Webmaster, Derbyshire VCH Trust

The subject of county bridges may not sound over-exciting – but they formed a very important part of the county’s transportation infrastructure – and many still do. A recent publication by Philip Riden (who is also our VCH county editor) – ‘Derbyshire county bridges 1530-1889’- published by the Derbyshire Record Society, puts them in the spotlight, perhaps for the first time in recent memory.

The book contains a gazetteer of 139 county bridges across Derbyshire. As an example, in the Chesterfield area county bridges included ones at Hagg Bridge, Tupton; Stony Bridge, Hasland, Spital Bridge, Hasland; Tapton Bridge; Old River Bridge, Brimington and Whittington; Slittingmill Bridge, Eckington and Staveley and three others on the river Rother alone. On the Hipper were Walton Bridge and Lordsmill Bridge.

What were county bridges?

The Bridges Act of 1530 required the court of quarter sessions (local courts traditionally held at four times of the year) to repair bridges in its county or borough for which no-one else was responsible. In Derbyshire the Act was ap­plied with some vigour. By 1729, when the first list of bridges was compiled, the county was maintaining some sixty bridges, including most of those on main roads in Derbyshire. Between then and about 1840, when the railways began to re­move long-distance traffic from the roads, the number of county bridges in Derbyshire roughly doubled. During this period many were rebuilt and widened, and several fine new bridges were erected, which remain in use to­day. This work was undertaken by a succession of county surveyors, who evolved from working stone­masons into professionally quali­fied officers. All the bridges passed to the county council on its establishment in 1889.

The county bridges book

To give a flavour of the book we’ve included an extract from the gazetteer which covers Tapton Bridge on the river Rother. Our illustration above shows the area in the 1980s.

The bridge was one of number rebuilt by the county council in the post-First World War period  https://picturethepast.org.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/dccc002544/posterid/dccc002544.html has a picture of the bridge being widened.

The county bridges book is based on bridge papers which survive from the late seventeenth century in the records of quarter sessions at Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock. Described are about 130 bridges in Derbyshire, ranging in date from the thirteenth century to the early nineteenth. All the bridges are located on a series of maps, with a representative sample illustrated. A gazetteer is prefaced by a 36-page introduction outlining the work of quarter sessions under the Bridges Act of 1530 and later legislation. Also included are the careers of the county surveyors.

The Derbyshire Record Society was established in 1977. It publishes edited texts, monographs and pamphlets relating to the history of the county. As you might expect VCH uses a number of these in our work to produce new histories of Derbyshire communities. Find out more about the society at https://derbyshirerecordsociety.org/index.php.

We are particularly grateful to the Derbyshire Record Society and to Philip Riden for permission to use an extract from the book ‘Derbyshire County Bridges 1530-1889’ and to use a description of county bridges in this blog. Copies of the book are available at £33 for non-members (£20 for members of the Derbyshire Record Society) by downloading the order form at https://derbyshirerecordsociety.org/order.php

Next time you’re on Corporation Street, look up at the Stephenson Memorial Hall and you should notice the empty niche – still awaiting a statue of George Stephenson.

From the start it the building was designed as a memorial to the great railway engineer George Stephenson. Our blog and post of 6 June mentioned Violet Markham’s views on the her views on its design, it’s served the town well, since it was first opened in 1879.

Designed by Smith & Woodhouse of Manchester, the building became too much of a burden for the Trustees and was sold to the Chesterfield Corporation in 1889. It was they who acquired a piece of land to the east of the original building. This saw the existing public hall altered and extended forming a theatre with a new stage and dressing rooms, together with improved entrances. Opening in 1898 this was to a design by local architect WH Wagstaff. The public hall soon became known as the Corporation Theatre – where a variety of shows, concerts, musicals, plays and films could be enjoyed. 1949 saw the first municipal repertory theatre established there.

The later history of the western (original) portion of the building saw it in use as a public library, council chamber, mayor’s parlour and committee rooms. When the town council moved to its new town hall in 1938 the majority of the building was taken over by the library. They moved to New Beetwell Street in 1980. The present museum was formerly opened in the block in 1994.

The building is hopefully due a Chesterfield & District Civic Society plaque in the near future.

A brief, potted history, of a well-known and loved Chesterfield building, which has served the town well since its opening in 1879.

But it’s unlikely that George Stephenson will ever grace that empty niche, now his statue can be found at Chesterfield railway station a few minutes’ walk away.

If you are interested in supporting the work of the Derbyshire VCH Trust, you are very welcome to join us.

We are currently concentrating our research on the Chesterfield area, having undertaken research, which has been published, on Bolsover and adjoining parishes – https://derbyshirevch.org/our-publications/

Part of the work we do involves making our research more widely known. We do this through traditional and electronic publishing, including our blogs and Facebook posts.

