Discovering Cromford Canal ……. walks in the Lea Woods ….. no. 2

I collect canals, and today it is the Cromford Canal.

The canal, 2024

It was opened in 1794 and just two centuries later “was acquired by Derbyshire County Council as an Amenity Waterway”.

According to my Priestly’s account of the “Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, Throughout Great Britain”, it was “eighteen miles in length” passed the Codnor Park  and Butterley Iron Walks, traversed the Rivers Amber, Erewash and Derwent and disappeared into several tunnels, before being joined by the Cromford and High Peak Railway just half a mile from Cromford.

Had I been transporting goods in 1830 along the canal I would have been charged “1d per ton per mile for coal, coke, lime and limestone intended to be burnt into lime, and 1½d for iron, iron-stone, lead and other minerals , marble, alabaster, and other stone and timber”.

The canal, 1830

We walked just a short section from the former railway station before turning down a footpath which follows the Lea Brook.

The Pumping Station, 2024

But in that short distance we encountered heaps of industrial buildings, including a Pump House, several outbuildings and plenty of ruined structures, all of which are now part of the collection.

Water and green stuff, 2024

Long ago our bit of the canal to the footpath and been drained and nature in the form of trees and bushes and taken over, but in places the water reappeared and along its length there was still evidence of the stone embankments.

Added to which across the length of the walk there was an abundance of wild garlic which fascinated our Arlo who at 5 was full of harvesting as much as he could.

It is a popular "water amenity" and on a bright warm sunny spring day it was fun meeting a host of walkers along with the couple who oblivious to all of us sat and exchanged a long lingering kiss.

So another to add to the my book of canals, and despite its peaceful appearance this would have been a working canal which terminated not far from Arkwright’s spinning mill which had been opened just 23 years earlier.

And so that is it.

Location; Lea Woods, Cromford

The kiss, 2024

Pictures; walking the canal, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and a section of the Cromford Canal, 1830 from Bradshaw’s The Inland Navigation of England and Wales, 1830,  courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

One of many forgotten buildings, 2024

*Priestly, Joseph, “Navigable Rivers and, Canals, and Railways, Throughout Great Britain, 1830

Chasing down the mystery ……. walks in the Lea Woods ….. no. 1

Take one holiday home which clearly has heaps of history possibly back to old King George 111, throw in a wall and a ruined fireplace in the lane opposite and here is a bit of mystery well worth looking into.

Bits of the holiday home, 2024

The holiday home was one of those grey Derbyshire stone buildings set on three floors with a modern extension facing the Lea Brook just outside Cromford.

Forgotten fireplace, 2024

The wall juts out from the side of the house and still has two large stone iron hinges along with a hole to accommodate a lintel while opposite there is the remains of a fireplace.

All of which suggests that our holiday let was once part of a bigger structure which stretched across the lane and incorporated the fireplace.

But as ever the devil is in the detail and maps going back to the late 1870s show no such structure.  Instead in 1879 there is a suggestion that it did extend ever so slightly into the lane, but that is it.

As for the fireplace that might have been part of a series of out buildings which formed a large complex which had been a hat works but by the time the OS staff had surveyed the area in 1879 it had become disused.

And by the 1920s while elements of the former hat works remained in situ, the building that might have housed our fireplace had gone. 

Although the 1924 OS and later 1938 map show that the holiday home retained what I guess was a smaller addition. *

Lea Brook, 1896

So, the mystery as yet is still a mystery.

My directories for the area start and finish either side of the start of the 19th century, and the earliest map from National Library of Scotland date from 1879.

More of the holiday home, 2024

If I lived closed to Cromford I could search out the local studies centre, and appeal to the history association, but that for now is it.

But I have the census returns for the 19th and early 20 centuries which with time will lead to the residents of our holiday home, and perhaps more.

And just after I posted my old chum Bill Summers drew attention to the wo pictures of the house commenting on the the wall with the chimney pot, and I realized that I hadn't included the end wall with the iron brackets and lintel hole.

