Penmore Hospital, Hasland

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In this blog we’ll take a look at the former Penmore Hospital Hasland. What follows is a shortened version of an account in our History of Hasland book.

The newly-built Penmore Hospital, pictured in TP Wood’s Almanac for 1905. The almanac states that the Chesterfield Joint Hospital Committee, who had commissioned the building, comprised ‘representatives of the Corporation and of neighbouring Urban Councils of Brampton and Walton, Newbold and Dunston and Whittington. It is not intended for small-pox cases, which will still be dealt with at the Spital Hospital’.

Beginnings

In 1894–5 Chesterfield corporation purchased just over 12 acres of land at Penmore from the duke of Devonshire for an isolation hospital.

Plans for a 30-bed hospital were prepared in 1899 by G.E. Bolshaw of Southport (Lancs.), with construction tenders sought in 1902.

The hospital consisted of several blocks of buildings to the rear of Penmore House. Access was from Hasland Road. The building was opened in 9 December 1904. It was commissioned by the Chesterfield joint hospital committee. An earlier smallpox hospital off Spital Lane was not replaced by this building, which was to continue handling such cases.

Extensions

In 1912 Penmore had 38 beds. 1916 saw extensions, designed by the local architect T.S. Wilcockson, completed at a cost of £9,000. Built of brick with stone dressings to harmonise with the older buildings, the extensions comprised a male ward with eight beds, a female ward with five, and a doubling of the accommodation in the administrative block. Electric light was installed in 1924. In 1922 Penmore had 50 beds for infectious diseases.

After escaping closure during a reorganisation of isolation hospitals in north-east Derbyshire in 1930, the number increased slightly to 59. Six years later the Chesterfield joint hospital committee was dissolved and Penmore isolation hospital, with 58 beds, was transferred to Chesterfield corporation.

In 1942 a scabies cleansing station was established at Penmore by the corporation.

The Penmore Hospital some ten years after the facility had opened. The entrance was from a driveway off Hasland Road (not shown on this map extract). 25-iches to 1 mile, Ordnance Survey map, Derbyshire sheet XXV.11, Revised: 1914, Published: 1918. (Courtesy National Library of Scotland).

Post-war reconstruction and refurbishment

The rest of the buildings appear not to have been used as a hospital during the Second World War, since after they passed to the National Health Service in 1948 they had to be repaired before the wards could be reopened. From that date Penmore was one of several hospitals, in addition to the Chesterfield Royal, administered by the Chesterfield hospital management committee. In 1945 Penmore was said to consist of old buildings on an uneven site subject to mining subsidence and lacked a resident medical officer.

Welbeck Ward, Penmore Hospital. An AR Wilsher photograph taken from a 1972 guide to hospital services in Chesterfield

The first of three blocks at Penmore, containing 35 beds, was ready for use in May 1951, when the rest of the hospital was expected to be completed by August. The Sheffield regional hospital board determined that Penmore would be used for long-stay orthopaedic and medical cases. With authorised accommodation 25 for 60 beds, the hospital had 12 patients in June 1951 increasing to  45 in November.

A 1950 scheme by management committee proposed to purchase Penmore House as accommodation for residential staff did not go ahead.  Instead the former tuberculosis pavilion adjoining the hospital was adapted to become a nurses’ home. In 1953 Penmore House (not to be confused with the adjacent Penmore Hospital) was taken over by Chesterfield College of Art.

At the hospital there were problems with subsidence in 1952–4, for which the National Coal Board accepted liability. In 1952, after an inspection by the General Nursing Council, Penmore was accepted as a training centre for nursing assistants, subject to certain conditions, which the management committee undertook to meet. These included the improvement of sanitary accommodation on the wards, the provision of fridges in ward kitchens and the creation of day rooms for patients.

The training school opened until 1956, when a nurse-tutor was appointed (who had herself to take a training course). The first intake of ten students was admitted in January 1957.

The training centre moved to Spring Bank House in Chesterfield at the end of 1961, when the accommodation at Penmore was briefly used as a chapel and later became a patients’ day room.

