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January 2006 Newsletter

A Happy New Year to all our members and we look forward to seeing you at Society meetings and events this year.

Programme
Review of Past Activities
Donations
Railway Map

Programme

The first talk of 2006 will be given by the eminent local historian and Dronfield resident, Professor David Hey who is speaking about the History of Stanage Moors and Rivelin Chase on Thursday 26 January. March's meeting on Thursday 23rd has Sheffield: Armourer to the Empire as its topic with Stewart Dalton as speaker.

The Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 27 April and the business meeting will be followed by Reg Hobson talking about the Brontë Connection with Hathersage. Colin Briggs, Dronfield born and bred, brings us up to date on his research into Mill Lane at the final meeting of the 2005/06 year on 25th May.

All 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. If you require transport to attend the meetings, please contact a committee member too.

The Peel Centre has been booked for the weekend of 10/11 June for this year's exhibition at which there will be a range of displays about various aspects of Dronfield's history. In particular George Platts will have on show some of his unpublished photographs. We have never charged an entrance fee for our exhibitions before but on this occasion we are making it a fundraising event for Ashgate Croft School for disabled children. There will be a minimum entry fee of £1, children under 16 free. We very much hope that Society members will give even more than their usual support to this worthwhile event.

Members will have seen in the local press that Sainsbury's have handed over the medieval barn in the High Street to the town. It is to be managed by the Peel Centre Trustees who held an open day when they asked for ideas as to the possible future use of the building. There has been a further meeting the Society is involved in these discussions. However, if any members have any suggestions either for its use or for fundraising, please contact Ann Brown.

The Society has commissioned a display cabinet to go in the Edward Lucas Hall at the Peel Centre. One of David Salt's last tasks for the committee was investigating the possibility of strengthening the existing cabinet or having a new cabinet made, so it would seem fitting that this should be a memorial to him and a suitable plaque will be placed on it. It is hoped that it will be ready for the March meeting.

Review of Past Activities

Pam Staunton, a Society member, got the autumn/winter season of talks off to a good start, sharing her enthusiasm for and considerable knowledge of Stainsby Mill with members. Pam has been a volunteer steward at the Mill for the National Trust for many years and researched and wrote the first guidebook. The Mill has an ancient history dating back over 700 years and there are traces in the present building that indicate a much older structure. It was acquired by Bess of Hardwick in the late 16th century and played an important role in the prosperity of the Cavendish estates. The tenancy of the mill tended to be handed on within a family and the miller was a valuable member of the community who farmed as well as providing a service to the locality. In the mid 19th century under the 6th Duke of Devonshire the mill was re-built and equipped with the 'modern technology' of the Victorian era which served for another century until the mill finally closed in 1952. It has now been fully restored and is well worth a visit.

November's meeting brought us Brian Edwards, well known local artist and writer of books about Totley, which was once part of Dronfield parish and used to have closer connections with Dronfield than it does today, even if these were not always very happy. When a hayrick caught fire on the night of Dronfield Feast one year, it was Dronfield Fire Brigade who were sent for - but they were a long time arriving and only then was it discovered they had hitched 3 horses and a cow to the fire wagon! When Brian moved to Totley, he bought an old derelict chapel which he converted into a house and began to draw other old buildings, in many cases creating a valuable record as not all have survived the onslaught of the developers. Totley is now known as a residential suburb but its roots are in farming with its reference in the Domesday Book relating to a controversy over grazing on the moor. In 1294 it was granted a market charter which included a cattle market and its water power from the Old Hay brook and Totley brook, which converge to become the Sheaf, led to the early development of mills for corn, as well as a leadmill and paper mill, traces of which can still be found. Brian also told us the story of the building of the Totley tunnel in the 1880s when a village including a smallpox hospital was built for the 700 navvies who struggled through the spongy ground and suffered many accidents in its construction. His talk was illustrated by his beautiful black and white drawings.

John Taylor's slides to accompany his talk on Derbyshire Curiosities were not always as easy to identify as Brian's drawings, not because of any lack of clarity but because not all were familiar scenes and even those easily recognised had unusual connotations. He ranged far and wide throughout the county and beyond and enlightened the audience with little known facts. Few (if any!) were aware that Chesterfield had a large number of French prisoners taken in the Napoleonic wars, officers being billeted in the Falcon Inn and paroled for good behaviour. Who knew that Tapton House is reputed to have a ghost seen around the garden and in the coach house? Are readers of Lady Chatterley's Lover able to recognise that Fritchley Manor was based on Sutton Scarsdale, (which had been visited by Hogarth as a guest of the Earl of Scarsdale)? Who might remember that Hardwick Hall was used as an airfield in the second world war with 65 aircraft based there and used by Special Air Operations in 1942? Famous names and places familiar and unfamiliar tripped off his tongue - serendipity indeed!

Donations

Mr. and Mrs. Brian Widdowson have kindly donated further minute books of governors' meetings of both Gladys Buxton School and Gosforth School and also notes about Unstone Parish and Unstone Parish Council written in 1967 by S.R. Gee, Clerk to Unstone Parish Council, for which the Society thanks them.

Railway Map

Did you say you would like to have a copy of the 1846 railway map? If so, please come forward! We had a number copied and they are on sale at any meeting for £5.00.