Now, given that the iron brackets aren't easy to see, I left it out but here it is with the hole that once would have been occupied by a lintel.

Leaving me just tp wait for someone from Cromford with access to the archives.

Location; Lea Bridge, Cromford

Pictures; of our holiday home, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and detail of the OS Map, 1896 from courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

The wall with the lintel hole, 2024

*National Library of Scotland,  https://maps.nls.uk/view/101601063

Walking a ghost ………… looking for lost railway stations

Hindlow, Hurdlow, Parsley Hay, and Alsop en le Dale are names that call up images of a sleepy rural past.

Along the route, 2019

And once along time ago they were just a train ride away.

Encountering others, 2019

I should know, because yesterday we visited them, along with Hartington, Tissington, and Thorpe Cloud.

One is a collection of eight homes although it does have its own Norman church.

Another has the pub, while the last we encountered still has a fine stately home, built in the 17th century and owned by a family who may have come over with the Conqueror.

What they all have in common was a railway line, built in the last decade of the 19th century, connecting Buxton to Ashbourne.

The wonder is that it was ever built, because this bit of the Peak District was sparsely populated and remained so.

But the line was a lifeline and at its peak six trains a day ran from Buxton to Ashbourne, carrying passengers, minerals, milk and farm produce.

And in the winter it offered a vital link for the villages and hamlets along the way who might other wise struggle when the snow fell.

As far as you can see, 2019

In 1901 one train which was derailed, remained marooned for three days after a heavy snow storm blocked the line, leaving the crew to be fed by local farmers.

But rail closures are, and were no respecter of communities and ours closed to passengers in 1954, although special excursions were still allowed until 1963, but after that there were no more.

Finally, the line was bought by the County Council and has become a route for walkers and cyclists, commanding fine views across the fields and once past the busy roads, you are plunged into a silent place, interrupted only by the sound of birds.

The route runs through old cuttings, where the trees and the high rock sides seal you in, while at other points the old track is carried on an embankment which offers up perfect views for miles.

And along the way, there can still be found relics of its old railway past, from level markers denoting the gradient to obscure bits of concrete whose function is lost but which will once have done the business of keeping the trains running.

Alsop en le Dale railway station, circa 1959s

It is easy to get lost in what there is, which at one point included a bunch of stray sheep which had escaped from a neigbouring field, but for me it was the tracks railway past, now just a paragraph in a tourist guide, with one of those faded and slightly blurred old pictures which mean little unless like us you have done that walk.

Location; Derbyshire

Pictures; the Tissington Trail, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Alsop en le Dale, railway Station, from the collection of J.Wallace Sutherland of Davenport, http://sutherland.davenportstation.org.uk/aaprint/man.html#70-01

Alsop en le dene …………… looking for stories

Some places don’t change over much across the centuries.

Alsop en le dene in Derbyshire, is one of them.

It is a hamlet of just eight homes, and while it can boast a Norman church, it has no pub and has lost its post office.

And you might well drive through it without giving it a second glance, and that would be a shame because there has been a settlement here from before the Doomsday Book.

And as you do, I have been drawn to digging into its past, for no particular reason other than I can and of course that on going fascination for those small rural communities on the edge of bigger things at a time when Britain was going through the Industrial Revolution.

As ever the starting point are the eight census returns from 1841to 1921, along with the parish records.

Together they offer up a wealth of information about the families of Alsop en len dene, from their occupations, places of birth to the age distribution of the community and along the way reveal a few secrets of the lives behind the doors.

For me it is one of those interesting comparisons with Chorlton-cum-Hardy which in the middle decades of the nineteenth century was still a small rural community just 4½ miles from Manchester.

Of course, Alsop en len dene was much smaller, consisting of just forty-six people compared to Chorlton’s 750 inhabitants, and there are other differences.

