A paper read at a meeting of the Young Peoples Association by Mr Britton, Minister at Blackwell

Blackwell Parish Local History

With thanks to Mr Alec Freeman for sharing this document which gives an insight into Blackwell Colliery Village and the Methodist Chapel. The author Rev Britton did not hold back in his opinions; his script from approx. 1900 has been copied without any additions other than the notes at the end.

A paper read at a meeting of the Young Peoples Association by Mr Britton, Minister at Blackwell (1)

We who live at this favoured village of Blackwell, with the Institute, Hospital, Boys Brigade Hall and its educational advantages, and have become accustomed to the high level of culture and general attainment now reached, we , I say, may find it of interest to think of the early times of the history of the village. It is not intended to go back into the early periods to which the annals of the old village may be traced though that would reveal much to interest us, as it is tolerably certain that a Church existed there as early as the Saxon times. We will however remind ourselves, ( if we can remember so far back) or hear, of the state of things in this part of the Parish at the end of 1875 or the beginning of 76.

This is a very early period in the history of this now large and thriving city and the records prior to that time are uncertain and take the form of legendary stories occasionally to be heard from the lips of the “ oldest inhabitant”, but it is believed that Blackwell was discovered some years previous to this date (75) by a number of adventurers in search of coal, inhabited then by a few of the aboriginal natives. Having discovered it they began to dig and Blackwell became a place.

Of the early days the writer cannot speak except from hearsay but the houses at the Colliery appear to have been built first and the roads during the process were shocking; planks had to be put across the road for crossings in the street, and the children have been known to stick fast in the mud and have their boots pulled off their feet in the attempt to set them at liberty.( N.B. This I have been credibly informed and the present company may believe it if they like.)

House accommodation was very limited in these primitive times and no one was allowed to take a house unless he would also take in a specified number of lodgers so that there was an enormous amount of overcrowding. An alarming epidemic of scarlet fever broke out and spread like wildfire. The poor lodgers suffered- they got little attention or nursing and it was in consequence of this that the hospital was first thought of and (after a grant or two) was built.

Imagine if you can, the state of things at the end of 75- no doctor, no hospital, no institute, no manse, no schools or school house, no station, no water supply, Chapel just built and opened and only half the houses at Primrose built. In January 76 the shop and two top rows of houses in the front were built, the row of houses in front of the school and the butcher’s shop (Bramwells) and the Hotel were finished. The rest of the front row was afterwards built and then the back row. The schools were only half built and were opened in an unfinished state on February 14^th 1876.

The front row was built alongside a narrow meandering bridle road similar to the one going to Doe Hill and when the road was made some of the stumps of the trees in the hedge remained nearly in the middle and were not removed until an accident occurred one Sunday night to some people who were thrown out of a trap by a collision with one of them.

The people were a very mixed set- a few Derbyshire folk from surrounding places but the men were generally most of the shifting class who come to a new colliery- birds of passage never staying long anywhere and of the roughest class, from nearly all the mining Counties of England. There was a strike early in the year (at Blackwell only) and some rather rough work occurred, some blacklegs at B Winning having a narrow escape of being thrown down the shaft. The management at the time held back some of the money due to the men and threatened to keep it unless the men returned to work but the men sent word that if it were not paid they would fasten the office doors with all the officials and clerks inside and then bring down the whole pile with their picks. I believe they would have done it too and the Superintendent of Police at Alfreton told Mr Longden he could not undertake to protect him unless he gave way on this point which he eventually did.

Of course, the Colliery was on a much smaller scale than at present, and the officials and Plant much less. Three seams were worked- Hard Coal, Low Main and Blackshale. The latter seam has been closed some considerable time. Mr Longden (2) was General Manager and a Mr Bembridge (3) was Treasurer. (By the way the latter treasured up about £1100 of the Company’s money and levanted a year or two afterwards). The farm on White’s Lane belonged to the Company then and Sam White was the Farm Bailiff.

