An introduction to the Shambles, Chesterfield

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There’s a brief introduction to the Shambles area of Chesterfield in this blog. We also dispel the incorrect theory, often repeated, that the area was originally temporary market stalls which became permanent structures over a period of time.

Revitalised – part of the Shambles pictured in 1984, looking up towards High Street. (Chris Hollis)

There’s no evidence – as our ‘Chesterfield Streets and Houses’ book states – that the Shambles were originally market trader’s stalls that became permanent buildings over a period of time. It’s worth quoting from our book to give a short introduction to the area.

When the New Market was laid out in the late 12th
century, an area at the eastern end of the Market Place
was reserved for a large block of shambles, intended
for butchers, fishmongers and possibly other traders
who would have stood in the market every day, not
merely on Saturdays. The block was bounded on the
east by what is now Packers Row (which appears to
have marked the western limit of the built-up area
before the New Market was created), on the south by
what is now Central Pavement (named by Potter in
1803 as Toll Nook, presumably referring to a place
where tolls were collected at the eastern entrance to the
market place), on the west by the Market Place itself,
and on the north by High Street.
The Shambles were roughly square, and consisted of
a block of small buildings divided into eight groups,
four on either side of a central east–west alley, which
continues the line of Church Lane through to the
Market Place, and presumably follows the route of the
earlier road leading out of Chesterfield to the west
(which today continues as West Bars at the opposite
end of the Market Place). At right angles to this central
alley three others ran from north to south. Six of the
eight blocks of building thus created were probably
originally of the same width (although some variation
has developed over the centuries); the two westernmost
blocks, fronting the Market Place, appear always to
have been somewhat wider, to enable larger buildings
to be erected on a more important frontage. Within the
eight blocks, it is possible that each plot (apart from
those facing the Market Place) was originally the same
size, but by the early nineteenth century, when the
Shambles were first accurately mapped, considerable
variation had developed, presumably as a result of the
amalgamation (rather than division) of the original
plots.
About twenty deeds relating to property in the
Shambles dating from before c.1600 survive…

Philip Riden, Chris Leteve and Richard Sheppard, Chesterfield Streets and Houses, (2019) p. 109.

There’s little doubt that parts of Chesterfield had seen better days in the 1970s, including the Shambles. This was undoubtedly due to various schemes for comprehensive redevelopment that (fortunately) fell-through in the mid-1970s. We end this introduction to the area with two September 1973 photographs taken by the late Chris Hollis.

Our first view is of the central Shambles passage, looking from the Market Place end. To the right was what would then have been the premises of Lloyd’s Bank. To the left the Cathedral Vaults public house, which was sadly demolished in 1976. Beyond, to the right, is the Royal Oak public house. The oldest part of the building, the much-restored timber frame, is thought to have been added to the existing public house when it was restored in about 1900.  As we covered in an earlier Facebook post, there is no evidence to suggest that the Knights’ Templars stopped off here for a quick drink on their way to the Crusades!  However, they certainly had property holdings in the Shambles, which was possibly their largest estate in Chesterfield.
Our second photograph shows one of the north to south passages (looking northwards). Like the previous photograph there is a general state of decay.

The Cathedral Vaults public house (with its one-time neighbour) was accompanied by three other separate properties facing the Market Place. These were all probably re-fronted in the Georgian period, with pillared arcades on the ground floor.  The rear of the Vaults (seen below) was earlier – perhaps 17th century. Only one of these pillared structures survives – that on Low Pavement. The ‘Pretty Windows’ as the Vaults became known was subsequently rebuilt – it’s currently a pharmacy.

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Stainsby school in the news – but what is its history?

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The former Stainsby board school, November 2021.

The former board school at Stainsby is in the news at the moment as the National Trust seeks to sell the property. But what is its history? In this blog we’ll take a brief look.

Our Hardwick: a great house and its estate paperback, published in 2009 (out of print but available in local libraries), outlines the history of education in the Hardwick area.  In the 1860s the 7th Duke of Devonshire erected a new school and a house for the master at Stainsby on the site of the medieval manor house there. This replaced a building at the edge of Hardwick park, which became a private residence.

This wooden building in the school yard is current leased to a community organisation.

In 1893 a school board was formed for Ault Hucknall, Glapwell and Heath. This took over the duke’s schools at Heath, Stainsby and Rowthorne (along with a school at Doe Lea belonging to the Hallowes estate). All four were Church of England school and a Church school at Hardstoft continued on a voluntary basis.

