmith’s
and joiner’s shops adjoining it. The other old
buildings are in a less healthy condition and their
future is still being debated.
Copies of the document were deposited with
local libraries, but the District Council then
received many requests from individual members
of the public who were interested in buying
their own copies. The word was spread by the
newsletter of the Derbyshire Archaeological
Society:
“As yet another distinctive site seems destined
to fall to the curse of the early twenty first century
– the inexorable march of the supermarket –
South Derbyshire District Council is to be
congratulated on producing an excellent report
on the historic occupants of the site, James
Woodward Ltd… An absolute must for anyone
interested in the South Derbyshire earthenware
industry”.
• A view of the works from an old catalogue. (Courtesy of Hepworth Building Products)
Heritage News - 6
South Derbyshire in old maps and plans.
As the local authority’s Heritage
Officer, one of my ongoing duties
is to build up an awareness of
the location of records about the
area’s past. One aspect of this
has been an effort to locate pre
Ordnance Survey plans of the
various parishes in the District.
Old maps and plans are one of the
most fundamentally useful types
of record where conservation of
the historic environment is
concerned, and are also a
popular starting point for
members of the public who want
to discover the past of their own
area.
The wonderful pre-enclosure plan of
Repton in 1762, showing all the strips
in the open fields, is at the
Staffordshire Record Office, as are
plans of Lullington in 1824, Castle
Gresley in 1826, Overseal around
1800 and Newton Solney in 1827.
The numbers on the 1824 Lullington
plan relate to a written survey done
at the same time, which may be found
many miles away from the map on the
bookshelves of the Local Studies
Library in Matlock! A fascinating
series of plans made in 1735,
including land at Melbourne and
Smisby, can be found at the
Leicestershire Record Office. For the
Sometimes maps give only partial
coverage of a settlement. The west
side of Swadlincote, for instance, is
covered by a Bullivant estate plan of
the late 1820s; the east side is
covered by a Granville estate plan
of 1831. For the missing part
between the two sides, including the
nucleus of the village itself, we have
to wait until 1856. At Woodville, which
was only given its own bounds in the
1840s, the area on the north side of
the High Street is included in the
Hartshorne Enclosure Award plan of
1766, while the area on the south
side is included in the Ashby Woulds
Enclosure plan of 1807.
• The Ordnance Survey plan of Trusley c1900 (above right) shows little change since the plan of 1724 (above left) and the village remains little
changed in 2007.
The County Record Office at Matlock
is an obvious repository for finding
such plans. Its many examples
include Stanton by Bridge in 1608,
Calke in 1761 complete with its formal
gardens, Netherseal in 1785,
Melbourne in 1787 and Shardlow in
1766 prior to the development of the
“inland port” on the Trent and Mersey
canal there.
However, it is a mistake to assume
that the Derbyshire Record Office is
a comprehensive resource. Many
plans remain in private hands, such
as early parish plans of Melbourne
in c1631 and 1790, Walton Hall and
grounds when newly complete in the
1720s, and the 1724 plan of the
Coke estate at Trusley, showing the
Hall and its grounds before decline
into an ordinary farmhouse.
plan to accompany the Smisby
Enclosure Award (1827) one must
resort to the National Archives in
London.
Occasionally, a researcher may find
historic references to maps that
apparently no longer exist. One such
frustrating example is a plan of
Ticknall made in 1762, for which only
the accompanying survey book
survives. The earliest plan of Ticknall
dates only from the 1830s. In other
cases, an historic map may only
survive through copies. For instance,
a plan of Church Gresley made in
1827 is now known only through two
tracings, one of them at the
Derbyshire Record Office and a more
careful one (though less wellpreserved) at the Leicestershire
Record Office.
Heritage News - 7
Ordnance Survey plans at a large
scale only go back to about 1880 in
our area. They capture the district
when many of the sweeping changes
brought about by the Industrial
Revolution had already occurred
both in town and country. The earlier
plans touched upon in this article are
therefore of great importance to our
understanding of the rural landscape
prior to the Enclosure movement of
the 18 th century and the rapid
development of existing and new
settlements in the 19th century.
Swadlincote before clay and coal.