The water supply was very poor- at the Colliery there was a well and pump right in the middle of the road where the main road passes between the two rows of houses and there was also a little spring just above the bottom row. People also fetched water for washing from the house where there was a pan under the steam pipe. People at Primrose Hill fetched water from a spring in Sampson’s field- next the Quarry Field and the School House was supplied by a little stream which runs through the corner of the back garden.

When the Chapel was opened they had a good harmonium but a very poor player. His name was Isaac Bend (4) and there was a pleasing uncertainty about his playing. When a hymn was given out he would play the tune in such a way that you would not be able to tell whether it was French, The Old Hundreth or the Dead March. But although he was such a poor player he did not like to give way and used to play at times as long as he lived in the village. The Sunday School had been begun some time before and was held in the wood shop at the Colliery. This was started by a man named Thomas Arnatt( 5) the sawyer a man who was quite  a character in his way. His face was rugged and his body bent with age and rheumatism and though a good and earnest Christian he did not know a letter and if he was ever asked to read anything he always made the excuse that he had not got his spectacles. He had lost the thumb and one or two fingers of his right hand at his work, but for some considerable time after the children were brought to the schools he would sit at the door when school was dismissed and insist on shaking hands with each child a sit passed out. The scholars hated to touch his mutilated hand but he did it with the idea of teaching them which was their right hand. He used to say that in dealing with children “you have to be varry stern” and he certainly carried out his ideas. I have known (him) tell the boys “ you know I hev ‘yer” and then the next moment nearly crack the skull of one of them with the biggest stick he could find at the moment. He affirmed that he had been a Sunday School Superintendent since the time when he was 2 and he remained at his post till his infirmities prevented him from walking up from the Colliery to the schools. He was a prominent figure in Chapel affairs and a class leader. Among other of the chief officials was Mr Longden, Colliery Manager, and Manager also of everything else in the place including the Chapel. He also became a class leader in after years and had likewise a successful Sunday Afternoon class of young men. Reuben Bradley (6) was another and H Walker ( 7) who has now two sons in the ministry both of whom were scholars in our school.

There was only one vestry at the Chapel in the first instance. The other two have been added since the first building. It may also be of interest to mention that at the S.S Anniversary the platform was in the singers gallery and reached from front to back but this was found very inconvenient in many ways and the experiment was not repeated.

There was no institute in the village but in the autumn of 76 I think one was started in the school. There was a bagatelle table and reading room in the end school room (next Mr Todd’s field) and a Library for which the cupboard in the class room was put in. Afterwards the institute was built and remains now much as it was then, except that the Committee has less to do with the Management than in those times. Mr Longden was very careful that the meetings should be held monthly and the business of the institute was transacted at these meetings.

There are many other particulars of interest which might be mentioned but this paper is already long enough and must close. In conclusion I think we may congratulate ourselves that we live in Blackwell now rather than in 76. We sometimes grumble about our surroundings now but the condition of the place is immeasurably better than it was then. My only comfort during the first year of my life here was that I should not be staying long but things have improved- the population has become settled, and I may say more civilised and with Cricket and Football Clubs, Hospital and resident Doctor, allotments, railway station, plentiful water supply, institute, the electric light, a hall for the boys with gymnasium and baths, a manse and resident minister and above all a “ Young Peoples Association”; we especially who saw Blackwell in the rough and the making, can see very great cause for thankfulness.

Notes:

1. 1.    Rev J Britton was Minister at Blackwell Methodist Chapel in 1899 according to Kellys Directory of that year. By 1911 the Minister was Rev Charles Caro. In 1895 the Minister was Rev Job Grice, so Rev Britton was in place sometime in the period between 1896 and 1911 which dates this document approximately. Kelly's Directory records the Methodist Church at Blackwell as built in 1875 with seating for 500. It was registered for solemnizing of marriages and had a minister's residence attached.
2. 2.    Mr Longden was John Alfred Longden, born 1847 in Yorkshire and who by 1887 had spent 16 years at Blackwell as Mining Engineer and Manager, so responsible for sinking the shaft at A Winning. By 1891 he had moved again to Stanton by Dale.
3. 3.    Mr Bembridge: no information can be found at present.
4. 4.    Isaac Bend: Perhaps this is Isaac born about 1858 in Bottesford; he had a son Joseph born in Blackwell in 1877, but by 1881 the family were in Annesley before moving again to Clowne.
5. 5.    Thomas Arnatt died 1899 and is buried at Blackwell but that is all available information at present.
6. 6.    Reuben Bradley was born in Sedgley, Staffordshire in about 1848 and with wife Ann had moved to Blackwell, where in 1881 he was a Coal Miner, boarding at 158 Primrose Hill. In 1911 both were living in Church St South Normanton, and engaged in selling Barm, used for leavening bread.
7. 7.    H Walker: no information can be found at present.