You can find out more information on our activities at our website https://derbyshirevch.org/how-we-research/ and by contacting us at https://derbyshirevch.org/contact/

In normal times we run a weekly term-time research group in Chesterfield, which brings together a small friendly group of interested people under our County Editor Philip Riden. We hope to restart this in September. We also hold summer guided walks and hold an AGM with guest speaker. Members of VCH also receive a free copy of our publications (but not back copies) and a periodic newsletter.

Membership is available from £5 a month, which includes entry into our monthly prize-draw currently for £100. We are a registered charity.

Thanks to social media, websites and the like Violet Markham (1872 – 1959) is probably better known than she has been for a number of years. Her autobiography ‘Return Passage’ was published in 1953, and is generally well-known, but this blog highlights just a little of what was left out of that autobiography.

Violet is shown here in the 1920s. We won’t dwell on her life suffice to say she was born in 1872 at the now demolished Brimington Hall, moving with her family to Tapton House in 1873.  She had three brothers. Ernest (1867-1888), Charles Paxton Markham (1865-1926) and Sir Arthur Basil (1866-1916). Both the latter rose to prominent positions in local industry and politics. Violet Markham also played a leading role in public life. She became involved with the local poor law union, school board, was mayor of Chesterfield in 1927 and 1928 and active nationally. She also set up ‘The Settlement’ in Chesterfield town centre.

The Derbyshire Times published a short series of articles that had been axed from her autobiography by the publisher. They were later reprinted as a booklet in January 1958. ‘Transformation of a town: Chesterfield in retrospect’ was therefore actually written as part of her autobiography and gives us some insight into Markham’s thoughts about her town, which might be of some surprise.

She didn’t, for example, think much about the Victorian architecture that she was familiar with in her youth. She stated that the town ‘had an ugly brick Market Hall’.

Nor did Violet Markham think much of the Stephenson Memorial Hall (now the museum and art gallery and Pomegranate theatre) which she dismissed, writing that it ‘…would have ranked high in any competition of period buildings selected for their special hideousness.’  Violet was also a little dismissive of the famous crooked spire – ‘no object of beauty’ she thought, realising she was ‘at the risk of being stoned by fellow-citizens’ for this view!

Markham’s view on the Market Hall wasn’t unique. The building came in for further criticism in the 1950s when Nicolas Pevsner visited the town for his series of books ‘The Buildings of England’. ‘The crudest show of high Victorian provincial prosperity’ he thought.

Violet Markham did, however, praise the town for being ‘a tenacious place and had a well-knit corporate life with an individuality of its own.’ She reviews the state of the Chesterfield of her youth, highlighting the insanitary conditions she encountered, characterised by ‘narrow streets, which in some areas had degenerated into evil slums with yards and passages and hovels unfit for human habitation.’ When we look at some of the quaint photographs of old Chesterfield, it’s important to remember this and the progress made in the borough at eradicating such poor conditions.

Markham goes on to address her own role and those of her fellow politicians in reforming these slums. In reviewing progress made during her life-time, she chooses three main topics to review where progress had been made: health, housing and education. Particularly on the latter Chesterfield received national recognition for its forward thinking policy.

Whilst VCH may not give a lengthy account to the personal role Markham and her like (including her brother Charles) played in reforming the social and physical conditions in the borough, it will chronicle important advances made in housing and education in the 20th century, of which she was a part. This has resulted in a town far in advance of the one of Violet Markham’s youth.

A copy of ‘Transformation of a town: Chesterfield in retrospect’ is available for reference in Chesterfield Local Studies Library.

Our 15 March 2021 post on Chesterfield wine and spirit merchant TP Wood’s series of almanacs, was quite popular. But did you know that there may be a much earlier local version, which we would love to see?

Speaking at a meeting of the Rotary Club in late 1924, local historian William Jacques mentions ‘Gallimore’s Almanac’ which he says dated back to 1842. Jacques had recently been presented with a set of 22, which he believed were the only ones in existence. The Gallimores, who according to Jacques, were brothers, took over the printing business of Ford in Irongate (the Shambles). We do know that a C Gallimore was advertising that he had taken over Ford’s business in May 1841 – our illustration is taken from the Derbyshire Courier of 5 June 1841.  Ford is best remembered as the publisher of the 1839 ‘History of Chesterfield…’

Thanks to the Derbyshire Times of 27 December 1924, we know a little more about Jacques’ talk and what he found in the almanac. Jacques apparently mentioned the old Town Hall in the Market Place, the Grammar School and other early schools and religious meeting houses. Jacques stated that half of Gallimore’s almanac content consisted of advertisements ‘nine-tenths of which related to quack medicines’. (Gallimore was dealer in these).

Jacques was secretary of the Chesterfield Education Committee for many years, a JP and formerly editor/manager of the Derbyshire Courier, he died on New Year’s Day 1931, aged 71. He also wrote ‘Modern Chesterfield…’ jointly with John Pendleton, which was published in 1903.

