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September 2008 Newsletter

Annual General Meeting
Exhibition
40th Anniversary Celebration
Information
Review of Past Activities
Can Anyone Help?

Annual General Meeting

At the A G M the new 5 year rule was explained. Esme Salt and Margaret Mace resigned. Ann Brown was re-elected as Chair, David Axe as Treasurer and Jean Kendal as Membership. Committee members re- elected -Barbara Jones, Cathy Kearns, Pat Mooney. Aimee Green was elected to the committee. Pat Mooney volunteered to be Programme Secretary. A new secretary is still needed to attend committee meetings a few times a year, take minutes, type them and distribute to committee members. We also receive a small amount of correspondence and this would be dealt with by the secretary. All help would be given to the secretary when starting. As you can see this job is now split in half with less work to do for the new secretary. At the moment Ann Brown is dealing with the correspondence, but she does not want to do this long term. Please help, a club does not run on its own. Help with refreshments has been kindly offered by Barbara Jones, Margaret Mace and Pat Mooney.

Exhibition

Our exhibition was held on the 7-8th June 08 at the Peel Centre. This was to show members and friends about our new Heritage Trail booklets. Much interest was shown and was very successful as an exhibition. Unfortunately, we didn't get a large turnout of members which was disappointing.

40th Anniversary Celebration

On the evening of the 5th July 08 we had an entertaining and happy time celebrating the O. D. S. 40th birthday! The raffle was a great success and even though we had a small number of members present we enjoyed the singing of the Dronfield Light Operatic Society and the buffet. We again say a big "Thank You" to Dronfield Light Operatic Society for an enjoyable medley of songs.

Information

NEW SEASON OF OLD DRONFIELD SOCIETY MEETINGS.
25TH SEPTEMBER 08. The winter season of meetings starts with a talk about Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site by Adrian Farmer.
27TH NOVEMBER 08. Jill Sparrow gives a talk about The Search for Mary Kinder.
11TH DECEMBER 08. Victorians and the Christmas Season by Danny Wells.
All three talks sound entertaining!

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.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Sat. 27 Sep 08 (10am to 4pm) Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School - new building. A Festival of Leisure. This event is being run by the Rotary Club.
Sun. 05 Oct 08 (10am to 3pm) Dronfield Library. Focusing on local history and trails.
Sun. 02 Nov 08 (10am to 4pm) Local History Fair at the Winding Wheel, Chesterfield.

DRONFIELD HERITAGE TRAILS Our two new booklets are still ongoing and will be published as soon as possible. Hopefully, they will be ready for at least one or more of the events stated above where we will be able to promote them.

PHOTOGRAPHS We require photos of Shentalls shop. If you would like to donate any photos you have or if you wish to keep your copy/ copies we would photocopy and return your photo/ photos to you. If you have any old photos of Dronfield these would be gratefully received and dealt with in the same way. Contact or see any committee member or bring the photos to the next meeting. Thank You.

Review of Past Activities

On March 27th Mervyn Allcock gave an informative and entertaining talk about Barrow Hill Roundhouse. He is the founder member of the Barrow Hill Engine Shed Society and General Manager. The Roundhouse was built in 1869 and took a year to build at the cost of £16,234 9s 6d. In its heyday over 200 enginemen would sign in everyday to take coal to the industrial centres of Derbyshire and beyond. This 14 acre site once supported the freight locomotives which served Staveley Iron and Coal works. Railways declined and in time the site closed and in Feb. 1991 British Rail wanted to sell the land. Luckily, just days before the demolition of the buildings Mervyn managed to get the site listed. The place needed to be saved, but due to red tape between 1991 and 1996 the place fell into dereliction. Rubbish had been dumped there, tiles, copper, and even track had been stolen. There had also been much vandalism. Then at last in 1997 Mervyn and a small band of enthusiasts managed to obtain grants of £350,000 and the big clean up and restoration began! The Roundhouse engine turntable was made workable by 1998. The turntable is basically used for repairing and fixing engines under cover. At one time there were 300 turntables in Great Britain. Barrow Hill has the last surviving operational Roundhouse engine shed. The turntable is 55 feet plus, and is housed in a shed the size of a football pitch! In 1997 collections of steam/ diesel trains were brought to the yard for safe keeping. To generate money a charge was made per foot for each engine. Years ago engines could be bought for £2-£3,000- each. Now some are worth £30,000. At present Barrow Hill have one of the biggest collection of trains in the country second only to the National Railway Museum. It is a working depot where trains are serviced and repaired from Monday to Friday. 18 and 19 year old apprentices are learning repair work and opening up new careers. Barrow Hill is a local tourist attraction with major support from Chesterfield Borough Council over the years. Historical buildings on site have been restored and others will be rebuilt. If you wish to visit or find out about open days and forthcoming events at Barrow Hill you may phone the office on 01246 472450. There is also a website - http://www.barrowhill.org.uk.