We are always interested in recording and sharing local history. Please contact Tony Mellors on 07903 066115 if you have some to share.

Parish Newsletter Post Spring 2020

Blackwell in 1758

In 1742 The Duke of Newcastle sold several holdings of land in Derbyshire to the Duke of Devonshire. Included in this sale was the Manor and Farms of Blackwell, in it’s villages of (Old) Blackwell , Newton and Hilcote. The valuation at that time lists 23 tenants in properties included in the sale. 

In 1758 The Duke commissioned a map of Blackwell which shows all the fields, those which are in the use of the Duke’s tenants and those which owned by others. There is a copy of this map in each of Blackwell Parish’s Community Centres. Many of the field boundaries and lanes in 1758 still exist today and are easily recognisable on the map. For example, Fordbridge Lane with its bend around the A Winning Colliery site, had the same bend 100 years before the Colliery was established. And the field at the side was named “ Fordbridge”.

In total there are 58 dwellings shown on the map; 24 are in “Old” Blackwell including 1 at Twinyards and 1 near Revill’s Hill; 21 in Newton, 10 in Hilcote, 2 in ”New” Blackwell, at Scanderlands and Hill Top. And 1 in Westhouses approx. where the Station Hotel now stands. Some of these dwellings still exist although most are considerably changed during the last 300 years. Notes in this extract from the map list some of the property locations, some numbered on the map and who owned or tenanted them. The notes are retyped here. In brackets is shown the location as now known.

1, Frog Holes . 2/3 Sir Charles Molyneaux ( of Teversal) 1/3 The Duke’s ( Devonshire), Mr Wilkinson Tenant.

2, Horse Mill Lane Pingle.          Ditto                              Ditto                                   Ditto ( Opposite End Fordbridge Lane)

3, Mary Watson’s Sough Pingle                                                                               ( Behind Hilcote Community Centre)

4, Willm Struts Croft                                                                                                 (Adjacent to St Werburgh’s)

5, George Alsops Croft                                                                                                ( Adjacent to St Werburgh’s)

6, Stone quarry Close .1/2 George Adlington’s, ½ Mr Wilkinson’s Freehold              ( Approx. at Twinyards Farm)

7, Mr Wilkinson’s Freehold                                                                                  ( The White Cruck Cottage on Cragg Lane)

8, Willm Downend’s Hodsetting Pingle, exchanged with Sir Charles Molyneaux  ……for Elias Boot’s Croft and half of Mr Rowson’s Shepherd Flat                   ( Shepherd Flat was at the side of Pipes Farm, now under the M1 Motorway)

9,10,11,12,13,14,15, Cottages on the Waste, part in Possession ofLabourers, ….and part in the Farmers…….

( These were at the bottom of Church Hill in the lane itself)

16,17,18, 19, The poor’s Houses              

(16 and 17 were opposite Hilcote Hall in Hilcote Lane, and 18 and 19 on Alfreton Rd close to the Cragg Lane Corner)

20,21, Cottage Houses                        ( 20 is on the corner of The Green in Newton and 21 close by in Littlemoor Lane)

The locations of “1, Frog Holes”  and “8, Willm Downend’s Hodsetting Pingle”  have not been identified, but there were some other entertaining field names…. for example ”Cat Pool”, “Cockbarrow”, several “Swans Nests”, “Twin Yates”. There were several Pit Lands or Closes where coal in the seams close to the surface would have been extracted by Bell Pits like the one shown here. There were many lanes which have now disappeared either under the M1 or just lost, a significant one being from Mount Pleasant down to Hilcote Lane almost directly opposite Fordbridge Lane end. At some time it was known as Strawberry Lane, and if you now look through the fields from Hilcote Lane you can see two oak trees  between which Strawberry Lane would have run.

