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.

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