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September 2005 Newsletter

Annual General Meeting
Programme
Forthcoming Events
Review of Past Activities
Donations

Annual General Meeting

At the Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 28 April at 7.30 p.m. in the Edward Lucas Hall of the Peel Centre the existing committee was re-elected en bloc. Miss Cathy Kearns who was co-opted during 2004 and Mrs. Esmé Salt were elected new members. Committee members are:

Mrs. Ann Brown, Chair, Mrs. Margaret Mace, Secretary, Mr. David Axe, Treasurer, Mrs. J. Kendal, Membership Secretary, Mrs. Barbara Jones, Miss Judith Vernier, Miss Cathy Kearns, Mrs. Esmé Salt.

The committee would welcome help from someone interested in publicity, i.e. preparing posters and circulating them in the town as well as contacting the press etc.

Subscriptions (£4.00 per person) were due from 1 April and, if you have not renewed yours, a slip to the membership secretary is enclosed. Please include a stamped addressed envelope for return of your membership card.

Programme

We are pleased that it is a member of the society who is the speaker at our opening meeting of the winter season on Thursday 22 September. Pam Staunton will talk about Stainsby Mill, where she has been a volunteer for the National Trust for over ten years and also wrote the guide book. Brian Edwards, a well known local historian and artist is to speak on the History of Totley on Thursday 24 November and the pre-Christmas meeting on Thursday 8 December will be enlivened by John Taylor telling us about the Curiosities of Derbyshire.

All these meetings take place at 7.30 p.m. in the Edward Lucas Hall of the Peel Centre which is now accessible by stair lift via the fire escape stairs to the left of the main entrance. Please ask a committee member for access either before or at the meeting.

Forthcoming Events

Members will have seen in the local press that the Peel Centre Management Trust have taken ownership of the barn on High Street from Sainsburys. There is to be an Open Day on Sunday 18 September so do go and have a look round and see what is being proposed for this historic building.

Philip Riden, county editor of the Victoria County History of Derbyshire, is giving an illustrated talk on ‘The Making of Georgian Chesterfield’ in the lecture theatre at Chesterfield Library on Wednesday 28 September at 7.00 p.m.

There is to be a Family and Local History Fair at the Winding Wheel in Chesterfield on Saturday 15 October from 10.00 – 4.00 p.m. sponsored by BBC Radio Sheffield in partnership with Derbyshire Libraries and Chesterfield Borough Council. It will be an information day with interactive displays, workshops and entertainment during the day and BBC Radio Sheffield will be broadcasting ‘live’ from the event. The Society will be represented and it could be a lively and useful day for those interested in pursuing their family history.

Review of Past Activities

After the serious business of the AGM, members divided into teams for a lively quiz based on place names within a 20 mile radius of Dronfield with some cunning clues and anagrams! The winning team went home each with a fistful of chocolate bars to sweeten their evening.

The May meeting had a change from the advertised speaker who was replaced by Jonathan Wallis talking about the eighteenth century soldier and antiquarian, Major Hayman Rooke, whose drawing of Dronfield Church has recently been printed as a postcard and card by the Society. It is perhaps little known that the Major Oak (or the Major’s Oak) in Sherwood Forest was so designated because it was Hayman Rooke who first drew attention to its antiquity. Following his retirement from army service he devoted his life to researching and recording natural landscape features, fossils and ancient buildings in an era when such things were just beginning to be regarded as of interest and importance.

The weekend of 11/12 June was devoted to an exhibition in the Peel Centre with the theme of Wartime. The Society was extremely grateful for the generosity of many people who loaned treasured items to be put on display along with documents and photographs from its own collection. The display case housed David Salt’s uniform in fine condition together with photographs and a tribute and obituary to record the war career about which, typically, he spoke so rarely. There was a constant flow of visitors throughout both days, more than for any previous exhibition, which made all the efforts in putting it on very worth while. Our sincere thanks to all those who lent items for display and so contributed to its success.

Ann Brown was unfortunately unable to lead the walk through Dronfield as planned on 30 June. However, on a fine evening, Jean Kendal made a splendid substitute and conducted around 15 interested people from the Library down to Dronfield bottom by the station, returning via the Lea Brook Valley.

The Society was blessed again with fine weather for its all day outing on 9 July to Worksop. Setting off from Dronfield station at 9.00 a.m. the coach deposited the party at Worksop Library which had its own wartime exhibition which made for an interesting comparison with ours. Some people managed to fit in a quick cup of coffee, served by headscarved ladies in best 40s style before setting off with our guide, Margaret Carter. We soon reached the Priory church where Ann Brown had arranged for the vicar to give us a lightning tour of this amazing Norman foundation with its later additions right up to the twentieth century and which warranted more time than was available. Then it was onward round the streets of Worksop amongst the Saturday morning shoppers which sometimes made it difficult to catch all the guide had to say. Soon after midday it was back on the coach and off to Mr. Straw’s house where timed groups had been booked between 12.30 and 1.30. We had already seen the site of the provisions shop run by the family and now explored this time capsule of the late 30s left to the National Trust. After a picnic lunch in the shade if you were lucky enough to get the right seat in the car park area, it was off again to Worksop Manor Lodge, a Smythson house and all that remains of the Worksop Manor estate, now in private ownership. Here we were made welcome and, having admired the fine exterior, were taken inside to see what would have been the original entrance hall at first floor level, now a homely sitting room, and the two-storey high banqueting hall with a huge table seating at least twenty. One of the younger members of the household finds this an ideal indoor skateboard park in winter!

From there, the last call of the day was to the Dukeries Garden Centre and Harley Gallery where most concentrated on refreshments rather than horticulture or art before collapsing back into the coach arriving back around 5.00 p.m. after what can only be described as an action-packed day, enhanced by glorious summer weather.

Donations

Mrs. Esmé Salt has kindly donated the tape recorder that David used for oral history interviews. At the exhibition the Society was also given various photographs and documents for copying and keeping and thanks are due to all those generous people.