When next you visit the community centres take a look at the map, and go back almost 300 years in the history of Blackwell.

Reminiscences on WW2 in Blackwell Parish: Graham Peake, living in Newton

Reminiscences  on WW2 in Blackwell Parish:

Graham Peake, living in Newton

Graham was born on Mount Pleasant in 1930, so was 9 years old when war was declared. He can remember sitting listening to the radio announcement on the battery driven wireless. There was a shop at Blackwell where you took your batteries to be recharged. Additionally at that time there were Start’s Shop opposite Blackwell School, a newsagents run by Shug Smith’s father, the Co-op, Post Office, and Chip Shop. Opposite Primrose Hill were Petrol Pumps, Haberdasher, Hairdresser and a Cobblers.

Graham attended Blackwell School where the headmaster was Mr Smith, remembered as firm but fair. There were 2 age groups in each class, the school catering for children from 5 to 14 years. There was a female teacher who lived on Hilcote Lane, and another who lived at Shirland. An assembly always started the day. When sirens were sounded the children were sent home as there was no bomb shelter at the school, with the instruction to return when the All Clear was sounded, Graham says he never heard the All Clear sounded! The school staged fund-raising dramas to raise money for the war effort.

On the day of Graham’s 11+ exam, while walking to school with a friend, they were told of a bomb crater behind the farm at Mount Pleasant and 2 unexploded bombs in the field on Alfreton Road, opposite South St near the bus stop. He recalls that the bus stop was moved until the bombs had been collected by the military. Others were dropped near the Methodist Chapel at Blackwell. Graham’s dad was a ARP Warden ( Air Raid Precautions), and was on duty when an incendiary bomb dropped in front of the Blackwell Hotel, and a colleague was reported to have placed his tin hat over it..but fortunately the bomb failed to explode. A Fire Watcher in Blackwell thought he had been hit with shrapnel, but actually he had been hit on the forehead by the letter F of the metal Fry’s Chocolate Advertisement which had blown off. It is unlikely that bombs were targeted on Blackwell, and rather were dumped before flying home.

On another occasion while walking home from school up the hill on Alfreton Road,  aeroplanes were sighted and someone shouted “ German Planes “ so Graham and his mates dived into the hedge where the bank rises from the road level. About 1942 when going to play cricket on the playing field the lads found several containers, looking like “salmon tins with wings on”, which turned out to be Anti Personnel bombs; none exploded and the Army came and took them away.

Aside from these few memorable days Graham tells that children barely knew there was a war on. Most men were employed in the Colliery, and were not conscripted due to the need for coal for the armaments production, and most families raised their own pigs and chickens, and had vegetables from their allotments, so food was not in short supply in Blackwell. A school class of about 25 pupils from Southend on Sea was evacuated to Blackwell with a school teacher; Graham’s parents took in a brother and sister, Peter and Beryl Scudder, who were about 7 or 8 years old. Next door took in 2 teenagers, who ran away after 2 days and were tracked to Chapel en le Frith.

On leaving school a few days before his 14^th Birthday, Easter 1944, Graham took a job at Codnor Station; He had to set off from home on his bicycle at 4.30 am to be at the Ticket Office by 6am. He had a code book and on receiving messages had to translate them with the code book and pass the information on to the signal men to allow trains to pass, or direct them to sidings. Leaving the Station by the 7pm train to Westhouses, he would be home about 8pm and after eating went straight to bed to be ready for 4am again. After 6 months Graham left the Railway and started at A Winning Colliery.

At the end of the war Mount Pleasant residents organised a Victory Tea Party, but Graham missed it as his first love was football and Chesterfield Town were playing at home! As a boy he and his friends were allowed to play on the fields at the Villa on Mount Pleasant; the owner Mr Skidmore was always very pleased to see the youngsters enjoying themselves there. Graham was told that in the dim and distant past the Villa had been a staging post for carriages.