In 1895 the school at Stainsby was pulled down and a new and larger building erected by the school board. Hardstoft school was rebuilt in 1894, Doe Lea four years later.

In 1903 county councils took over former board schools. What contribution had been made to local schools by the Hardwick estate fell away. The county council built some new schools in the area, following the development of colliery villages, such as Holmewood and later Bramley Vale. Most of the pupils at Stainsby came from the farming villages near Hardwick Hall.

Stainsby school closed following the opening of a new secondary school at Heath in 1960. This took older children from the former all-age school at Holmewood (perversely called ‘Heath School’, although few children from Heath attended), which became a primary school. The school at Stainsby became redundant and was closed. 

The school sits on the top of the medieval manor house’s site. The area is a scheduled ancient monument.

The building at Stainsby then became what we describe in our book as ‘an imaginative, if short-lived venture’ as a youth music and drama centre. The first warden was a former actor who lived in the headmaster’s house. The Stainsby Arts Centre served schools throughout north-east Derbyshire in the 1960s and early 1970s. From it grew the Stainsby Festival of folk music, which started in 1969 and has long outlived the arts centre.

Now the National Trust is, somewhat controversially, selling the former Stainsby school building by auction. The school board leased the land on which the school was built from the 8th duke of Devonshire. The freehold therefore passed to the National Trust with the rest of the Hardwick estate in 1958, after it was accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of death duties payable following the death of the 10th duke in 1950.

Ault Hucknall Parish Council and a consortium of community groups are trying to purchase the property, but may be outbid in the auction, which ends on 16 November 2021.

The Stainsby Festival used the old school site, but in 1974 a lessee of the school property did not want the festival. It then moved to nearby Brunt’s Farm. This programme from the 1976 event reveals that weekend tickets to the festival were then £3.00 each. Artists included Broadside, John Goodluck and Threefold. There were also workshops.
Visitors to the site will find of parts of it adorned with bunting, a banner and notices protesting at the National Trust’s decision to sell the property and urging potential bidders not to bid against the community‘s bid for the property.

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Water, Jam and locally produced histories

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To end our short series on jam and preserves manufacturing we’re looking at a very small, basically one-man business, in Brimington, near Chesterfield. We’ll also look at how VCH doesn’t replace locally produced histories.

Two Kirkham & Hebdige bottles, that would have been filled with mineral water at their Coronation Road, Brimington premises. The ‘K&H’ site was subsequently used by a short-lived jam and preserves manufacturer.

Water and jam

The story starts when land, at the north end of Coronation Road, Brimington was sold to a Frederick Hebdige and Reuban Kirkham in 1903. They erected a small factory and stable on the land and made mineral water there. But by 1919 the property was for sale with the mineral water manufactory out of use. Our photographs shows two bottles from this short-lived affai

The property was sold to a consortium of people. Included were members of the Hicks family (who were grocers). And so the business styled as ‘The Corona Fruit Preserving Company’ started. (There is no connection, incidentally, with the well-known Corona soft drinks company).

William John Piece of Sanforth Street, Newbold, appears to have been the only active partner in the business, excepting another who acted as sole selling agent for the jam.

New buildings were added by the partners and the business was successful for a few years until 1921, when it made a loss. The partnership was dissolved in June 1921, but Pierce decided to take the whole business on. This was ultimately his undoing as in early 1923 he was filing for bankruptcy. There is no mention of the business in production after that date.

The jam factory, as it became known, was the cause of complaints from the parish council. In early in 1922 it was reported that ‘thick clouds of smoke’ were being emitted from the property, causing a nuisance.

No advertisements have ever been found for either the mineral water or the preserve manufactures and they weren’t listed in local trade directories.

You can find out a lot more about these two short-lived businesses in an article published by the Brimington and Tapton Local History Group – look for the Brimington and Tapton Miscellany 1 download – it’s contained in there.

Replacing history?

Our thanks to Brimington and Tapton Local History Group for pointing out this very small-scale business.

It’s certainly on a different scale to the previous preserves businesses we have looked at. Like the other two, though, it will certainly get a mention in our VCH Red Books.

But the VCH account won’t replace individual histories like that about the Brimington business. VCH can’t hope to go into the detail that individual accounts like that can. But what we will do is ‘signpost’ such accounts in our very thorough references.