Staffing

1952 saw the staffing levels set for the hospital were a matron, assistant matron, night sister, three ward sisters, three staff nurses and 14 enrolled auxiliaries. There were also 28 non-nursing staff. Twelve months later the hospital lost a ward sister and a staff nurse and was given five orderlies instead; the non-nursing staff was reduced to 20.

When another ward was opened in 1954, an additional sister and staff nurse were appointed, together with four enrolled auxiliaries and two orderlies. In 1954 the hospital had difficulty recruiting  nursing staff and remained heavily reliant on overtime working for several years.

The first matron retired in 1957. When her successor was appointed the nursing establishment was increased to 29, including (in addition to the matron, assistant matron and tutor) a night sister in sole charge, three ward sisters, four staff nurses, 12 state enrolled nurses, four pupil assistants and two auxiliaries. The hospital then had just under 50 patients.

When the last ward to be refurbished opened in 1958 the figure rose to about 60. In 1960 Penmore had accommodation for 60 chronic sick cases. By this date the ‘blocks’ of the old isolation hospital had been named Clumber, Thoresby and Welbeck wards and efforts made to improve the grounds.

This extract from a July 1967 ‘Particulars of hospitals etc’ in the the then Chesterfield Hospital Management Committee group shows the staffing and patient accommodation at Penmore Hospital. Note that the Scabies Department, which first seems to have opened in 1942, is still in operation and the responsibility of the borough council. (Collection P Cousins).

Gifts

In 1956 staff at the Chesterfield Co-operative store raised funds to present television sets for two of the wards, for which they were warmly thanked, as were 15 students of the college of art who provided Christmas decorations.

From 1958, when £123 was raised, a sale  of work was held every summer. By 1963 these events had raised a total of £1,232 for the hospital.

Successive rectors of St Paul’s, Hasland, served as hospital chaplains from 1951, joined by a minister  from Hasland Methodist church from 1958.

Declining years

In 1962 student nurses from the Royal Hospital were accommodated in the former administrative block at Penmore. In this period the NHS also owned a pair of semi-detached houses, 38–40 Penmore Street, acquired with the hospital, which were generally let to junior medical staff, as were two flats in the old pavilion, part of which was demolished in 1962.

In 1967 the use of the administrative block as a nurses’ residence was thought likely to be reduced in the near future. The following year the regional hospital board suggested that surplus land at Penmore might be sold. Despite these signs of decline, in 1972–3 a new dayroom was built at the hospital, sanitary facilities improved, and colour televisions bought for the wards.

After the opening of the new Chesterfield & North Derbyshire Royal Hospital at Calow in 1984, Penmore was retained as a 60-bed geriatric unit. It continued to be used in this way in 1987, when it was planned to be run down to closure in 1994.

After the hospital closed, the buildings were demolished and the land sold for housing. The houses on Penmore Street passed into private ownership.

Penmore Hospital in the 1960s. The denoted ‘College’ includes the still extant Penmore House, which was then occupied by the Chesterfield College of Art. (Ordnance Survey 6-inches to 1 mile. SK36NE – A. Surveyed / Revised: 1960 to 1967, Published: 1967. Courtesy National Library of Scotland).

Sources used in this blog

All the sources used in this blog are fully referenced in our History of Hasland book. Although this book (published in 2022) is not now in print, copies can be consulted in Chesterfield local studies library.

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An early attempt at steel-making in Chesterfield?

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Research at The National Archives in London by our county editor has revealed a possible attempt to make steel in Chesterfield in the period around 1600.  We’ll take a brief look at this potentially important discovery in this blog.

The Leakes and the Foljambes

Hidden away in what are called Star Chamber depositions (witness statements taken as part of legal proceedings) taken in 1608 is a reference to what seems to have been an experimental iron mill. The case centred on whether the mill was in Walton or Brampton. At this date Walton manor was held by the Foljambes, and Brampton held by the Leakes of Sutton.  The River Hipper formed the boundary between the two. The Foljambes and Leakes were the two leading gentry families in the Chesterfield area in the sixteenth century and it was not unknown for violence to occur where they disagreed!

The last head of the direct male line of the Foljambe family, Godfrey Foljambe, died in 1598, leaving a young widow, Isabel, who married Sir William Bowes of County Durham. There was already an ‘iron mill’ powered by the Hipper on the Foljambe estate, but Bowes claimed in the court case that he had spent £300 building another one.