The vast majority of those engaged in farming in Chorlton were market gardeners looking to provide food for the city’s markets, while in our hamlet there were just three farms of varying size which employed all of the fourteen agricultural labourers.

And unlike Chorlton where the population was drawn from across the UK, in Alsop en le dene only three of the forty-six were not born on Derbyshire or the neighbouring county of Staffordshire.

Added to which of the thirty-one from Derbyshire, eight were born in the hamlet with another twelve from nearby villages.

None of which is a surprise.

The fun will be to track the residents over the eighty years from 1841 through to 1921, charting who went and who stayed, and what if anything changed in the occupations of those who lived there.

A glance at later returns show that the coming of the railway in the 1890s offered up one new occupation, and in turn may have allowed others to look for work in Ashbourne and Buxton which were the two towns at either end of the railway line.

I suspect that at the end of the study we will be left with that knowledge that not a lot changed in Alsop en le dene.

But the stories are there like Francis and Millicent Austen who were married in the neigbouring village of Tessington in 1850 and were in one of the cottages in the hamlet the following year.

He was an agricultural labourer aged 34 and she was eight years younger, had been a servant and had a son born out of wedlock.  I doubt that Francis was the father given that in 1851 the boy retained his mother’s maiden name and did so throughout his life.

By 1861 the family had moved on leaving others to continue the story of the hamlet.

Location; Alsop le dene

Pictures; Alsop le dene, in 1851 & 2019 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Young Helen Taylor….. an embroidered sampler …. and heaps of twists and turns

I am looking at the embroidered sampler made by Helen Taylor in 1834.

The sampler 1834

It is a beautiful piece of work, and she was sufficiently proud of her accomplishment to add her name and age.

As befitted a work which also carries an image of the village church in Dore it is heavy with religious messages.

It belongs to Ron Marsden whose direct ancestor was Helen, and it has been handed down through the female side of his family.

It is a treasured possession taking him back 189 years to that young girl and the small village of Dore which was in Derbyshire but is now a suburb of Sheffield.

And what particularly stands out for Ron is the verse, “This world is a city full of crooked streets

Death is the marketplace were all men meets

If life was a merchandise that sold would buy

The rich would live and the poor must die”.

Like the other verses there is that emphasis on the purity of the world to come but perhaps also a challenge to the existing social order.

And that got me looking for it’s origins.  It appears on at least one other sampler from the North of England just four years earlier,* and appears on an 17th century gravestone.**

But the first two lines are from The Two Noble Kinsmen written in 1634 by William Shakespeare in collaboration with John Fletcher.  It is described as a tragicomedy but reading the plot summary along with the first scene I think we are into heavy nastiness, but we shall see.**

Baptism, 1822

So far, I know very little about Helen.  She was born in 1822 and baptised in the church for which she made the sampler.  

Her parents were Isaac and Sarah and she had four siblings.  Mr. Taylor described himself as a “saw grinder” on the 1841 census and the absence of Sara on the same census suggest she may have died.  And given that the youngest of the children had been born in 1830 it may well be that if Sarah had died it will have been after that date.

As for Helen apart from the record of her baptism and her appearance on the 1841 census there is as yet no more official records of her existence.

The family in 1841

But Ron thinks she may have been married and may have died in child birth, and there isa reference to a Helen/Ellen Taylor dying in Ecclesall Bierlow in 1854.

As yet I can't find exactly where the Taylor's lived in Dore, but I know that the siblings continue to turn up in the historic records.

So the twist and turns continue.

Location, Dore, Derbyshire

Picture; Helen Taylor's sampler, 1834, from the collection of Ron Marsden

*Ann Carbutt, https://scarlet-letter.com/product/ann-carbutt/

**James Handley's Grave Stone, James Handley's, http://www.redmilearchive.freeuk.com/handley.html

***The Two Noble Kinsmen, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Noble_Kinsmen

Always look behind the trees …….. on discovering a dam

Even though we knew that the holiday stay was close to the Howdon Dam, nothing quite prepared us for just how close.