After the A G M on April 24th Dennis Clarebrough gave an interesting talk about Sport in Dronfield and sport in general one hundred and fifty years ago. He explained that our grandparents wouldn't have understood all the interest in sport and how this can now dominate newspapers, radio, and television. Field sports as such didn't feature much in the lives of ordinary folk. There would be a column in the newspapers which would tie in with gambling and betting at that time. To pass the time and amuse there would be music and dancing. Country folk in isolated communities would have local games such as Cumberland wrestling, skittles, quoits, tug of war, sack races, chasing a greasy pig and cock fighting. Chesterfield had their first horse race meeting in 1776. Betting was on a massive scale when one rich man would bet against another rich mans champion pugilist. Crueller sports of bull baiting, badger baiting and cock fighting were starting to wane in the countryside, but dog fighting was still about. By the 19c an even greater move to sport came about. Village cricket was played on the green on summer evenings: and with the coming of the railway sport was changed forever. People were able to move around and the names of Wanderers, Rovers, Strollers were given to football teams. Sheffield could play Chesterfield, Rotherham or Nottingham. It was only in 1870 that teams could play Dronfield when the line opened. It was said that the opposition didn't like to play at Dronfield due to poor facilities; probably unable to wash after a game and the pitch on Hill Top Common! The Victorians were the driving force behind sport. They defined rules and there was a code of conduct. With the world wide trade they were able to take sport and particularly football to far away places. As you know Dronfield has the oldest football club in the world established in 1857 and is called Sheffield Football Club. At first professional men met in the wintertime and played football to keep fit. With the new rules, and where previously football was brutal, a more civilised game came about with eleven men in each team and not one hundred and fifty plus!

Suzanne Bingham gave an interesting talk on "Edward Carpenter of Millthorpe" on May 22nd. Edward Carpenter was born in Brighton in 1844. He was a pioneering socialist and radical thinker. The way he lived his life was the essence of his message. He lived modestly spreading his word by personal contact. He was said to be charismatic and his ideas extremely influential during the early years of the Socialist movement in Britain. Carpenter went to Cambridge University in 1864, and then for a short time was a curate also in Cambridge. He went to live at Millthorpe in 1882 following the death of his parents who left him a large inheritance. In 1890 he travelled to Ceylon and India to discover more about Hindu thinking. It was there he first saw the sandal and arranged to have some made back home! Suzanne told a fascinating story of the many well known friends and admirers who visited Carpenter who enjoyed talking and entertaining his many friends such as W.B. Yeats, John Galsworthy, H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw. Some of his friends even built houses nearby; they so enjoyed their discussions! It was at Millthorpe that his homosexuality had more freedom to be explored and discussed. He had lovers and his eventual long time partner was George Merrill. With the conventional morality at that time he remained circumspect in his home and they were, on the whole, undisturbed by scandal. They were together for 40 years and during that time Carpenter wrote about homosexuality, pollution, vegetarianism; some of the items we are dealing with today. In 1922 Carpenter and Merrill moved to Guildford, Surrey. They died there in 1929 and 1928 respectively.

Can Anyone Help?

We have received a request from Dave Hardy asking for information about the 1890 Dronfield Squadron Air Cadets. Dave Hardy is Instructor 1890 Dronfield Squadron and is currently researching the squadron which was formed in 1941.He requires any material, knowledge about the Cadets e.g. where they were located from the 1940's to 60's. Jean Kendal has referred him to our Miscellany No 10 where the hut is pictured which may be of use. Can anyone else help with his enquiries? You can reach Dave Hardy on djhardy@tiscali.co.uk

Pat Mooney would like to thank Janet Dethick for giving her information about Cubley. Pat would also like to know if anyone has a connection to the WARD family surname in the Homesfield area. She wants to find out how and why her mother had some details about a Ward family.

Club members seeking information about people or places in Dronfield or the local area can include requests in subsequent newsletters -just contact any of the committee members.