An experiment in steel making

Witnesses in the Star Chamber case gave conflicting accounts of a dispute between servants of Sir William Bowes and Sir Francis Leake in September 1605, but both sides described the new works as a mill to make ‘steel and iron’. This is an unusual phrase for this date, added to which Bowes is said to have kept the works locked, suggesting that he was experimenting with a new process there. Attempts to make steel were just getting underway around the start of the seventeenth century, in the Sheffield area as elsewhere, and it is possible the Bowes was trying to make steel at the mill on the Hipper, using iron smelted at another iron mill higher up the river. The experiments probably came to an end when Bowes died in 1611, if not before.

This ground-breaking illustration, which appeared in Philip Robinson’s 1957 book ‘The Smiths of Chesterfield’, attempted to reconstruct the area around the Griffin Foundry in the period around 1788. The surviving Cannon Mill is to the right of centre, behind the smoking chimney. It was in this vicinity that much earlier attempts may have been made to produce steel.
The location

In his deposition Bowes stated that when he gained control of the Foljambe estate through his marriage to Isabel there were already six corn mills, one lead mill and one iron mill on the Hipper in Walton. The first of these figures refers to the number of mill stones, rather than separate buildings, but it is clear that the river was already being intensively exploited by industry in the late sixteenth century.

Bowes’s new works stood on a piece of ground called Upper Whitting Holme, which in the 1770s became the site of Ebenezer Smith’s Griffin Ironworks and Francis Thompson’s engine-building forge. The only surviving built from either enterprise is Cannon Mill, built by the Smiths apparently for boring cannon during the Napoleonic War, which ended in 1815. The date 1816 on a cast-iron plaque on the building commemorates its use during the war, not when it was built.

The mills on the river in the early seventeenth century are marked on a map of the Foljambe estate in Walton surveyed in 1622. This marks the mill built by Sir William Bowes downstream from the corn mill, iron mill and lead mill. The corn mill remained in use until modern times and the storage pond which supplied water to this and other mills survives as Walton Dam off Walton Road. One of the other mill sites was later taken over by Hewitt’s cotton mill, which also survives and is one of the very few late eighteenth-century fire-resistant textile mills still standing anywhere in England.

Research on the history of the Foljambe estate at Walton in the early seventeenth century, for which the main source are the voluminous records of litigation in Star Chamber and other courts, is continuing and it is possible that more will be discovered about what Sir William Bowes was trying to do at the iron mill on the Hipper.

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Wingerworth and its Lido railway

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In this blog we take a look at a long-forgotten narrow gauge railway which ran for only a few years at Wingerworth’s Lido. No doubt it gave pleasure to many, but was probably a victim of the Second World War. We are currently researching Wingerworth for our next VCH spin-off book. The Lido and its railway will be included – we’d love to see pictures of it!

Captured in time. The Wingerworth Lido railway is shown on this extract for the 1938 Ordnance Survey 25-inch to one mile map. Described as ‘miniature railway’ its 2ft gauge actually makes it a narrow gauge railway! (National Library of Scotland).

A narrow-gauge railway at the Lido, which skirted the western and northern edges of the site, with a bridge over the north-west corner of the pond, was first mentioned in the Derbyshire Times of 5 July 1935.  

The Lido narrow gauge railway’s steam locomotive may well have looked like this – an illustration taken from manufacturer – Kerr Stuart’s – 1924 catalogue.

The single-track line had a large balloon loop at its north-eastern end and a smaller loop near Nethermoor Road, giving a total run of about a half a mile out and back. There was also a short siding at the western end of the line, adjacent to Nethermoor Road, next to a shed that presumably served as a station, and a longer siding which left the main line near the eastern balloon loop.

The track was laid to a gauge of 2 ft. The motive power was provided partly by an 0-4-0 saddle tank steam locomotive built by Kerr Stuart in 1915 bought second-hand (through T.W. Ward, the Sheffield merchants) from Sheffield Corporation. It was previously used at their Ewden Valley waterworks from 1931, during a phase that saw remedial works carried out.   It was repurchased by Wards in December 1935, who sold it simultaneously to T. H. Austin. Other motive power at Wingerworth Lido was provided by a four-wheel petrol mechanical loco, fitted with an 11 horse-power Morris engine, which may have been home-built.