Although Swadlincote is listed in
Domesday Book, we know
disappointingly little about the
appearance of the place prior to its
industrialisation during the 19 th
century. The following is a
summary of several features of preindustrial Swadlincote, on which
ongoing research is slowly
shedding a little light:
Village Green? The evidence suggests
that all the space now bounded by Market
Street, Grove Street and West Street was
formerly an open green, the remnant of
which is the present Market Place, also
known as the “Delph” after a delph or coal
mine situated between the top ends of
Midland Road and Belmont Street. The
mine is shown on a plan of 1831.
The Wood. Between Swadlincote and
Church Gresley there was a large wood,
gradually reduced during the 18th and 19th
centuries, in the area of what is now Wilmot
Road, Stanhope Road and Hastings Road.
Part of this area was known as Coppice
Close, suggesting that part of the wood
was coppiced and gave its name to our
present Coppice Side. Coppicing was a
practice whereby trees would be cut down
to the base perhaps every 15 years or so,
continually producing crops of
thin poles from their bases for use
as broom handles, props and fence
posts etc., or for the production of
charcoal. To the west, the
woodland appears to have
continued across to Gresley
Wood Road.
The New Town. A particularly tantalising
feature of Swadlincote’s early history
concerns the possibility that a deliberatelyplanned extension of the village was laid
out during the mediaeval period. There are
many instances of documents ranging from
the 16 th to 18 th centuries that refer to
“Swadlincote alias Newtown” and to
“Newton Lane” and “Newton Close” in
Swadlincote.
As Swadlincote is mentioned in Domesday,
it cannot have been one of the many
completely “new towns” set up in the 12th
and 13th centuries. It seems probable,
however, that an extension of the old village
was deliberately laid out as a new town at
an unknown period, and kept its
“Newtown” alias for a long time before
losing its distinction from the rest of
Swadlincote. The modern concept of the
word “town” should not be confused with
the mediaeval idea of a town, as in the past
the word might be used in reference to a
village of any size, however small.
At first, no evidence of deliberate and
regular planning is discernible in the
historic layout of Swadlincote, but close
examination of the earliest available plans
(1856 and 1882) suggests to the writer that
the plots on the north side of Market Street,
with their long crofts or paddocks, may have
been deliberately laid out and were the “new
town” in question – a small example. Most
of the historic boundaries here have long
since been erased, but the layout had
something of the regularity which typically
betrays a planned settlement.
The Victorian plans obviously show a
layout much altered over the course of
centuries, but they show house plots of
consistent depth fronting Market Street,
with long crofts of substantial size running
northwards down to the brook at the
bottom of the hill. These crofts are now
cut across by Civic Way. The house plots
would contain the house and associated
outbuildings, and perhaps a yard for
animals; the crofts would provide grazing,
or might be used for growing crops.
Between the house plots and the crofts
there was often a small back lane, and the
early plans suggest that a small vestige of
this survived until the 19th century. It was
not unusual for these little back lanes to
disappear over time, as at King’s Newton
which was another planned settlement.
If this locating of Swadlincote’s new town
is correct, then where was the original
“town”? A scatter of houses on the north
side of High Street, few in number, is
perhaps the most likely answer. Perhaps
further research will reveal further clues
about the new town and its creator.
The Common. The full extent of
Swadlincote and Gresley
commons is another subject that
would repay further study. There
are still houses on Russell Street
that began their lives as
encroachments on the common,
and it seems likely that the
common land swept in from the
south east right across what are
now Church Street and Belmont
Street.
The Village. Swadlincote village,
such as it was, seems to have
centred on Market Street, where
the survival of thatched buildings
is recorded in 1904 and in the
1930s. There were some properties
on the north side of High Street
too, but they were very sporadic.
Suggested reconstruction of Swadlincote in the 16th century.
•Street frontages as they were in 1901 are shown as dotted lines to help readers relate the map
to the present layout.
•Road names as in 1901 are shown in lower case.
Heritage News -8
“Out of sight, out of mind”
It is surprising, given that South Derbyshire is a fairly
small and rural district, that buildings of historic merit
previously unknown to us are still brought to our
attention from time to time. The latest example is a
modest late Georgian house at Stanton near Burton on
Trent, formerly known as the Shrubbery.