It was just a handful of yards from the back of the converted bar to the dark yellowy grey walls which rose impressively into the sky. 

My Wikipedia tells me that “The Howden Reservoir is a Y-shaped reservoir, the uppermost of the three in the Upper Derwent Valley, England. 

The western half of the reservoir lies in Derbyshire and the eastern half is in Sheffield, South Yorkshire; the county border runs through the middle of the reservoir, following the original path of the River Derwent. The longest arm is around 1+1⁄4 mi (2.0 km) in length. 

The reservoir is bounded at the southern end by Howden Dam; below this, the Derwent flows immediately into Derwent Reservoir and subsequently the Ladybower Reservoir. Other tributaries include the River Westend, Howden Clough and Linch Clough.

Work commenced on the dam's construction on 16 July 1901 and completed in July 1912. The chief engineer was Edward Sandeman. 

He was also in charge of building nearby Derwent dam and was awarded the Telford Medal in 1918 for his work "Derwent Valley Waterworks". 

The works involved constructing a temporary village at Birchinlee, or "Tin Town", for the workers, a temporary railway line from the main line at Bamford, construction of a link aqueduct to the Derwent Dam. 

The dam is of solid masonry construction, and 117 ft (36 m) tall, 1,080 ft (330 m) long, and impounds 1,900,000 imp gal (8,600 kl) of water, from a catchment area of 5,155 acres (2,086 ha). 

The workers who died during the construction of the dam were buried in St John the Baptist's Church, Bamford".*

Our hosts told us that the converted barn had operated as a railway station which seemed a tad improbable but quite clearly it made sense as the "workman’s" railway ran just a  minute’s walk from where we stayed.

All of which also put me in my place, as I had wandered off thinking who would build a passenger railway lime here and why.

And so as ever history met the holiday assisted by the ever reliable Wikipedia.

Location; Beavers croft, Howden Dam, Derbyshire

Pictures; Beaverscroft, Howden Dam, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Everyone should have a dam ……… along with some history …. and a pot of Senegalese spiced fish stew and rice

 It started as a holiday but as so often happens it slid into a story and not just one story.

The barn and the dam, 2023

We were spending a few days in Derbyshire just a little north of Bamford hard up against the Howdown Dam.

The accommodation was a converted 17th century barn, which could sleep eight, has its own Facebook site and is pretty remote. * 

Having left the main road we followed the line of the reservoir, edging ever higher and deeper into the forest.  

Woods  and water, 2023

And we had been  warned we might encounter closed gates which would only be accessed by a code and yes we did get lost for a short while before realizing that this particular closed gate was not our closed  gate.

Still we arrived safely, were met by Abe and Pippa who own and maintain the barn along with their impressive farm house which sit in 2 acres of land, and in turn lead off into heaps of walks along the reservoirs and surrounded by tall trees.

The barn is advertised as off grid and as Abe said when confronted with requests for “the speed of the internet” he gently suggests “this might not be for you”. 

That said there is internet, a telly and all you need to make an evening in front of the wood burner a comfortable experience for a family of townies after the long walks in the forest.

The electricity comes from solar panels, the heat and hot water from a heat pump, but as reminder of just where you are there are two water falls feeding a stream at the bottom of the garden and dominating the site is the massive Hawdon Dam which was built in the early years of the last century.

Now unlike the rest of the family I am a tad ambivalent about nature, but I am sucker for big civil engineering projects and the Howdon Dam is up there on my list.

Marebottom Farm, 1896

On a bright spring day in April with sun cracking the paving stones it looks the part, but in the falling light it rises high above the barn with a hint of melancholy.

And yesterday evening while the rest of the family sat in front of the fire and talked about many things from shoes to ships and sealing wax, I went all 21st century, downloaded my 1896 OS map of Derbyshire and went looking for the farm and barn.

