January 2002 | May 2002 | September 2002

January 2003 Newsletter

Programme
Victoria County History
Planning/Conservation Matters
Review of past activities
Hunter Archaeological Society
Derbyshire Archaological Society

Programme

The first meeting of 2003 on Thursday 23 January has Marjorie Dunn opening up Granny's Old Tin Box as one way of approaching local and family history. On 27 March Maureen Beniston and John Smith will report on their continuing research into Sheffield Theatres.

There is a change to the programme as printed in your membership card. It has been decided to hold an additional meeting on Thursday 24 April and to bring the Annual General Meeting forward to this date. This meeting will be held in the Dr. Fletcher room on the ground floor of the Peel Centre. As well as the business meeting there will be "an entertainment" so please come along.

The meeting on 22 May will have Carol Brindle, a local Blue Badge Guide, speaking on Famous Derbyshire People.

All meetings except for that on 24 April will be held as usual in the Edward Lucas Hall of the Peel Centre. Transport can be arranged if you have difficulty getting to meetings and if you would prefer to use the side entrance with its less steep staircase, please either contact a committee member beforehand or ask for assistance on the night.

The Society would like to thank the family of the late Major Ronald Moore of Hounscliffe, Unstone, for their generosity in donating to the Society a collection of photographs, documents and memorabilia mostly relating to Unstone.

Victoria County History

With the appointment of a part-time editor, work is just now beginning on the research necessary for the publication of further volumes of the Victoria County History of Derbyshire. As the Scarsdale Hundred is the first area to be examined which, of course, includes the parish of Dronfield, meetings have been held with the editor, Philip Riden, and one of his colleagues, Dudley Fowkes, who has visited the Slinn Gallery to see what documents we already possess which may be of use. One of the guiding principles of the VCH has been that an overall format has always been prescribed for county sets down to the contents of parish accounts within each volume, including sources to be used for each section of the accounts. The other guiding principle is that the text should be based as far as possible on primary evidence and Philip Riden is conducting a class at Chesterfield Library starting on 8 January with the aim of teaching people how to research and record such evidence in the prescribed format.

Some members have already signed up for this course and it is to be hoped that there may be others who are interested in participating in the compiling of this major record. Though our generation may not see its completion, it will be an outstanding legacy for those to come. To overcome the long term delay in book publication, however, completed material will be published in stages as a series of interim booklets and on the web - see www.englandpast.net

Planning/Conservation Matters

It is now generally known that "the supermarket" to be built on the Jowitt site at Wreakes Lane is to be a Sainsburys. While the battle against the whole project has been lost, the Society continues its vigilance, particularly over the future of the barn, and has written to the Chief Executive of Sainsburys to draw his attention to their acquisition of this historic building.

The Society also reacted to the North East Derbyshire 10 year District Plan which was made public in October and against which a campaign was mounted in the town. The intention to extend the Callywhite Lane industrial site as far as Halfacre Lane, including the site of the Summerley Coke Ovens, as well as removing the land on the opposite side of the road from the Green Belt for future housing drew an outcry. The fields earmarked for housing would not only mean continuous urban development from Dronfield into Chesterfield but would also obliterate the historic town fields, the vestiges of their hedge lines and gate openings being all that presently remain. Having registered objections, it will be some six months before the effect of the objections on the Council will be known.

At about the same time as the Summerley coke ovens have come under threat, English Heritage produced a detailed report on them having at long last carried out an extensive survey. They have earmarked £20,000 in their next financial year to carry out some work to prevent further deterioration. The coke ovens are recognised as of national importance in that there are only about two other examples left in the country of this particular type. Needless to say, English Heritage have made representations to NEDDC regarding their inclusion in the 10 year plan. (A copy of the English Heritage report is in the Slinn Gallery and if you would like to see it, please contact a member of the committee.)

Work seems to have started on the site of the former Butler's Foundry at the corner of Lea Road and Church Street, planning permission having been given for the construction of craft workshops and a bistro type restaurant. The line of original cottages is now more clearly revealed. While not entirely happy about the intended use, particularly its impact on traffic and parking, the Society will continue to keep an eye on the development.

Hot off the press from Derbyshire County Council, the Society has just received a detailed plan for the establishment of a trail along Mill Lane which will incorporate improvements to footpaths and the existing bridge, clearance of vegetation, restoration of walling including new walls, and the construction of a new bridge. The site of the old gas works is to be transformed into a woodland glade and the remains of the Damsted works will be more fully exposed. While there is some anxiety that this exposure may result in damage to the existing structures, the Society is pleased that this historic site is being recognised and transformed from its current wilderness state. Work is due to start in late February.