We always look at reliable published sources, but will also examine original sources in our parish histories. We’ll undertake research that might well be beyond the average interested person. For example, trips to the National Archives in London can be very expensive and not everyone can read Latin.

If you’d like to find out more about us and how you might help in research please contact us. (And you don’t have to read Latin to get involved!)

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Poor Law and poor tenants

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Spotting this newspaper clipping from the Derbyshire Courier – Saturday 02 May 1840 on the Ashover History and Genealogy Facebook page prompted the obvious question: why were the Poor Law Commissioners ordering such sales to be made? A quick email to our Editor, Philip Riden, generated this explanation:-

“It’s probably to raise cash towards their share of building Chesterfield union workhouse. Ashover was put into Chesterfield union after 1834 and each township in the union had to find a share of the cost of the workhouse. If a township owned some property for the benefit of the poor, typically either a parish workhouse or cottages in which they used to house the poor, or from which they took rent to pay to the poor, which would not be needed for any of those purposes after the union workhouse was opened, the township was expected to sell the property. The proceeds would be credited to the township’s capital account with the union, thus reducing the amount they had to raise in rates to pay each year on capital account towards the cost of the workhouse.”

“Ashover had a union workhouse built under the 1785 Act (which provided for voluntary unions of parishes). I assume that was transferred to Chesterfield union after 1834 and sold by the Chesterfield guardians. This sale does not look to me like the old Gilbert Act workhouse at Ashover, and I would guess the cottages had ended up in the hands of the wardens and overseer and the rent was being used to reduce the poor rate for the parish. So they would have to be sold under the 1834 Act.”

Somewhat unfortunate for the tenants who would presumably have found themselves homeless after the sale and looking for somewhere else to live.

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Are you following us?

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A quick thanks to our followers. We’ve only been going since January on this website, but we hope you’re finding our content and posts useful and interesting.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and that we also have a Twitter account.

We use Facebook for shorter news and items of interest. You’ll find the vast majority of our blogs on there too. On our Twitter account you’ll find feeds we share and create about general news in the world of VCH and local history.

Our latest Tweet and Facebook post has, for example, been about an important auction sale of the contents of Weston Hall, Northamptonshire. Until recently this was one of the homes of the Sitwell family, who are, of course, closely associated with Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire.

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The Midland Fruit Preserving Co., Chesterfield

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Last week we took a look at jam and preserve production in Bolsover – this week it’s Chesterfield’s turn, with the Midland Fruit Preserving Co., Avenue Road, off Sheffield Road.*

Extract from the 1919 Ordnance Survey large scale map of the area with the The Midland Fruit Preserving Co. premises marked.

Brief history

The business was established in 1893 by Ernest Shentall, Mr A and Mr J Shentall (all members of the same family with connections into the grocery business).

The Derbyshire Times carried a thorough piece on the concern in its ‘Derbyshire Industries’ series in on 5 March 1932. By this time there were between 200 to 300 employees – mainly women. Presumably, like Bolsover, the variation is due to seasonal activities.

Very few, if any, photographs of the preserves factory have survived. This rather poor quality one of ‘some of the boilers on the left, Seville oranges being prepared for marmalade making’ is one of three that appeared in the Derbyshire Times article on the company in March 1932.

Motor transport was exclusively used at this time. Strawberries came mainly from the ‘eastern counties, Wisbech and district,’ supplemented by some grown locally. The fruit was delivered overnight and by mid-day the 20 or so tons used in a day had already become jam! Between 50 and 100 tons of the stuff were produced in a week.

Marmalade was another staple, along with black and red currant jams. ‘Thousands of jars of pickled onions’ were also produced accompanied by other pickles and sauces. Like the Bolsover concern (which was a completely separate company) winter saw the production of mincemeat. Christmas pudding was yet another product made.

Another 1932 Derbyshire Times image. The process is nearly finished as women fill the actual jam jars.

This ‘very self-contained’ firm kept a ‘large maintenance staff’ and delivered goods ‘by roads to towns at least 100 miles from Chesterfield’. Their premises were said by the Derbyshire Times to cover eight to ten acres.  There was even ‘a fine canteen’ complete with stage.

Closure comes

But by the early 1960s the company was in trouble, ceasing production in June 1962, as the liquidators moved in.  A sale of the plant and equipment was held on 17 and 18 October 1962. The 750 lots included fruit preserving plant, 15 motor cars and 11 lorries. A couple of days previously the factory premises had been auctioned – the total site area was just over 4 ½ acres. It was sold to Henry Wigfall & Co. who paid £30,000 for it. They intended to use the premises for warehousing. It was later occupied by Waldo, a suite manufacturing company. The premises were demolished a few years ago and are now the site of housing.

An early company advertisement from the Derbyshire Times of 12 September 1894.

So, another relatively short-lived jam and preserves factory closed. No doubt influenced, like that at Bolsover, by the change in diet which saw less jam consumed and the dominance of national brands with big advertising budgets and nationwide distribution.

*Although many people local to the area would regard this as being Whittington Moor, in fact the boundary between Newbold and Whittington parishes runs down the middle of Sheffield Road. The Midland Fruit Preserving Company premises were therefore in Newbold parish. Though we haven’t yet prepared our draft text on Newbold’s economic history, the story of this company will be told in that section under Newbold parish.

We’d love to see any photographs of either the jam factory or its subsequent use as a furniture and upholstery manufacturers.

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The Bolsover Home Grown Fruit Preserving Company

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Back to Bolsover for our latest blog, which features, what might now be regarded as an unusual activity for the area – jam and preserves production.

Jam jar label

The Bolsover Home Grown Fruit Preserving Company was established in 1900. The chairman was JP Houfton of the Bolsover Colliery Company. Other directors included members of the Tinsley family, one of whom, farmed 200 acres of fruit locally.

Percy Houfton designed a factory for the company. Opening in 1902 this was situated on a 2 ½ acre site next to the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railweay (LD&ECR ) station at Carr Vale.  Apparently one reason the business was established was to absorb some of the surplus female labour in the district – then a mining community. Coal for the factory was mined at the Bolsover Colliery Company with jars from factories in Chesterfield and Worksop.

The jam and preserves factory location is identified on this 1920 Ordnance Survey map extract.

Farmed strawberries from local suppliers were particularly used in the early years, but Wisbech (in Cambridgeshire) and the Fens also provided other fruit shipped by rail. Along with jam, the factory bottled fresh fruit such as blackcurrant and bilberries. Mincemeat was a winter product.

Exterior of the jam and preserves factory building – now housing.

In the early 1920s the company considered moving into fruit canning. Despite an extension to the factory and installation of some plant, this was fairly quickly abandoned due to a slump in the fruit preserving industry nationally. The company did, however, prosper during the Second World War. 

After the war road transport was used to bring in plums and apples from the Vale of Evesham and raspberries from Carse of Gowrie. Oranges and lemons were imported via Liverpool. Despite earlier issues, canning fresh fruit increased in importance, along with canning peas. A regular workforce of around a few dozen were supplemented by several hundred seasonal workers during the late summer. Products seem to have been mainly sold locally.

The late 1950s saw the company facing competition from national brands, changing diets (the consumption of jam reduced), storage issues and lack of capital to mechanise. In 1959 the company ceased production. A year later Bolsover Urban District Council purchased the factory site and part of the old LD&ECR goods yard. For a period Sheffield cutlery manufacturers Walker & Hall used the premises.

Inside the jam and preserves factory.

The factory was later occupied by a Mercol Lubricants but this closed in the early years of the 2000s, was demolished and is now a housing estate.

There were other local fruit preserving businesses including one at Whittington Moor, Chesterfield.

Our thanks to Bernard Haigh and the Bolsover Civic Society for assistance with this blog. If you’ve any images (or labels) of the fruit preserving concern they would love to hear from you.  Contact their secretary – [email protected].

There’s some more photographs and information about the company on our VCH Explore website https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore/items/bolsover-jam-factory

Information for this blog has been sourced from ‘Derbyshire VCH volume III – Bolsover and adjoining parishes’, ‘Now and then Bolsover’ by Bernard Haigh and Geoff Harris and Bernard Haigh’s ‘More Bolsover remembered’ books. Images are sourced from Bolsover Civic Society and Bernard Haigh.

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A brief look at Steetley Church

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Were taking a brief look at the important Norman church at Steetley, courtesy of our Derbyshire VCH volume III – ‘Bolsover and adjoining parishes’. It’s well worth seeking out this attractive building.

Clearly in a ruinous state, this engraving of Steetley church appeared in the Lyson brother’s ‘Magna Britannia’, volume V of 1817.
Steetley church on12 October 2021. Note the heavily restored porch and the window mainly inserted in the 14th century (but restored in the 1880 restoration), which replaced two smaller Norman lights.

Our illustrations here are taken from Lysons’ 1817 Magna Britannia (volume V). These were based on measured drawings.

The chapel, in the north east of Whitwell parish, was built by the Brito family, who held a free tenement there in the 12th and 13th centuries. They also probably had a manor house situated adjacent to the chapel building. In 1323 the estate included a 1-acre plot on which a capital message had once stood.

A priest’s house was noted in about 1200. It is clear that Steetley is the unnamed chapel of Whitwell noted in 1291.

The chapel probably went out of use sometime before 1531. It was in use as a barn in 1636 and into the early 19th century. By the time the Lysons brothers wrote about it in 1817 the nave was roofless.

But antiquarian interest was increasing. The apsidal east end was restored in around 1840 for the earl of Surrey. Worksop based Robert White published a set of measured drawings and a photographic survey in 1860. In 1873 the British Archaeological Association visited. They made recommendations to roof the nave and further preserve the building. In 1875 a service had been held in the still ruinous chapel, but rebuilding was being discussed.

Another plate from Lysons’ 1817 book. The apsidal chancel can be seen. In his 1953 book ‘The buildings of England, Derbyshire’, architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described the building as ‘by far the richest example of Norman architecture in Derbyshire’.
A similar view to the 1817 plate above, this, though, is taken on 12 October 2021.

Five years later a restoration scheme was carried out by JL Pearson. Re-consecrated by the Bishop of Lichfield, it was said that the chapel had been ‘restored for the use of colliers’ (presumably those working at Steetley colliery). As any previous dedications were unknown it was dedicated to All Saints. From this date (1880) the building was used regularly for worship. It is still open for worship today, with accommodation for 60.

A further scheme of restoration was carried out in 1986-9.

An Anglo-Norman grave slab is present in the church.

You can find out much more in our VCH Volume III including a manorial history of both Steetley and Whitwell.

One of two interior photographs that appeared in JC Cox’s ‘Notes on the churches of Derbyshire, volume I, Scarsdale Hundred’ of 1875. This view is looking towards the apsidal chancel, which is at the far end . This part of the building is clearly roofless at this date.
The south doorway to the nave was heavily restored in 1880, with five orders instead of the former three.
Detail from the south doorway. As might be expected the exterior stone-work has suffered from erosion.

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A brief look at Chesterfield Grammar School

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We are taking a brief look at Chesterfield Grammar School in this blog. With the school closing in 1991, quite a few people might not realise that Chesterfield actually did have such a school.

Surprisingly few photographs of the old Chesterfield Grammar School, on Sheffield Road, appear in the public domain – at least those of the actual school, as opposed to pupil and teacher school year photographs. Our first illustration is taken from Ford’s 1839 ‘History of Chesterfield’. It shows the second school building on Sheffield Road.

The second grammar school building on Sheffield Road, from Ford’s 1839 ‘History of Chesterfield’.

The grammar school was endowed by Godfrey Foljambe of Walton Hall, who died in 1595. The school probably opened in 1598, when it took over the former St Helen’s chapel. In 1710 the medieval chapel was superseded with a two-storey building, shown in our first illustration, which is taken from Ford’s 1839 ‘History of Chesterfield’.  Highly regarded in the early eighteenth century, after some years of decline the school closed in 1832.

The new school opened in 1847.

Our second illustration shows the new building constructed, again, near the site of St Helen’s chapel. This new grammar school (boys only and fee paying) opened in 1847. The Rev. Frederick Calder, as headmaster, started a process of expansion and modernisation. This building now forms part of Chesterfield College’s West Studios, which our modern (and third) illustration shows. Part of the 1840s building can be seen, together with a major extension built in 1899 (to the far right). Contrast this with our fourth photograph, which shows the building in an Edwardian colourised postcard.

Chesterfield College’s ‘West Studios’ – the former Chesterfield Grammar School buildings, in 2017.
The main building of the grammar school on Sheffield Road, probabaly in about 1910. The building shown in our second illustration (the 1840s building) is to the far left. (Courtesy Richard Sheppard).

In 1903 the grammar school was recognised as a secondary school. It remained independent until 1940, when it was transferred to Derbyshire County Council.

There were various other extensions to the Sheffield Road site, including the purchase of nearby Hurst House, for use by the sixth form, but the school buildings became increasingly inadequate. A decision was made to relocate to Brookside, where the school’s governors had purchased land for playing fields in 1928. Fully opening in 1967, it’s these buildings that form the basis of the present co-educational Brookfield Community School.

The education ministry’s architect was concerned that this replacement building was itself inadequate in some ways. He was particularly concerned that the kitchen wasn’t large enough, the dining room was ‘critically small’ and that additional windows were needed in the assembly hall to meet Ministry regulations. Nor did he like the combination of steel and pre-cast concrete, or the mixture of brick and small block cladding. The building’s architects were the once well-known Chesterfield practice of Wilcockson & Cutts.

Our final photographs are two taken from a series of postcards of the Sheffield Road site published around 1928, but probably taken earlier. They both show the rear of the building

The school buildings from the south-east.
The school buildings from the north-east. This and the view above are from a set of postcards published in the late 1920s.

The end of, what by that time was called Chesterfield School, came in 1991 following a reorganisation of the town’s secondary schools.

There’s much more about the grammar school and Chesterfield education in general in our VCH county editor’s book ‘A History of Chesterfield Grammar School’. This 700-page book was commissioned by the Old Cestrefeldian Trust, from whom it is available. You can also find out more of the history of the school and a link to purchase the book at http://oldcestrefeldians.org.uk/History.html.

The Old Cestrefeldian Trust is publishing Chesterfield Grammar School Roll of Honour 1939-1945, a 96-page paperback containing short biographies of some 70 former pupils who died while serving in the Armed Forces during the Second World War. More details of this new title will be available nearer the time.

(Our thanks to the Old Cestrefeldians’ Trust for permission reproduce illustrations from their collection and use information from Philip Riden’s book, ‘A History of Chesterfield Grammar School’)

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Hulleys of Baslow reach their centenary

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North Derbyshire and peak district local bus operator Hulleys of Baslow are celebrating their centenary this year. In this blog we take a look at this operator, whose buses have been a familiar sight in the area for 100 years. VCH covers local bus operators in our red book series (but not the actual fleets in any great detail), as they played an important role in the economy of the area they served and in some cases still do.

Recreation of the old Hulley’s fleet name.

Henry Hulley, who had previously operated taxis, started to run a bus service between Bakewell and Chesterfield in April 1921.

In the following decades routes and journeys increased, with a couple of local operators being purchased before the Second World War. After, there was a fairly brief incursion into the Ashbourne area, courtesy of another business purchase, but these operations were sold in 1954.

Following Henry Hulley’s death in 1971, the remaining family members sold the business in 1978 to JH Wooliscroft & Son, of Darley Dale, who traded as ‘Silver Service’.

A perhaps timeless view of Bakewell in August 1980. The bus on the right is in a red and honey livery adopted by Silver Service after they took over the Hulley operations. It was soon superseded by a blue and honey ‘Silver Service’ livery. The bus is one of a batch of ex Merseyside Leyland Panthers which gave generally unsatisfactory operation with the company.

The familiar red and cream Hulley fleet livery and indeed the name disappeared under the Wooliscroft ownership. But the name reappeared again after the former Hulley’s Baslow garage and routes were sold to the Silver Service Transport Manager Arthur Cotterhill and Peter Eades who was a long-serving ex Hulley employee. The fleet was reinvigorated with a new blue and cream livery adopted.

In 2020 the business was purchased by Alf Crofts, who had been a Hulleys driver for 16 years.

The company held a centenary event at Chatsworth on 26 September where modern buses in recreated old and in current liveries were displayed.

Recreation of two former liveries as displayed at the centenary event held at Chatsworth in September 2021. The left-hand bus is said to recreate the first livery, whilst the right hand bus recreates the Silver Service livery.

At one time Hulleys did have reputation for using quite old vehicles and had some fleet problems. Today the company operates modern buses and once again double-deckers.

There’s lots more information on the history of the company on their website http://www.hulleys-of-baslow.co.uk/hulleys-100-centenary from which some of the information in this post is sourced. A two-part history of Hulleys has recently appeared in the Newsletter of Transpire, the Chesterfield Bus Society.

A 2009 built bus, at the Chatsworth event, which entered the Hulley’s fleet in 2020. This is in the current livery with the company names styled as ‘Hulleys’
It’s a far-cry from this ex-Nottingham bus, seen at Tontine Road, Chesterfield in December 1980. The company, then under Wooliscroft ownership barely seem to have had time to apply a splash of Hulley red – the green and cream being its former owner’s colours!

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