Today the complex is called Beavercroft which is a modern invention, and offered up no help in locating the farm and barn back in 1896, and no matter how many times I swapped from google maps to the OS the exact location eluded me.

But help was on hand as our Luca trawling the net came across a Design & Access and Planning Statement from 2015 which formed part of a planning submission for changes to the barn.**

Garden waterfall, 2023

Like all such documents it is a fascinating mix of the history and the intended changes to the building.

And there amongst details of the site’s past was the name of the farm which was Marebottom.

Once I had the name it was only a matter of minutes to locate it in 1896 and to match the present with the open land of the late 19th century.

Flowerpot and garden, 2023

Equally important in my evening quest was Luca’s other find which was a PhD thesis on the area going back into the early Medieval period.***

But by then the evening was drawing to a close and I chose to join the family and park that account for another day and another story.

Leaving me just to say despite planning ahead and bringing a shedload of food, we still ran out of eggs and tin foil, which Abb and Pippa supplied without  hesitation.

Added to which after a conversation with Luca on varieties of rice gown in west Africa, Abb arrived in the evening with a pot of Senegalese spiced fish stew and Jollof rice.  

A nice touch

Location; Howdon Dam

Pictures the barn and surrounding land at Beaverscroft with a more than a glimpse of the dam, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Marebottom Farm, 1896, from the 1896 OS Map of Derbyshire, courtesy of courtesy of Digital Archives Association http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Beaverscroft, Ronksley S33 0B,  07368 308681

** BEAVERS CROFT | HOWDEN DAM | BAMFORD | DERBYSHIRE, Design & Access and Planning Statement from 2015  https://portal.peakdistrict.gov.uk/system/download/f/29436584

***The Upper Derwent: Long-term Landscape archaeology in the Peak District, William Bevan, PhD, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, October 2003, https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/21779/2/401254_vol2.pdf

Why you should never be sniffy at being a tourist …………..

I suppose it’s because I grew up in London in the 1950s, with so much history, that I became very sniffy about being a tourist, and doing the touristy things.

And that was a mistake, because the guide books, the tourist bus and the app offer up an instant picture of a place, which can then be followed up by a leisurely “authentic” stroll through a place’s past.

After years of wandering Rome, with no purpose, we took that guide bus, and all was revealed, which mean visits to Florence and other cities have always been accompanied by a trip in a big open topped red bus.

At which point the sensible thing to do is pepper the story with images of Rome, Florence, and Athens, taken from one of the scenic travels.

But I always do that, so instead I shall celebrate the Heights of Abraham.

“The Heights of Abraham is a tourist attraction in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, England. It consists of a hilltop park on top of Masson Hill, accessed from the village by either the Heights of Abraham cable car or a steep zig-zag path. The heights are named after a supposed resemblance to the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Heights of Abraham, in Quebec, Canada, where James Wolfe died in battle”. *

We were there last week showing the Italian side of the family the attractions of Derbyshire, and on a whim called in Matlock Bath, where over sixty years ago mother met father and the rest is me, along my four sisters.

I had my reservations at travelling by the cable car up to the summit and despite an optimistic confidence in technology I have a slight fear of heights, made no better when at a given point the cars all stop to allow the occupants, a stunning set of views in all directions.

All of that said the Heights are a rewarding pace, mixing a park, cavern and mine tours with views of the dramatic scenery of the valley of the River Derwent.

And there is a guidebook, which told me that as the lead mining industry began to peter away at the end of the 18th century, some miners turned to tourism, offering trips into the caverns.

Away from the Heights, there is a magical stretch of the river, all fast flowing water and overgrowing trees and foliage, leading to what would be a mundane car park, if it were not for a delightful poster of children’s work beside the railway station, reminding me that for a brief few hours were tourists in Derbyshire.


Location; the Heights of Abraham

Pictures; Matlock Bath, the Heights of Abraham, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

In praise of Bole Hill ……….. and a lesson in always doing your homework

I know I should have read up on the small mining community that was Bole Hill in Derbyshire.