Review of past activities

The winter programme got off to a good start in September with a crowded meeting including many friends of the speaker, Mrs. Cynthia Ramsden, who is so well known for her involvement in local activities over many years and who has become even better known since she published her delightful book about her gardening life. Her earliest memories of gardens were of her grandfather's formal Victorian style at Aston Mount. In contrast, when she and her husband first moved to Fanshawgate Hall, the garden was the least of their worries as they had to restore a neglected house to a comfortable family home for their growing family. However, as the children became more independent, her interest and time available to concentrate on the garden, together with an immense amount of hard work and family cooperation and the assistance of a local lecturer, John Pitt, with a particular interest in historic gardens, have produced the really outstandingly beautiful garden of today which provides such a beautiful setting for the mellow old house.

For those who have not had the pleasure of visiting on an open day, there is a treat in store and the enjoyment of this year's visitors alone has raised the magnificent sum of nearly £4000 towards various charities. Thanks to the generosity of both the speaker and those present at the meeting, a donation was raised on the night of the meeting for the Oesophageal Patients Association.

At November's meeting John Clifford gave us a new look at the history of Eyam, his opening comment being that in the village the view is that the truth should never get in the way of a good yarn. He introduced us to some new angles such as the taylor who received the bundle of clothes thought to be the source of the infection was not a travelling man but a daily waged man who lodged not with a poor widow but with a wife of some means. The clothes could have been sold in London by the servant of a plague victim to provide patterns of the fashion of the day to a provincial taylor. Mr. Clifford also disputes records of the number of inhabitants of the village both before and after the plague period and proves his theory from his detailed analysis of parish registers. He also told us the intriguing tale of one of the parsons of the late 17th century who married a barmaid in the inn in what he possibly thought was only a mock ceremony at a party following a baptism. However, his bishop held him to it and he was threatened by a lawsuit for breach of promise by a young lady to whom he had been previously engaged. He and his wife sought sanctuary in the church from the long arm of the law and lived there for nineteen years raising a family and usefully occupying himself by transcribing the parish registers!

December's speaker was David Salt and he gave us his usual verbal tour de force! The title 'Dronfield Then' gave him a wide licence and he took us back to the town in the 1880s when Wilson Cammell had departed to Workington and the golden age of the 1870s was followed by a period of depression. Shops were closed, houses could be bought for £7.50 and property owners suffered as rents fell by half. However, it was only a small number of true Dronfeldians who moved to Workington and the 1891 census shows an increase of 900 people as other businesses made up for the loss of Cammell's attracted by the tradition of foundry working and mining which were to expand over the early decades of the twentieth century. Following a break for wine and mince pies, he brought us more up to date with some fascinating slides, particularly of the Gosforth Valley before the housing estate crept its way across the fields and woods and changed the landscape for ever.

Hunter Archaeological Society

Main Society Lectures held in the Arts Tower Lecture Theatre 9, Sheffield University at 7.30 p.m.

Tuesday 14 January "Caves and Bones" - Andrew Chamberlain, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Sheffield

Tuesday 11 February "The Evolution of the Wicker Viaduct and Victoria Station, Sheffield - Graham Hague

Tuesday 11 March Annual General Meeting at 7.00 p.m. followed by
"The Iron Age in the Shetland Islands" - Dr. Julie Bond and Steve Docktill, University of Bradford

Field Research Meetings at the Traditional Heritage Museum, next to Endcliffe Methodist Church, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield at 7.30 p.m.

Friday 7 February "Three courses on the ancient road"
Research on a medieval road west from central Sheffield - Derek Stapley

Friday 7 March Annual General Meeting at 7.00 p.m. followed by
"The Medieval Stained Glass of South Yorkshire" - Bryan Sprakes

Non members are welcome but a donation to Society funds would be appreciated

Derbyshire Archaological Society

also have a programme of lectures on Fridays at the Red Cross Centre, Liversage Street, Derby. Topics in the first quarter of 2003 include:

Looking for the Saxon Burgh of Derby; Vernacular Architecture of the Staffordshire Moorlands; Archaeology and the Museum Service (at the Derby Museum Gallery); the English Watch: 1580-1980; the Village of Walton on Trent; Swithland Slate Industry.

There is a combined DAS/WEA lecture on Friday 7 March at the University of Derby with Dr. Jenny Alexander - New Thoughts on Old Cathedrals.

The AGM of the Architectural Section on Friday 28 March is followed by a talk by Maxwell Craven on Hardwick's Heirs: the Smythsons and their legacy in and around Derbyshire.