1 shilling and 3 old pence return to Wingerworth Lido by bus, as advertised in the Derbyshire Times, 19 June 1936.

Originally part of the Hunloke Estate, the Lido itself had been purchased by Thomas Henry Austin (later the sole operator) and Frank Norman, both of Wingerworth, who developed the site commercially. In May 1934 the promoters announced the opening of ‘Ye old Smithy Pond’ for swimming, sunbathing and boating in and around the 5½ acre pond (which in the centre was 26 ft deep). There was an 18 ft diving stand, 12 rowing boats and several punts for hire, and two motor boats offered trips round the pond. The promoters were negotiating with East Midland Motor Services to provide a bus service from Chesterfield to Wingerworth, which apparently had not previously existed.  

The end of the Austin enterprise occurred after he was required, in 1939, by the Chesterfield rural district council, to construct better sanitary accommodation at the Lido. Austin’s plans to address this were presumably overtaken by the outbreak of war, when the venue appears to have closed down.

End of a short-lived era. The sale at Wingerworth Lido on 8 October 1941 included materials from the narrow gauge railway.(Derbyshire Times, 3 October 1941).

In October 1941 an auction was held of much of the equipment from the Lido, including the railway track and wagons, but not the locomotives. It appears that these had previously been returned to Wards. The rails, sleepers and wagons may have been requisitioned as scrap, since a newspaper report of the ‘remarkable’ sale makes no mention of them. It does, however, refer to the second-hand timber, sectional buildings, catering equipment and furniture, for which ‘extraordinarily good prices’ were realised, possibly because none of the items offered were obtainable new.

Austin, who lived at ‘Blackhill’, Wingerworth, died in March 1944, leaving effects valued at £4,570.

So ends this story of Wingerworth’s own narrow gauge railway. A short-lived affair, which never-the-less was doubtless enjoyed by many. And, among with the rest of the Lido attractions, helped bring a bus service to the village!

They’ll be much more about the Lido and lots more about Wingerworth in our forthcoming ‘History of Wingerworth’ VCH spin-off book, which we hope to publish later this year.

In the meantime, if you’ve any photos or recollections of the railway we’d love to hear from you.

Our thanks to R.T. Gratton, S.R. Band and the Industrial Railway Society for information in this blog, also to Rob Marriott and his Chesterfield History and Genealogy Facebook page for a useful discussion thread on the railway. We’ve also used contemporary newspaper accounts and Howard Bowtell’s 1977 book ‘Reservoir Railways of Manchester and the Peak’.

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Gas for commercial vehicles in the 1930s

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In this blog we look briefly at a failed attempt by Chesterfield neighbours Bryan Donkin and the Chesterfield Tube Company to enter the commercial vehicle gas propulsion market.

We looked at the history of the former Chesterfield Tube Company in our blogs back in April and May 2022.

Front cover of the Chesterfield Tube Company booklet.

In our April blog we briefly mentioned the following: ‘An attempt in 1933, pioneered by the Tube Company and Bryan Donkin, to introduce compressed coal gas as a means of propulsion for cars and lorries was unsuccessful because of the lack of filling stations and the taxation of road vehicles by weight.

We thought we’d share these photographs with you, which are taken from a 26-page booklet produced by the Chesterfield Tube Company in 1933, promoting the idea and the trials that were then taking place. They are presented courtesy of one of our members, but we believe there is a copy in Chesterfield Local Studies Library. The booklet must have been popular at the time, as it was reprinted a year later.

The tube company were interested as the gas was compressed into cylinders – hopefully produced by the company. Donkins were interested in the compression of the gas (they produced compressors) and in the filling station’s other apparatus.

The publication goes into some detail about how the experiment came about. One of the drivers was that coal gas was, at the time, being wasted in coke production, particularly in south Yorkshire and more locally. There was a failure to capture this gas and use. Issues around explosion fears, robustness of the traction cylinders to be employed, conversion of the petrol vehicles alongside ‘cruising range’ were all explored, in an upbeat publication.