The Shrubbery is sited well off the road down a long
drive, and probably escaped the notice of the person employed
to revise the schedule of listed buildings in the Swadlincote
area in the 1980s.
The front of the house is nothing extraordinary in itself, but
overall there was clearly an attempt to do something special.
The backdrop of the house is provided by a prominent knoll,
formerly wooded, and it is given additional presence and
elegance by a pair of matching pavilions, linked to the main
house by curved wing walls with stone copings. The result is
a house that is eyecatching and distinctive in the landscape.
On the back of the house there is an apdisal staircase
projection, which contains the remains of a much-vandalised
geometric staircase.
Little is known at the moment about the history of the building,
but it appears to date from the early 19th century and has
fallen into a derelict condition over a long period. The house
came to the Council’s attention through a planning application
to alter and extend it, and the Council has asked English
Heritage to consider adding it to the listed buildings register.
A decision is expected shortly.
Sealwood Cottage, an intriguing folly-like house built
for occasional use by the Reverend Thomas Gresley of
Netherseal c1773, is another building that went unnoticed
during the listed building survey work of the 1980s. Its
architect appears to have been William Combes of Evesham,
about whom the editor has been unable to discover anything
further. It was designed to occupy a nook cut out of the edge
of the Gresleys’ Seal Wood, with an attractive rural view
towards Overseal, but the wood has long been felled and the
cottage today stands on an exposed spot.
It originally had a thatched roof and a huge circular chimney
(both now gone), and its outer skin is made of re-used timber
framing with brick infill panels. Inside there is a large ground
floor room with an inglenook fireplace, while the first floor is
occupied by a prospect room graced with a fine slate fireplace
and an original 18th century pull-out bed frame, concealed
behind the dado. The cellar is small, but fitted out with plenty
of arched brickwork niches for wine. Pointed gothic doorways
enhance the whimsical character of the building.
Sealwood Cottage became a Grade II listed building in 2004,
and there are current proposals to repair and extend it after
many years of neglect and deterioration. The sketch
reproduced here was published in 1946.
• Sealwood Cottage. Decay is already evident in this sketch,
• The Shrubbery at Stanton
published in the Burton Chronicle in December 1946.
(Courtesy of the Magic Attic.)
Friends of Sharpe’s show their support
When we set our objectives each year, we plan that at least 80% of the previous year’s Friends membership will renew their
subscriptions.
Subscriptions are payable on the 1st of April and we wrote inviting renewal after the middle of March. As I write these notes, in
mid April, just over 73% of last year’s Friends had already contributed for 2007/8.
That is a staggering result and shows how dedicated are the people who have signed up to supporting the celebration of South
Derbyshire’s industrial and social heritage. We are encouraged by, and very grateful for, this fantastic endorsement of what
Sharpe’s is doing.
The product must be about right to be attracting so many visitors and retaining so many of its Friends. Our mission for 2007/8
must be to increase member recruitment and spread the net even wider.
John Oake
Heritage News -9
Wakelyn Hall, Hilton
Wakelyn Hall at Hilton was for many years
concealed from public view behind a tall,
overgrown hedge. During recent repair works the
hedge was removed and the striking façade of this
important timber framed house was again clearly
exposed to view, once more inviting public
curiosity about its history.
After many years of neglect, a lot of repair work
has been undertaken at Wakelyn Hall, including part
replacement of some of the decorative timber
framing in the front elevation by WBM Restoration
of Lichfield. The house is currently being offered
either for sale or to let.
At a casual glance the house has a slightly false
appearance. The poorly-detailed modern windows and
Victorian slate roof produce an unconvincing effect and
suggest a house that has been excessively tinkered with.
Moreover, the style of timber framing is suspiciously
untypical of the region, and the net result is that one is
left wondering how much of this house is the real thing.
Closer investigation is more encouraging and reveals
that the alterations are superficial. Wakelyn Hall is in fact
a very genuine and little altered building. The timber
framing is indeed unusual but the design is original and
unchanged. The parlour wing at the west end was refitted in the early 19th century, and there has been fairly
extensive replacement of timber framing with brick, but
the structure is otherwise essentially intact.