Looking out from Bole Hill, 2019

But I didn’t and so I failed to make sense of the Bole Hill Institute, the Primitive Methodist Chapel and the disused Badge Mine which dug lead.

And for good measure I didn’t record the four stone plaques set in the wall of the Institute which might have provided me with clues to the building, and its possible connection to the lead mine and the chapel.

Leaving me just to fall back on Kelly’s 1912 Directory of Derbyshire which, records that, the Bole Hill Institute “is a structure of brick erected in 1889 at a cost of £150, on a site given by Thomas Hunt esq, and includes a reading room”. *

Bole Hill, 1900

There will be someone who can point me in the right direction, and I might also strike lucky with my own research which in time will involve interrogating the census record.

I know that “by the 1841 census there were 637 inhabitants living in the village, 77 out of 209 workers being employed in lead mining. Bagshaw’s directory of 1848 calls the Bage ‘the most productive mine in the District’. 17th and 18th century references to Bage Mine*, Wall Close Mine (to the North) and Hollyhole Grove Mine (to the West) can be found among the Wooley Manuscripts”. **

But like all these things I do prefer to go looking for the information myself.

The Institute, 2019

Sadly, the Topographical Dictionaries of the mid-19th century pass over Bole Hill, but it does appear in great detail on the OS for Derbyshire, which shows the Bole Hill Institute, the Primitive Methodist Chapel and the disused Badge Mine.

Today the village has pretty much morphed into a suburb of Wirksworth which is just under a mile away, but maintains its separateness, and has its own conservation area comprising 97 buildings of which one is a Grade II listed entry.

This was where we were staying, just behind the Institute and opposite the chapel, with views across the valley, and fine walks around the village.  The streets are twisty turny, and layout of the place is all higgled piggily, adding to the charm.

The Chapel, beyond the phone box, 2019

And the point of the post is simple ………… always do your homework before going away on holiday.

Location Bole Hill

Pictures; Bole Hill, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and map of map of Bole Hill, 1900, from the OS map of Derbyshire, 1900, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/


*Kelly’s Directory of Derbyshire, 1912, pages 441-445

**Bolehill, Derbyshire, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolehill,_Derbyshire

The memorial at Bolehill

We all know the full enormity of the Great War on all our communities.

But the full impact comes only when you fall across a memorial in a village.

We were in the small village of Bolehill in Derbyshire,and just by the main road was the memorial listing the dead from the world wars.

The list for the Great War was as you would expect longer, consisting to 2 names, three of which all carried the name of Hall.

I don't know if they were related, but I suspect they were.

The village is still a small community.

The lighting was iffy and the quality of pictures, not that much to write home about, but the memorial is poignant.

Location; Derbyshire




Pictures, the war memorial, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Old time retail in an old time market town …….. Wirksworth’s shopping treasures

I won’t be the only one who bewails the loss of the local corner shop, while at the same time popping into a supermarket or turning to online shopping.

In my case I still visit our local bookshop, as well as the deli, which bakes its own bread, but after that it gets more difficult to buy fresh veg, fruit, and a range of other foods within walking distance.

Of course, it wasn’t always so.  When I first arrived in Chorlton, there were still three butchers, a fishmonger, a grocers’ and green grocer’s along with two bakeries and an iron monger.

And a decade before that there were more, many of them on street corners, or tucked away, known only to those who lived just yards away.

So, it was a surprise to walk down one of the main streets of Wirksworth last week and encounter the shops of my youth, and not to miss out on the opportunity I set about photographing them.

The light was not good, and I fully admit the quality of the pictures is iffy, but Mr. Steve Walker’s butcher’s shop, the neighbouring greengrocer and the Chemist and Druggist deserve to be recorded.

They compete with a local supermarket and compliment some interesting restaurants, touristy shops and of course public houses.

This will probably be the last of the stories from Wirksworth which is a delightful market town in Derbyshire, not far from Matlock Bath.