The converted ex-petrol Chesterfield Corporation bus. This was a 1925 Bristol, number 65 in the fleet, originally with 31 seats, but with 32 by the time of the conversion. Road trials commenced in October 1932. The vehicle is seen here at the British Industries Fair. The gas charging station doors are conveniently open on the bottom photograph revealing the Bryan Donkin compressor set.

Illustrated in the booklet were a Chesterfield Corporation bus – having been converted – along with one of the  tube company’s own lorries, a Whitwood Chemical lorry (not illustrated here), a Chesterfield Corporation refuse lorry and a gas department lorry.

As we stated, the experiment petered out. Today the production of coal gas is now non-existent.

The illustration captions from the booklet have been retained in the selection reproduced here.

The converted Chesterfield Corporation refuse lorry is splendidly illustrated here. At this time these lorries would mainly have removed coal ash from open fires. In this pre-plastic packaging era most rubbish would be burnt on open fires, with food waste going on the garden compost heap. Many local people nick-named these lorries ‘dust carts’ as that is generally what they carted away – dust or ashes, unless these had been used on the garden footpath. As if to emphasise this the slogan on the vehicle reads ‘Reuse your ashes and save cartage on 3000 tons of cinders per year’.

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The Oxcroft Settlement

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It’s little known today but for a few years from 1936 until 1968 nearly 400 acres of land were part of an experiment in agricultural management, animal husbandry, horticulture and land tenancy, which we briefly look at in this blog.

This map of the Oxcroft Estate appeared in Fred Kitchen’s 1947 book of his experiences there – ‘Settlers in England’.

In February 1936 Derbyshire County Council bought Oxcroft farm (399 acres, about two miles north of Bolsover) from the 9th duke of Devonshire. The same year it was leased to the Land Settlement Association. Forty smallholdings were formed, intended to give unemployed men and their families a chance to make a living from the land.

Each holding had a semi-detached, three-bedroom house, 5 acres of land, a piggery and other buildings. A ‘central farm’ or ‘estate service depot’ was managed by the estate manager.

By the 1960s there were problems, which include a poor tenancy rate and air pollution from Coalite (Bolsover) and Staveley works – so much so that tomatoes were reported as having a taste problem.

The estate was closed in 1968 – the land and buildings were sold off.

Taken from Fred Kitchen’s 1947 book ‘‘Settlers in England’, is this line-drawing by EJ Brown, which shows the then community centre, which is still extant though is now dwellings.

Fred Kitchen wrote about his experiences as a tenant at Oxcroft in his book ‘Settlers in England’, published in 1947, by JM Dent & Son. The book is now fairly rare. Two of EJ Brown’s line-drawings for the book feature in this post.

The wary can still spot these semi-detached houses scattered on the near 400 acres of the Oxcroft estate. All were built to a near-standard pattern and included glasshouses and accommodation for animals, fowls and particularly pigs.
The estate houses are not difficult to spot, once you know what to look for, but most have been altered since construction.

There’s more about the Oxcroft Settlement in our VCH book ‘Bolsover and adjacent parishes’ and further information about Fred Kitchen here.

Recently (January 2023) Bolsover District Council announced that they were looking into the possibiloity of a conservation area in the former Oxcroft Settlement area.

This post was first published on our Facebook page on 10 October 2020, but has been edited for this website blog.

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Sit awhile and remember Fred Kitchen

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Next time you’re near Bolsover Library have a look and indeed sit awhile on a memorial seat to local author Fred Kitchen, who we remember in this post.

The sculptured seat to Fred Kitchen outside Bolsover Library.

We only briefly mentioned Kitchen in our Bolsover and adjacent parishes VCH ‘big red book’, mainly in connection with the Oxcroft Settlement, where his 1947 publication ‘Settlers in England’ helped record what it was like to live there.

The seat (in reality it’s much more than that) been made possible by local partners including Bolsover Civic Society, local councils and businesses.*

The seat was installed in 2021. It’s in the form of a central wooden seat with sculptured stone ends representing Kitchen’s books. Sculptor Andrew Tebbs was responsible for the stonework. There’s also a plaque which gives further details about Kitchen, who was born in Edwinstowe in 1890 and died in 1969.

A closer view of the seat, with the sculptured stonework at either end representing books that Fred Kitchen published.