The almanacs remain a bit of a mystery. One might have thought that they would have found their way into the Jacques’ collection in Chesterfield Local Studies Library – but they haven’t. Nor does there appear to be much in the way of newspaper advertisements for the publication. What we do know is that, according to an advertisement in the Derbyshire Courier of Saturday 01 December 1849, ‘Allen’s Great Midland Almanac’ was available from Gallimore’s (and other stockists). Is this the ‘Gallimore’s almanac’ that Jacques refers to; with locally produced pages interleaved with a regional publication?

VCH will try and sort out the progression of the local printing industry in Chesterfield, so we’d love to see a copy or receive any further information on these mysterious almanacs.

Update 12 July 2023 – we found a copy in Chesterfield Local Studies Library! See our update here.

This blog was amended on 28 March 2023 to reflect the correct date of the first edition of Gallimore’s Almanac as 1842 not 1824 and that the Gallimores were Quakers.

Chesterfield’s present municipal hall is a very grand affair on Rosehill, opened in 1938. But Chesterfield also had another town hall in Chesterfield Market Place, designed by the famous York architect John Carr. Though demolished long ago, this blog looks at how you can see what we believe are a few remnants of this building, which brought some grace to the street-scene – at least if a well-known engraving of the time is to be believed.

This town hall was on the site of present HSBC Bank, at the corner of Glumangate and the Market Place. Our first (well-known) picture, from Ford’s 1839 History of Chesterfield, shows the town hall, of 1787-8 which was manorial (that’s to say not used by the Chesterfield Corporation). Designed by John Carr of York, it passed from the 3rd duke of Portland to the 5th duke of Devonshire in 1792. On the ground floor was a debtors prison, the room above being used for quarter and petty sessions. Its story is told in our ‘Chesterfield Streets and Houses’ book.

This town hall building was itself replaced by the building in our second photograph (Scales & Sons), taken from an Edwardian guide to Chesterfield. The present building – now the HSBC bank – may have been constructed sometime in the early 1920s. It’s shown to the bottom left on our fourth (and modern) photograph. Note that the HSBC building has part of the town hall’s replacement building surviving on Glumangate. The London and Midland Bank Ltd. (a constituent of the HSBC) didn’t open in Chesterfield until 1892 and then at premises on Low Pavement.

We think that there’s a very small remnant of the original town hall surviving. Our final modern picture shows this as the stone-work now acting as a boundary wall and access point to the rear of buildings on Glumangate. This belief is somewhat confirmed by local historian W Jacques. On 26 July 1926 he is reported in the Derbyshire Times saying that ‘…If one stood …in Glumangate and looked across, they would see where a door which gave access to the Court [to the hall] had been built up.’

So, next time you are in Chesterfield have a look to see if you can spot the remnants of a once rather grand looking town hall.

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.

Bernard Haigh tells the story in his ‘More Bolsover remembered’ book. Apparently, the illuminations started by accident after the parks superintendent of the UDC, Arthur Lord, discovered some old cable that had been used to illuminate Bolsover Castle. In collaboration with Councillor Jack Spray (a talented cartoonist and shown at work in our second photograph), who drew some pixies, a couple of beds at Sherwood Lodge were illuminated.

By 1952 the illuminations were much bigger both in size and draw – all in the grounds of Sherwood Lodge. Between 1952 and 1957 almost half a million people had been attracted to see the spectacle. Visitors included a group of Blackpool’s own illumination organisers, who were suitably impressed. There was a final public appearance in 1973 at the Bolsover Festival.

The illuminations featured a series of displays including fairy tales, Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Roundheads besieging Bolsover Castle, sporting and ghost scenes. The photographs here show a couple of examples. All our pictures here are courtesy of Bernard Haigh. There’s a further photograph on Picture the Past – https://picturethepast.org.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/ptpd004946/posterid/ptpd004946.html, dating from 1953.

Lest you might think that the UDC of the period was preoccupied with trivial things; as recorded in our VCH Bolsover books, by 1959 the UDC calculated it had built 89 houses on Oxcroft Lane, 272 on the Castle estate, four at Stanfree and 343 on the Moor Lane estate, all since 1945. But as a whole Bolsover was despoiled by the impact of industry – particularly coal mining and Coalite. As we state in ‘Bolsover, castle town and colliery’ , despite the UDC’s efforts the district appeared ‘grimy… its economy dependant on one industry’, which was, of course, coal.

In those years of the Bolsover illuminations a little light was no doubt shone into the lives of the those who attend the transformed Sherwood Lodge grounds.

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 schools.

Highfield Hall, then recently converted into an infant and junior school, features in the first photograph. The second shows a plaque which was originally fixed to the old Wheatsheaf inn on Newbold Road. When this old building was pulled down and replaced by the more recent Wheatsheaf the plaque was taken inside. Fortunately, it still survives, outside the recently built Cooperative store which has itself replaced the newer Wheatsheaf.

You can find out much more about Highfield Hall (from page 34) and other properties and estates in our draft text, but our education section is yet to come. We welcome comments by contacting us.

Draft text is very much work in progress. It’s written by our county editor, following research by him and our volunteer group. You can find out more about how our draft parish history text is structured here.