Though we don’t directly mention it in our VCH accounts of Bolsover there was a successful attempt by Bolsover Urban District Council (UDC) to hold its own illuminations in the town. This must have been a welcome diversion from the post-war gloom of the period. We cover this largely now forgotten event in this blog. …
This blog takes a very brief look at the ‘price of coal’, particularly as highlighted through a simple postcard image of a 1938 of a Derbyshire well-dressing. It’s an image of a Barlow well-dressing of 1938, bringing home the terrible price paid in the May 1938 Markham Colliery disaster, when 79 lives were lost after …
Newbold features in our latest draft text, uploaded to our Derbyshire Victoria County History Trust website. You can find this here. Our two photographs are taken from the 1932 ‘Chesterfield Education. A record of four years of experiment and reconstruction’ book. This was published by a justifiably proud Chesterfield Corporation following reorganisation of the town’s …
These two pages from the Chesterfield section of James Pilkington’s ‘View of the present state of Derbyshire’ published in 1789, reveal another side to the town’s industry. Along with the perhaps expected ‘course earthenware’, iron smelting and casting activities, Pilkington mentions ‘a considerable number of shoes [are] made in the town for the London market.’ …
Pilkington’s 1789 Chesterfield in a ‘very flourishing state’ Read More »
If you are interested in supporting our work, you are very welcome to join us here at the Derbyshire Victoria County History Trust. We are currently concentrating our efforts on the Chesterfield area, having undertaken research which has been published on Bolsover and adjoining parishes. You can find out more information on our activities at …
The Victoria County History makes use of a wide range of sources in our attempt at a new history of local communities. One of the forgotten aspects of Chesterfield’s claim to be the ‘Centre of Industrial England’ was the amount of in-house magazines produced by locally based companies for their employees. They can make an …