From a farming community Fred Kitchen worked in what would have then been hard manual work as a farm labourer. He improved his basic education by enrolling in a Workers’ Educational Association class at Worksop, studying creative writing. His talents developed and he ended up having 16 books published, along with various other works. ‘Brother to the Ox’, an autobiographical work, was perhaps his most famous. It was even adapted as a television and radio play.

A lesser-known work is ‘Gosslington’ a fictious part of the Derbyshire moors, first published in 1965. This is the front cover of the 1967 paperback edition.
‘Settlers in England’ published in 1947 documents Fred Kitchen’s experience of living on the Oxcroft Settlement, near Bolsover. It contained a series of line-drawings by EJ Browne and a map of the estate. The front cover shows a typical small-holding.

Bolsover library also has a small display on Fred Kitchen and a collection of his books, so is well-worth a visit to find out more about this interesting character who wrote about local life and community.

*Bolsover Civic Society, Old Bolsover Town Council, Bolsover District Council, Derbyshire County Council, Rothstone, Morrisons Supermarket, NAL Plant, Stephen Wakelam and Bolsover Rotary.

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Season’s greetings

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We’ll be taking a little break from our blogs over the Christmas and new year period.

We hope you have enjoyed our posts during 2022 and look forward to welcoming you back in mid-January 2023.

Season’s greetings from us all at Derbyshire VCH.

If you have purchased our Hasland book, published in the summer of 2022, we hope you have enjoyed it and found it interesting. We hope to publish a volume on Wingerworth in the first half of 2023 – so please keep a look out for this.

Our thanks to everyone who has supported us 2022, whether it has been through Derbyshire VCH membership, a member of our volunteer research group, contributing to our blogs, website and Facebook posts, buying our publications or simply reading this blog.

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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New thoughts on Birdholme House’s history

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New research at The National Archives has identified that the story of Birdholme House is a little different to that described in our Hasland book. In this blog we’ll take a look at this house just inside the present borough boundary on Derby Road.

An earlier house than first thought

Birdholme House.

The first owner whose name can be firmly linked to the property is Joseph Bludworth, a member of a local merchant family, who paid tax on five hearths there in 1670. It now seems unlikely, as has been suggested in the past, that he was the builder of the house, which is originally of an earlier date. But, as yet, we don’t know who did build it.

A useful by-product of a recent planning application by CCS Media to make major internal changes to the house is the submission of detailed plans and elevations of the property as it currently exists. From these it is possible for the first time to appreciate how the seventeenth-century house was extended in the eighteenth century, after it was acquired by the Hunloke family.

The first house – a ‘tower house’

It now clear that the first house on the site was a three-storey ‘tower house’, with three rooms on each floor plus a staircase tower. This is a characteristic type of a small gentry house in north Derbyshire and south Yorkshire, of which Cutthorpe Old Hall is a well-preserved local example. At Birdholme House, as at Dunston Hall, the original structure was later enlarged and to some extent disguised by new building.

Tower houses do not seem to have been built after about 1630, and so Birdholme House is probably earlier than the rather vague ‘late seventeenth century’ date which has traditionally been ascribed to it. The interior of Birdholme House has in fact been altered a good deal over the years and, apart from the main staircase, there does not appear to be much left inside that could be described as ‘original’.

The Bludworths

As stated in our Hasland book Joseph Bludworth (or Bloodworth), married Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Gladwin of Eddlestow (in Ashover) and Boythorpe (b. 1598). Joseph was a younger brother of Sir Thomas Bludworth of London, who was master of the Vintners’ Company, Lord Mayor and (briefly) MP for Southwark. He was a timber merchant trading with Turkey. Thomas, who died in 1682, and Joseph were the sons of John Bludworth, a London merchant originally from Derby, who died in 1648 and was for a time in partnership with Thomas Gladwin, probably in the lead trade. Joseph and Elizabeth Bludworth had a number of children baptised at either Wingerworth or North Wingfield between 1650 and 1667. He may be the ‘Mr Joseph Bloodworth’ who was buried at Dronfield on 2 December 1690.

Later ownership of Birdholme House

By 1717 Birdholme had been acquired by the Hunloke family of Wingerworth Hall and remained in their ownership until the break-up of the estate in 1920.

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New light on Wingerworth’s history at the National Archives

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In this blog we take a brief look at some new sources for the history of Wingerworth that have been identified. They’ll help us in our new account of Wingerworth, based largely on the work of David Edwards, which the Derbyshire VCH Trust hopes to published in 2023.

An Edwardian postcard of Wingerworth Hall. virtually all the muniments of the Hunloke family, who were the main owners in the parish between 1582 and 1920 and owned the hall, were destroyed when they sold the estate. The main part of the hall was subsequently demolished.

Reconstructing the history of Wingerworth in detail has always been difficult because of the loss of virtually all the muniments of the Hunloke family, who were the main owners in the parish between 1582 and 1920. Thanks to the power of electronic finding aids, however, a considerable amount of new light has been shed on both the Hunloke family and Wingerworth generally by a study of a lengthy series of law suits dating from between 1648 (when Sir Henry Hunloke, who fought for Charles I in the Civil War died aged only 29) and the 1680s.

These cases, mostly heard in the Court of Chancery, involved his son and heir, his widow, her second husband, his mother and her second husband, the executors of his will, and a long list of people who claimed that they were owed money by him. Taken together they show that Sir Henry was already in debt when he unwisely committed himself to the King’s cause in 1642, as a result of which he was heavily fined by Parliament, which made his financial position much worse. The estate was further weakened by nearly forty years of litigation over his will.

Another point that emerges from the lawsuits is that the industrial resources of the Wingerworth estate were seen as important in the mid seventeenth century. Litigants were very interested in the revenue from coal and ironstone mines, the ironworks and the corn mill on the estate, as well as the rents from farms and cottages.

The new information gleaned from some twenty different cases will be incorporated into an account of Wingerworth, based largely on the work of David Edwards, which the Derbyshire VCH Trust hopes to publish in the first half of 2023.

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Marks & Spencers in Chesterfield

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It’s the end of an era in Chesterfield as the town centre branch of Marks & Spencers (M&S) closes on 29 November 2022, to be replaced by a newer facility in nearby Ravenside Retail Park. We thought we’d take a quick look at M&S in the town to mark the event.

Marks & Spencers – a familiar sight on Chesterfield’s High Street and Market Place, but is set to move to a new home at the end of November 2022.

Early history

The early history of Marks and Spencer is well-known, so we won’t repeat it here – suffice to say that Michael Marks, after starting a simple market stall in Leeds went on to open a series of ‘penny bazaars’ in various towns and cities before the First World War. Thomas Spencer was Mark’s business partner from 1894.

The original retail concept came under pressure by rising inflation and was subsequently reinvented by Simon Marks (Michael’s son) and Thomas Spencer after the First World War. Public listing gave expansion plans a boost and a series of shops were opened across the country. It wasn’t until 26 May 1933 that M&S opened their shop in Chesterfield. They selected a site on 2-6 High Street. The original building comprised the left-hand section of the present reddish brick and white stone structure.

New store for M&S – from the Derbyshire Times of 7 May 1933. The illustration to the top is misleading as the newspaper clearly describes the building as having ‘… two floors over the sales floor level, which are utilised for stock accommodation, office staff, tea room.’

The Derbyshire Times of 27 May 1933 enthusiastically reported that much interest had been caused in the town by this new ‘super store’, erected by ‘Messrs. Bovis, London, the striking frontage of Empire stone and Jacobean brick being 150 feet in height and 40 feet wide. On the ground floor the sales department is divided into approximately 20 departmental counter displayers, comprising a wide range of merchandise.’ Two floors above were used for ‘stock accommodation, office staff, tea room, etc.’ Fifty girls from Chesterfield and district were employed at the store.

Previously the Derbyshire Times (1 October 1932) had reported that M&S had practically completed negotiations with the owner of their proposed site. Apparently, this had been occupied for many years by Mr. HJ Cook, who had moved his business to Cavendish Street. ‘The store, we are informed will occupy a part of the yard and back premises of Mr. Peter Warner, fishmonger, with whom readjustment of lease has been made, and will stretch right through to Knifesmith Gate. We are informed that it is hoped to have an entrance both from the Market Place and also from Knifesmith Gate.’