So how old is it? The District Council recently
commissioned tree-ring dating exercises on the two most
striking timber-framed buildings in the district, i.e.
Wakelyn Hall and the Manor House at Hartshorne. Oak
for houses was traditionally used in its unseasoned or
“green” state, so if the felling date of the trees can be
established, the building of the house would have followed
within a year or two.
The results for Hartshorne are still awaited, but very good
results have been obtained for Wakelyn Hall, showing
that the timbers were felled in 1573. The date is a little
earlier than the early 17th century date which had been
expected. But the early 17th century date had been based
on ornamentation in the twin gables on the west front,
which were not tree-ring dated and could be additions.
This side overlooked the large garden, now built on, so
it is quite conceivable that gables might have been added
to the garden front to make a statement of it.
The tree ring dating is being undertaken by Robert Howard
of the Nottingham Tree Ring Dating Laboratory. We hope
to include the results of the Hartshorne exercise in the
next issue.
Being unromantic in my approach to history, I have
poured cold water on the idea that Mary Queen of Scots
visited Wakelyn Hall. Meanly, I hoped that the tree ring
exercise would prove that it was impossible because the
date was too late. However the romantic notion has a
reprieve, in theory at least, as Mary survived the axe for
another 14 years after the trees used for Wakelyn fell to
it.
Visitor Numbers through
the roof at Sharpe’s
Our target for 2006/7 was to achieve 36,000 visits to
the combined Museum & Tourist Information Centre.
We were delighted, therefore, when the year end
figure came out at 51,352, representing a year on
year increase of 42.6%.
The success of our combined Farmers’ Markets and
speciality fairs made a significant contribution to the
total, as we can usually count on approaching 500
people through the door on those days (over 3,000
for the two-day Christmas Fayre).
Another significant contribution comes from the use
of the Kiln Hovel as a small live performance venue.
Some 25 concerts a year produce between them
something like another 1,500 visits a year.
John Oake
Heritage News -10
WHAT’S ON AT SHARPE’S,
JUNE – SEPTEMBER 2007.
JUNE
Saturday 30th
Concert in the Kiln. Strawhead perform their distinctive mix of historical ballads
and songs in this intimate setting.
Tickets £7. Doors/bar opens 7pm – performance 7:30pm
JULY
Wednesday 4th
Antiques Valuation Day
Saturday 7th
Craft Fair – Hosted by Sharpe’s volunteers. Conference room and kiln. 10 – 2:30pm.
Contact Emma Ward at Sharpe’s Pottery museum on Tel 01283 222600 if you are
interested in a table.
Real Music in the Kiln presents Diesel Therapy & Landermason. Host Neil Dalton.
“Superb playing, wonderful vocals …and a good laugh to boot!” Tickets £9.
Doors/bar opens at 7:15pm – performance 8:00pm
Saturday 7th
Saturday 21st
Second Hand Book fair 10am – 2pm hosted by Sharpe’s volunteers
Saturday 21st
Farmer’s Market 10am – 2pm. Museum Courtyard, free admission.
AUGUST
Wednesday 1st
Antiques Valuation Day
Saturday 18th
Farmer’s Market 10am – 2pm. Museum Courtyard, free admission.
Saturday 18th
Second Hand Book fair 10am – 2pm hosted by Sharpe’s volunteers
6th – 31st August
150th anniversary of the Derbyshire Constabulary. A photographic and memorabilia
exhibition showing items from the Police collection usually housed at Buxton Museum
and Art Gallery. Conference Room Free entry.
SEPTEMBER
1st Sep -1st Oct
Coffee Shop exhibition. David Wright. Traditional Landscapes.
1st September –
29th September
Conference Room exhibition. Erica Brookes. Stylised Scenes
Wednesday 5th
Antiques Valuation Day
Saturday 15th
Farmer’s Market 10am – 2pm. Museum Courtyard, free admission.
Saturday 15th
Real Music in the Kiln presents Kerfuffle & Lucy Ward, host Neil Dalton. Tickets £9.