Graham had a cousin George Purdy, and every Saturday the 2 of them used to collect a tray of chocolate from the newsagent’s shop opposite Newton Chapel. George used to carry the tray on a strap round his neck, and Graham used to chip the ration coupons as they sold the chocolate door to door in Blackwell.

Schooled and employed at Blackwell, Graham knew little of Newton in his youth. When married to Joyce , they lived initially with Graham’s dad before moving to a caravan on Town Lane, off Cragg Lane,  Newton on Teddy Ball’s land. Teddy Ball was an undertaker. On Alfreton road, where no 1 now stands, there was a row of 3 cottages, one of which was occupied by a blind man who used to be employed straightening nails for Teddy Ball. On the opposite side of the road, east of Green Farm were another 3 cottages, one of which was occupied by the Heathcote family; to the side of that row was Barracks Yard, at the side of Nan’s Nick.

Graham remembers 2 names of men killed in the war:

Harold Hart of Cambridge St Blackwell, was Graham’s Uncle Charlie’s brother; Charlie had married Graham’s aunt, a sister of his mother. Harold Hart’s sister Hilda was Gt Grandmother of the Olympic Medal Swimmer Rebecca Adlington.

Samuel Granville Roberts, known as Granville, was a good footballer who played for Nottingham Forest before the war.

Many thanks to Graham for recording some notes on his early life.

Newton History Notes

11^th Century

The earliest record of Blackwell known to survive is the entry in the Domesday Book from 1080s and is referred to as Newton rather than Blackwell:

In NEWTON Leofric and Leofnoth had 3 c. (carucates) of land taxable. Land for 5 ploughs. Now in Lordship 1 plough. 13 villagers and 4 smallholders who have 5 ploughs. A priest, who has 1 smallholder; meadow, 7 acres; woodland pasture 1 league long and ½ wide. Value before 1066 £4; now 30 s. ( Shillings) Ralph holds it.

16^th Century

There is apparently a record of The George and Dragon pub at Newton in 1577.

And the following shows that Coal also played an important part in the Parish. In the Turbutt family archive isi this item dated 1554:

Lease for 21 years and counterpart indented by Dame Lady Anne Sheffield widow to Richard Rychardson and Richard Dawson of Newton yeoman, of a coal-mine in the lordship of Blackwell, 5 parts to Rychardson and 4 parts to Dawson. Yearly rent £18, (£10 from Rychardson and £8 from Dawson). The lessor covenants that the lessees shall have free access to the coal-mine for carriage by all ways necessary throughout the lordships of Blackwell and Normanton. The lessees are to permit all tenants in the lordships to work for them at the accustomed wage. If the work fails the rent ceases to be due. Only two pits to be in work. 10 Apr 1 Mary.

And from 1587 a“Letter to Anthony Richardson, bailiff of Lord Sheffield's lands in Derbyshire, from William Bromley and others, to force tenants accustomed to work at Blackwell coal-pits, to work or surrender tenancies, and to provide 6 or more convenient dwelling houses for colliers, 5 Mar 1586/7”

18th Century

In  1742 The Duke of Newcastle sold several holdings of land in Derbyshire to the Duke of Devonshire. Included in this sale was the Manor of Blackwell, with it’s villages of (Old) Blackwell , Newton and Hilcote. The valuation at that time lists 23 tenants in properties included in the sale. In 1758 The Duke commissioned a map of Blackwell which shows all the fields, those which are in the use of the Duke’s tenants and those which owned by others. Many of the field boundaries in 1758 still exist today. In addition to the Duke, the major landowners were Sir Charles Molyneux of Teversal, Mr Wilkinson of Hilcote Hall, Mrs Richardson of Newton Hall and William Downend ( Downing).

In total there are 55 dwellings shown on the map; 21 are in “Old” Blackwell, 21 in Newton, 10 in Hilcote, 2 in ”New” Blackwell, at Scanderlands and Hill Top. And 1 in Westhouses approx. where the Station Hotel now stands. Some of these dwellings still exist although most are considerably changed during the last 300 years. At the bottom of Church Hill in 1758 were “ Labourers’ Cottages in the Waste”, or on waste land. On Hilcote Lane were 4 dwellings and in Alfreton Rd Newton 2 dwellings all described as The Poor’s Houses.