Location; Wirksworth






Pictures; retail Wirksworth, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The secrets of Wirkswoth revealed …………..

Now I can bore the best of them with stories of what I did on my holidays, and the blog offers up endless possibilities.

Entrance to Ken's Supermarket, 2109

So, having spent a few days in the village of Bole Hill and a few afternoons in the nearby town of Wirksworth, I feel as qualified as any tourist to explore the scenery, history, and people of the two places.

Nor am I put off by the simple fact that as I write this, I am hundreds of miles further north looking out as the rain comes down like stair rods, while in Wirksworth the sun is cracking the paving stones.

The Wirkswoth project began with the war memorials of the area, and then as you do, I morphed into thinking of using a few pictures of the town.*

But rather than fall across the parish church or the pubs I was drawn to the entrance of Ken’s Supermarket and off license which announces to the world on its Facebook site it is a mega store.

St John's Street, 1900

It stretches down St John Street, is open seven days a week and the signs announce that it is the “Local Value Store”, with “lots of bargains everyday”.

And as you do, I pondered on how long it had been there, which led me by degree to the census records and the street directories.

Of these, the 1901 census offered up the name of William Stevenson  who had been born in 1843 in Belper, the OS map for 1900 showed the property, while Kelly’s Directory for 1900 told me that “Wirskworth is an extensive parish, township and market town and a terminal station of a branch of the Midland Railway from Derby, 3½ miles west from Whatstandwell Bridge station, on the Ambergate and Manchester section of the Midland Railway, 13 north-north- from Derby, 4 south from Matlock, 9½ west-by-south west from Alfreton, 8½ north-east from Ashbourne, 5½ north-west from Belper and 139 from London ………….”.**

Bole Hill Institute, 2019

And that “the town is pleasantly situated in a valley nearly surrounded by hills, at the southern end of the mining district, and is well paved and lighted from with gas from works at Warmbrook, the property of the Wirksworth Gas Light and Coke Company”, going on to describe the town government, the principle buildings and lots more.

All of which testifies to the usefulness of directories which should always be a first port of call when wanting to explore the history and geography of a place.

The added bonus was a description of Bole Hill Institute “a structure of brick erected in 1889 at a cost of £150, on a site given by Thomas Hunt esq, and includes a reading room".

The ghost sign, Market Street, 2019

The building is still there today and stands close to the cottage we stayed in.

So, there you have it, a bit of our holidays with a bit of history on a day when it didn’t stop raining.

Leaving me just to wonder if I can decipher the name on the side of the wall of this ghost sign and in the fullness of time tell its story.

Location; Wirksworth

Pictues; Wirkswoth and Bole Hill, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, map of St John Street, 1900, from the OS map of Derbyshire, 1900, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Wirksworth, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Wirksworth

**Kelly’s Directory of Derbyshire, 1912, pages 441-445

In Wirksworth .............

Wirksworth is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, with a population recorded as 5,038 in the 2011 census.

It contains the source of the River Ecclesbourne.

The town was granted a market charter by Edward I in 1306. The market is held today on Tuesdays in the Memorial Gardens.

The parish church of St Mary's is believed to date from about 653. Wirksworth developed as a centre for lead mining and later stone quarrying.

Many lead mines in the area were owned by the Gell family of nearby Hopton Hall. *

There is more I could say about this small market town, which contains a picturesque parish church, tucked away behind one of the main roads, a handful of pubs and some interesting restaurants which lean heavily towards vegetarianism.

But it was the war memorial that caught my attention set in a small garden which had been remodeled for the purpose in 1977.

Along with the memorial listing the men of the town from both world wars who never came back, there is a smaller Falkland War Island stone, a wrought iron, silhouette  and a stone “ erected “For the people of Wirksworth on November 2018 to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War”, which stand to the left of a set of gates.

Location; Wirksworth, Derbyshire















Pictures; the war memorial, Wirksworth, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Wirksworth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirksworth