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We are still at Bolsover for this blog – and is anyone up for a swim? Unfortunately, if you are – you’re too late, for these baths were closed, controversially, in the late 1980s and demolished.

They were opened in 1925 on land given to the miner’s welfare committee fund by the duke of Portland, at the bottom of Castle Lane. Not only were there public baths, but the scheme also included public slipper baths (where, for those who had no bathroom, you could go and get one) and showers. The baths (there was one pool) could be boarded over for dances, concerts and meetings.

Our first photograph shows the baths, including the superintendent’s house, under construction. Our second the completed baths, both are courtesy of Bernard Haigh and featured in his ‘Around Bolsover’ book. The baths were certainly impressive.  As recorded in our book ‘Bolsover: castle, town and colliery’ the town’s urban district council took a 25-year lease on the baths in 1925, at a nominal sum.

They were used by local people and those from further afield – particularly schools, who would be transported by the town’s Castle Coaches to and from the baths. (The writer of this post remembers being ferried from a Chesterfield area junior school to Bolsover and back in the late 1960s by Bolsover’s own Castle Coaches).

The interwar period was one of progress by Bolsover’s urban district council. They constructed council homes, provided improved parks, purchased the formerly private water undertaking (1923) and began to supply electricity (from 1927). A library was also established in the council offices, jointly with the county council, in 1925, before moving to a former Co-op branch in 1932, on Cotton Street.

We’ve dipped in to our own archives for this blog, with pictures of when our part of the England’s Past for Everyone (EPE) project was launched in Bolsover Library on 18 March 2006.

We were able to welcome Dennis Skinner, then Bolsover MP, who cut our rather tasty birthday cake. Professor David Hey (who sadly died in 2016) and Professor John Beckett from the University of Nottingham and one-time Victoria County History (VCH) national director were also present along with civic and local history organisations in the Derbyshire project areas (which were Bolsover and Hardwick). Professor Hey was a chairman of the Derbyshire Victoria County History Trust.

The EPE project was driven by the internationally respected research standards of VCH. In addition to the two books on Bolsover and Hardwick which were eventually produced, a website was created. This is still accessible at https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore/. The project included work with schools. A volunteer research group was started and contributed to the work. Other communities across England were also part of the EPE project.

Find out more about the Derbyshire EPE books on Bolsover and Hardwick (which are unfortunately now out of print) and other VCH publications here.

It’s only fairly recently that we have been managing our own digital media presence. Both our own webpage and Facebook page are newcomers.

We have had a blog published by the British Association for Local History (BALH), about this recent approach to digital media, including Facebook posts. Take a look at https://www.balh.org.uk/blog-opening-up-our-research-to…

The BALH has lots of information on its website (https://www.balh.org.uk/) for anyone interested in local history and runs a popular series of on-line talks and seminars.

Local wine and spirit merchant Thomas Philpot Wood (1840-1911) published an annual almanac from his premises over-looking Chesterfield Market Place. Our first illustration shows the once familiar cover of one the later editions. The second illustration is taken from the rear cover of his edition for 1900, which clearly shows TP Wood’s premises. The almanac was distributed freely to his ‘customers and friends’.

The first edition was published in 1863 with the final one in 1963 (for 1964), though by this time the business had long been part of the Mansfield Brewery Company. There were notable gaps in publication, including just before the First World War and after the Second World War.

In its early years, Wood would introduce each almanac with his personal thoughts about local and national happenings. There were general articles, a local directory and perhaps, most famously of all, a chronicle in which local events were briefly listed. Our third photograph shows the final entries for the 1900 almanac. They generally end in November of each year to allow for typesetting and subsequent publication around Christmas. The almanac for 1900 was therefore published in the period leading up to Christmas 1899. It comprised some 515 pages – quite an undertaking. They were eagerly awaited in many households.

The almanacs might also be illustrated with plates of local features, such as the workhouse on Newbold Road (later Scarsdale Hospital) – our final photo. Wood explains in his introduction that rebuilding or a move out of town was then under discussion. In the event the former was pursued.

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The covers of the almanac changed little in its later years. Our first photograph shows one from 1921, which includes the TP Wood’s punch (in a) bowl trademark. The cover of the last edition for 1964 was basically the same, but with a dark blue paper.

TP Wood himself was a great benefactor to the town and prominent in its politics. Today he is best remembered as the driving force behind Chesterfield’s Queen’s Park and his almanac. You can find out more about him at this short biography by Chesterfield Museum.

There’s an interesting blog from the Derbyshire Record Office about how an engraving of Chapman’s 1837 map appeared in one of TP Wood’s almanacs here.

For us in Derbyshire VCH, we still use TP Wood’s almanacs as a useful research source – particularly its chronicle of local events.

One of the features of older Chesterfield was the large number of long yards in the Market Place area. In this post we look at one of these survivors – Angel Yard which started in the Market Place and ran right up to Saltergate.

When the Crown officials, who had charge of the manor of Chesterfield, decided to move to a new and present market area, at the end of the 12th century, they also laid out burgage plots. On the Low Pavement and Central Pavement side of the market these went right down to the banks of the river Hipper. But, on the opposite side they were constrained by those already on Saltergate. Many had yards to access the properties that were built on them.

You can still see remnants of these plots and yards today. A traceable one is Angel Yard, which ran from the Angel Hotel on the Market Place, right up to Saltergate. Our first photograph shows the one-time Angel – decorated for the turning of the first sod of the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway in 1892. The archway to the right leads up to Angel Yard. Fast forward to the late 1920/1930s for our second photograph – complete with trolley bus. The Angel Hotel was burnt down in 1917, but had closed in 1915. The adjacent post office (which opened in 1886 after being in the Market Hall) took advantage by extending towards its next-door neighbour – the then Westminster Bank. Note the gap between the two – probably remnants of our Angel Yard. This gap is still there – our third photograph.

At Saltergate – our fourth photograph – next to the Barley Mow public house, Angel Yard still exists. You can still see it has a street name plate and it actually looks like a yard. It runs down towards its now isolated end in the Market Place, cut off by the relatively modern Rose Hill.

There are still other fragments of the burgage plots and their yards left – perhaps most notably on Central Pavement with Theatre Yard and Ward’s Yard. But many went when The Pavements shopping centre was developed at the rear of Low Pavement. A stark illustration of the former burgage plots can be seen on our seventh and final illustration – part of the 1883 Ordnance Survey 6 inches to 1 mile map of Chesterfield. Note the long black blocks of property – following the boundaries of the old burgage plots.

You can find out lots more in our Chesterfield Streets and Houses book.

We have started to add some draft text to our website, starting with Whittington (and Brampton), both near Chesterfield.

The former township and later civil parish of Whittington, Chesterfield, is a diverse one of some 1,581 acres. The former township of Brampton occupied about 7,900 acres. They are very much work in progress, but take a look here https://derbyshirevch.org/draft-text/. We’d be grateful for comments, additions or corrections.

For Whittington you’ll find information on manorial history, education and some of the economic history chapter. The Albion Pottery (as advertised here in about 1938) is covered, but the larger Pearson’s Pottery isn’t. It is actually in Newbold parish – as we explain. We also include an account of Frith’s works at New Whittington, responsible for a fair part of the growth of this community. Other industry, including mining, is also covered. Representing text to come is a contemporary photograph of the devastation caused to the 1863 parish church, in a January 1895 fire. It was rebuilt – the new 1896 building still stands today.

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

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

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

Posted 26 January 2021