Doors/bar opens at 7:15pm- Performance 8:00pm
Saturday 15th
Second Hand Book fair 10am – 2pm hosted by Sharpe’s volunteers
Heritage News -11
‘Les the Rat’ joins Sharpe’s fundraising team
Money in the voluntary donations box at Sharpe’s has been dropping off a bit over the last two years, despite the increase in visits.
This suggests that either voluntary giving is getting a bit boring, or that the donations box is too easily missable with all that is going
on.
We decided to try and liven up the giving process with the idea of using one of our spare old toilet basins as a donations box, with
some sort of audible response to a coin being deposited.
The help of the Victorian Model Workshop at Staunton Harold craft outlet was enlisted to come up with a creative solution.
The result was a reconstruction of a ‘grungy outside loo’, with a resident rat ‘Les’ who emerges from his home in the pan and says
‘eeee ta me duck’ when a coin is put in the slot. We used a model loo in the end, as adaptation of an old original proved too
complicated.
We hope that Les is going to become firm friends with our visitors and wish him luck with his fund raising campaign.
John Oake
Modernising the Past
Anita Hollinshead is the new Museum Development Officer
(MDO) for Derbyshire. She is one of a new regional team of
Museum Development Officers in the East Midlands, with
counterparts in Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire,
Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Rutland. All are funded by
a programme appropriately called “Renaissance”, conjuring up a
vision of a string of “born-again-museums” across the region.
The name also evokes the wonder felt by late mediaeval Italian
scholars upon rediscovering the culture and wisdom of the
ancient past, and I assume that this connotation is quite
deliberate.
Collectively, the new band of MDOs hopes to change the lingering but
outdated perception of museums as dry and dusty places and promote
them as focal points of the local community, for learning, entertainment,
involvement and culture. Museums are no longer dominated by glass
cases filled with arcane objects labelled “do not touch”. Today’s
museums are increasingly geared towards the visitor experience, and
recognise the importance of maintaining a foothold and relevance in the
modern world.
“I’m not involved with a museum” you may be thinking. But Heritage
Groups such as local history and amenity societies may still find Anita
useful, as she is willing to provide guidance and advice to them on such
matters as funding, training, site interpretation, education and learning –
anything that furthers public participation in heritage.
Anita explains: “Renaissance is a Department for Culture Media and
Sport (DCMS) funded programme that aims to transform England’s
regional museums, making them world class and fit for the 21st century.
The current funding for the programme ends in 2008, but the
government will be asked to continue the funding and support the strides
that regional museums have made with the help of the funding to date.”
Anita is based at Buxton Museum & Art Gallery and she can be
contacted on 01298 24658, 07825 062012 (mobile) or e-mailed at
[email protected]. Her address is Anita Hollinshead, Museum
Development Officer (Derbyshire), Buxton Museum & Art Gallery,
Terrace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6DA. More information on the
Renaissance programme can be found at
www.renaissanceeastmidlands.org.uk
South Derbyshire Heritage News
is published by South Derbyshire District Council three times a year, usually around April/May (Spring/Summer issue), August/
September (Autumn issue) and December/January (Winter issue). It is circulated to all parish councils / meetings, amenity societies
and historical groups within South Derbyshire, and is also distributed to libraries and to local press contacts. We are always pleased
to advertise the work of local groups where possible, so please call us with any news for our next issue. The deadline for inclusion in
No. 26 (Autumn 2007) is Friday 17th August.
Contacts:
Philip Heath
Heritage Officer /
Editor of “Heritage News”
Marilyn Hallard
Design & Conservation
Officer
Emma Ward
Curator, Sharpes Pottery
tel: 01283 595936
fax: 01283 595850
e-mail: [email protected]
tel: 01283 595747
fax: 01283 595850
e-mail: [email protected]
tel/fax01283 222600
e-mail: [email protected]
The postal address is: Philip Heath, Heritage Officer, South Derbyshire District Council, Civic Offices, Civic Way, Swadlincote,
Derbyshire DE11 0AH. The District Council has a website at www.south-derbys.gov.uk, where “Heritage News” may be downloaded
in .pdf format.
Note: The non-editorial contributions to “Heritage News” reflect the views of their authors and may not necessarily coincide with
those of the District Council.
Heritage News -12