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September 2009 Newsletter

Annual General Meeting
Old Dronfield Society Meetings
Dronfield Heritage Trails
Review of Past Activities
Can you help?
News roundup

Welcome back to the new season at the ODS. We hope you all had an enjoyable summer break despite the weather! Finally during August we had some brighter days which were very welcome. Perhaps we will have a very late Indian summer!

Notice of Annual General Meeting

At the A G M held on the 23 April, the officers and committee members were elected for a year. Barbara Jones is also on the committee for a further year. Margaret Mace, together with Pat and Barbara agreed to help with tea and coffee. We are still short of committee members and would be grateful if anyone would like to volunteer. You only need a few free hours a month. Please contact Cathy for details.

Please note that our meeting in January should be on the 28th and not the 25th as stated in the programme. Sorry for the confusion.

Old Dronfield Society Meetings

Our meetings for the new season which Pat has arranged should be entertaining for everyone.

24 Sept - The Silver Toast Rack - Mrs Jean Henshore. A tale from World War 11.
26 Nov - North Derbyshire Pubs - Jim McIntosh. Find out more about your local.
10 Dec - A Ramble Around My Life - Marjorie Dunn. History of Puppets. A fun talk before Christmas.
28 Jan - Dronfield Children in 1891 - Ruth Gordon. How they lived in the good old days.

All meetings take place at 7.30 p.m. in the Edward Lucas Hall of the Peel Centre which is 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.

Dronfield Heritage Trails

As soon as the maps in both the books have been sorted out to our satisfaction they will be on sale. Sorry for the delay, but they are worth waiting for! A big "thank you" to all who have donated towards the booklets.

Review of Past Activities

There was a good turnout on 25 March for Graham Walker's illustrated talk about CAUDWELL'S MILL at Rowsley where he is manager and a Trustee having been involved in the project for the last 30 years. John Cauldwell built the present mill in 1874 on a site leased from the Haddon estate where there had already been 2 mills in operation. It remained in the hands of the family until 1978 when Sandy Caudwell closed it down when increased charges made the mill too costly to run. The Arkwright Society coordinated the creation of a charitable trust and after refurbishment milling started again in 1980. It runs at weekends, producing 5 tons of flour a day with a range of 31different flours for customers, both wholesale and retail. The mill also has strong educational purpose and local school children tend a grain garden and then follow the whole process through to making their own flour. (Thanks to Judith Vernier for her help in writing this piece).

On the 23 APRIL following the A G M Janet Stain gave a highly amusing talk about knickers! KNICKERS A BRIEF HISTORY. She had us all laughing with her cheeky talk and seeing all sorts of knickers waving in the air. She explained that underwear only started being used about 200 years ago and if you wore it were considered to be lewd, indecent and a lady of ill repute. Just think of those cold winters! Knickers came into being because of crinoline hoop skirts and saved a girls reputation. Janet showed all kinds of knickers from navy blue school ones, with a pocket for your hanky, to those made from parachute silk from World War 11. Janet tried to buy a pair of Queen Victoria's knickers to add to her collection but, sadly, these went at auction for £4500!!

Tony Marsh should have given a talk about Samuel Plimsoll MP on 28 May, but due to technical difficulties we had to cancel it. Peter Hawkins kindly stepped in and gave a talk about MARKHAM'S WORKS in CHESTERFIELD. It all began in 1836 with a John Oliver who was a blacksmith, built the foundry business up and sold to Charles Paxton Markham in 1889. Markham's became one of Chesterfields leading exporters for almost a hundred years largely from their Broad Oaks Works beside the river Rother. Completed precision engineered goods were sent all over the World. There was a Markham built piece of precision engineering in almost every major project in the world throughout the 20thC. Projects such as submarines, landing craft for the Admiralty, tunnel boring machines for the Channel Tunnel and gigantic water turbines for hydro electric power stations in New Zealand, Australia, India and many more countries. Markham's never once had a late completion date and always delivered on schedule. This was something Markham's was very proud about.

On 6 -7 July we held our exhibition THE OUTLYING VILLAGES OF THE ANCIENT PARISH OF DRONFIELD. This was well attended and hugely enjoyed by our visitors and Mayor. We had other stalls and information from Totley, Dore, Coal Aston and Dronfield FHS. As usual we had many interesting photographs to look at and think about! Many thanks to all who contributed and helped to make the exhibition as good as it was! We also thank Ann Brown who organised the exhibition, Margaret Mace and helpers for the teas, Pat Mooney for the scones and to Roger Howe and all those who helped put up and take down the stands. It's never an easy job!

Can you help?

Pat Mooney has a very unusual query about her mother Alice Green. Alice went into service in approx 1933, aged 14 and worked for a (?) Mrs Allen who lived somewhere in Dronfield. Mrs Allen had a parrot. This should strike a chord with someone! Does anyone know who this lady was and where she lived please? Contact the society if you can help.

News roundup

We have decided to keep our members' yearly subscriptions the same but increase the visitors' fee to £2.00 a meeting. This is only a small increase and worth every penny!

The Chair, Archivist and President went to Derby on 13 July to the new Roundhouse Campus at Derby College for the launch of the East Midlands Heritage at Risk Register. They travelled from Dronfield station to Derby Station and luckily the Roundhouse Campus is next to Derby Station! Railway enthusiasts among us would be interested to see the restoration of the Roundhouse.