On the eastern boundary of Blackwell was a significant woodland of 50 acres, also shown on the map. In 1740 the timber and tops alone were valued at £1452, the equivalent today of £1.6 million.

Although the Church of St Werburgh’s was the recognised seat of religion in the parish, there is evidence that non conformism had a hold in Newton in the17th and 18^th Centuries. At the Old Hall Mr John Richardson had connections with the Old Meeting House at Sutton In Ashfield and had requested that a visit of the preacher be paid to Newton Hall. There was a Chapel in the grounds of the Hall, which could have been the foundation of the Nonconformist movement in the village brought about by the relaxation of the laws concerning the rights of worship. Newton’s most famous resident Jedediah Strutt was  of the Unitarian following and established the Unitarian Chapel at Belper when later he was there.

Along Alfreton Road between Newton and Mount Pleasant were fields labelled “Pit Lands”, where coal was extracted by hand from shallow coal seams via what were known as Bell Pits.

19^th Century

The 1841 census shows that the major changes over almost 100 years are that Newton has now expanded to 42 households, Old Blackwell to 35 households and Hilcote to 17 households. Blackwell as we know it now remains at 2 at Hill Top and Scanderlands, and 3 households are now established at West House, eventually to become Westhouses; so 99 households in total and a population for the whole parish of 477. The population jumps to 517 by 1861, chiefly by the introduction into Westhouses of 6 huts of Railway workers numbering 42 men women and children. The story of Westhouses will begin with this. It is the decade between 1870 and 1880 when major population growth is seen due to the development of deep mines at Blackwell, Hilcote, and Tibshelf.

Old Blackwell sees very little change during that period, and farming remains the main activity.

At Newton, the mid 1800s saw small Collieries providing employment at Diminsdale, Tommy Newnies, and on the border with Huthwaite; the remains of these may still be seen in the effect of humps and hollows of the waste heaps, though these are disappearing fast. 

Framework knitting of stockings also provided significant employment, with families working in their own homes for entrepreneurs who brought them raw material and sold the finished product. However the income from this trade for the families was barely subsistence level with little continuity of earnings. Almost 50% of those working in 1851 were in Framework Knitting. This declined sharply when coal mining work provided a much better income.

The 1851 census also gives a further insight into religious development in the villages. St Werburghs’ vicar is not living in the parish, but was said to be residing at Mansfield. But boarding at Town Lane in Newton in 1851 was a Primitive Methodist Minister Mr Gothard. At this time it is believed locally that the Primitives’ Services were held in a barn at Newton Farm.

The deep collieries sunk at Tibshelf in 1868 brought about new residential development to Newton, notably Sherwood Street, and the northern part of the village at New St , Main St and Bamford St.. More homes were built subsequently at Mount Pleasant with North and South Streets.

The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was put through the villages of Newton and Old Blackwell around 1890, with a station at Tibshelf. The line was to become the Great Western and  then LNER in the mid 1920s.

 Children’s education opportunities grew too during this century. The lords of the manor endowed a school in 1835 where 12 children could be educated without cost. The 1841 census does not list any scholars,  but the numbers grew for the whole parish to 50 in 1851, 75 in 1861, 83 in 1871 and 535 by 1881. The children at Newton and Old Blackwell would have been attending the National School at Old Blackwell, built in 1873. In 1899 the Headmaster was Mr Deamon.

And with the growth of population, retail flourished too. By 1899 Newton had a post office and 15 shops including Grocers, Butchers, Drapers, Hardware, Glass and China, and Hairdresser and Tobacconist.

We do not know if it was the original George and Dragon of 1577 which was rebuilt in it’s current appearance in about 1890; In Old Blackwell there was an original Robin Hood pub, presumably with thatched roof, as it is still known as The Thack locally. The New Inn was built about 1875. There was Ale Brewing in Newton in Malthouse Yard in Town Lane .