January 2021

Chesterfield Bowling Green

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We are back to Chesterfield for this posting – more from our ‘Chesterfield Streets and Houses’ book.

Time for a game of bowls? It’s often been said (and written) that the bowling green off South Place and New Beetwell Street, Chesterfield, dates from 1294, but there’s no evidence for this. It is, though, one of the oldest in the country still in use – it was first mentioned in 1651. It’s seen here in an engraving from Ford’s 1839 ‘History of Chesterfield…’ The building behind is the old Guild Hall, demolished and replaced in the late 1840s, by a new building – itself now demolished.

Our second illustration shows the Chesterfield Borough Police Force on the bowling green, outside the 1840s replacement Municipal Hall, for the annual inspection of equipment. At one time the hall acted as offices, courthouse and police station.

Posted 26 January 2021

Hasland Locomotive Sheds

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Hasland Locomotive sheds were a bit of a sticking point when Chesterfield wanted to extend its boundaries in the 1920s. Hasland parish council were concerned about loss of rates. Our photographic panorama here, from 3 July 1960, is of the shed, using a number of photos, pieced together and retouched, all by the late Chris Hollis, who was a fireman there.

The roof was progressively removed from the 1950s due to subsidence. The sheds, originally built by the Midland Railway, opened in 1875 and closed in October 1964.

Until 19th-century boundary changes, the township (later civil parish) of Hasland included not just what people think of as Hasland today but also Corbriggs and Winsick, Grassmoor, Birdholme and the St Augustine’s end of Boythorpe.

This year, we’re hoping to publish a history of Hasland, near Chesterfield. This will be the first authoritative account of the community.

We’ll tell the story of how the separation happened and of the communities comprising the historic parish of Hasland. The book will include the combined efforts of many hours of work by our Chesterfield volunteer research group and by our VCH county editor Philip Riden.

Shuttlewood schools complex

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Part of the former Shuttlewoood schools complex on Clowne Road (B6418) near Bolsover – pictured in our first and second photographs – is to be demolished. This is the northern part of the site – the southern part is occupied by the present Brockley Primary and Nursery School, (our third photograph) which is not affected. This southern part (opened in 1927) is listed grade II – as a good example of the work of ground-breaking Derbyshire Education Committee architect GH Widows.

Shuttlewood Schools (northern part of the complex).

The northern part is not listed and not by Widdows – it originally dates from 1907 and was first used as an infant school. In 1933 (when it was extended) it became a senior school, but latterly it had not been used for teaching (since 2007). The 1927 southern building became a junior and infant school.

The northern building has been surveyed. Copies of this can be viewed on the Bolsover District Council’s planning portal, along with heritage assessments. https://publicaccess.bolsover.gov.uk/online-applications/

Brockley Primary and Nursery School.

We have lots more on education in Bolsover, including Shuttlewood, in our VCH volume III – ‘Bolsover and adjoining parishes’, in our Explore paperback and on our website https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/…/education-bolsover

Bess of Hardwick

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When was Bess of Hardwick born? Our county editor thinks it was sometime between 13 February 1521 and 12 February 1522, not as some others have it.

Twenty-twenty one probably marked an important anniversary for Bess of Hardwick – it’s almost certain that it was 500 years since she was born.

Bess is probably the third most famous Englishwoman of her age after Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots. Bess is, of course, particularly, associated with Hardwick Hall.

Though there’s no shortage of books on Bess of Hardwick, there has been some conjecture, over a long period, on just when she was born. Our VCH county editor, Philip Riden, who has extensively researched the issue, is certain that she was born in 1521 or in the early months of 1522.

Philip has written about the Hardwick family at Hardwick Hall in the Derbyshire Archaeological Society’s Journal (DAJ) of 2010. You can read it by selecting the article from the contents page here:
https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/…/vi…/daj/contents.cfm…

You can directly download the article as pdf via the link here. Look for the final paragraph on page 150.

You can find out more about Bess and the Hardwick estate in our paperback book ‘Hardwick a great house and its estate’.

The rather romanticised engraving of the Hardwick Hall is taken from Ford’s History of Chesterfield, published in 1839, as is the second illustration of Hardwick Old Hall.

This post was revised on 5 August 2023 to remove a link to website that no longer exists and add a direct link to an article in the DAJ.

January 2021 – Welcome to our new website

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For the start of this new year and new decade we have now made our first foray into the world of online; previously we have been happy to be hosted under the umbrella of the IHR website, in turn managed by the School of Advanced Study, part of the University of London. However, recent changes to that arrangement have meant that we have lost the ability to manage and maintain our own area on that site. Hence, now we find ourselves here with a brand new website.

The added complications of the Covid-19 Pandemic have meant that our regular classes and meetings have had to be suspended, so, like so many other societies and local history groups, we have had to move online to keep in touch with our loyal supporters.