Extension and reconstruction

The store was obviously successful as it was reconstructed and extended in 1938. It took over the former shop of Blackshaw & Sons, who were bakers at number 8 High Street.

Under reconstruction in 1938. The ‘ER’ just visible to the extreme left marks Warner’s fishmonger’s shop. The reconstruction was rather clever, in that it included redesigning the fifth bay and installing a new stone window surround at first floor level. Today you would never know that the original store ended at that bay – the reconstruction resulting in a near perfectly symmetrical frontage. (From TF Wright’s History of Chesterfield, volume IV).
The M&S store after reconstruction and extension in 1938. Note the bays added have been carefully designed to blend in with the original five bays, which were nearest the camera. Peter Warner’s fishmongers’ shop is next up towards the camera, followed by Hadfield’s butchers. (M&S Archive – P2/87/66).

Recent history

It’s not entirely clear when further modernisation to the premises was made, but the Knifesmithgate elevation and goods loading bay appears to have been substantially remodelled, perhaps in the 1970s.

M&S were still clearly on an expansion trend in the town.  In 1965 the well-known Hadfield’s pork butchers and provision merchants closed. M&S appear to have bought the site for expansion, but standing between this site and their shop on High Street was MacFisheries, as successor to Peter Warner’s shop. A new shop was constructed on the site of Hadfield’s in about 1967 – MacFisheries moving to this shop – their old shop next to M&S was then demolished – leaving a  gap, which was filled by scaffolding and a hoarding for some years.

This late 1960s postcard shows the Market Place and High Street, just prior to the demolition of buildings for the Littlewood’s store (now Primark). If you look carefully MacFisheries new store can be seen after the white pillared building (TP Wood’s – though there‘s an out-of-view building between Wood’s and MacFisheries), with a gap between the new MacFisheries and M&S. This was the site of Peter Warner’s/MacFisheries’ old shop.

The Derbyshire Times of 6 October 1978 announced the ‘shock’ closure of MacFisheries’ store ‘by early next year’ (when the ‘freehold’ property was described as having been constructed 11 years ago). By 1980 work was underway to convert the former store as an expansion to M&S. On opening access to the converted MacFisheries was via a short walkway, inside, to/from the left of the left-hand M&S High Street entrance. This took shoppers into the converted ground floor of the former MacFisheries’ building.

The former MacFisheries’ building (to the left) vacant on 2 September 1979. This was constructed about 1967 on the site of the well-known Chesterfield butchers and provision merchants S Hadfield & Sons. The original M&S building of 1933 is to the extreme right. Notice the signpost on this M&S building – ‘High Street’ – for this marked the end of the Market Place and beginning of that street. (P Cousins).
By June 1980 conversion of the former MacFisheries’ building was well underway into an extension of M&S. (P Cousins).

In the early 1980s the former MacFisheries’ (now M&S) building and the space between that and M&S main High Street store, were filled by a modern building, which brought a first-floor coffee shop to M&S for the first time – a feature that will be missing in the new Ravenside shop.

More interest?

As one might expect, buildings in this area have an interesting history, which we hope to explore in a future blog. In this area, for example, was the failed Chesterfield & North Derbyshire Bank, the Derbyshire Courier offices (a now defunct Chesterfield newspaper taken over by the Derbyshire Times in the 1920s) and also the town’s first post office. To add to the interest, at some stage Peter Warner had also occupied a building on the site of Hadfield’s. Both this building and their shop next to M&S were separate properties, but appear to have been possibly re-fronted as some stage in the same style.

You can access a 1959 view of the Chesterfield Market Place and High Street areas on Picture the Past by following the link – https://picturethepast.org.uk/image-library.html?keywords=dccc001450. On that image the premises of Hadfield & Sons can be seen with Peter Warner’s fishmongers sandwiched between them and M&S. Both Hadfield’s and Warner’s former sites form part of an extension to the M&S Chesterfield High Street branch, set for its last trading day on 29 November 2022.

Sources used in this blog have included our ‘Chesterfield streets and houses’ book, T F Wright’s volume IV of the ‘History of Chesterfield…’, contemporary editions of the Derbyshire Times and Borough of Chesterfield official directories from 1959, 1965, 1967, 1971 and 1973.

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