History of Markham Resource Pack
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History of Markham Resource Pack Your CD Please order a full copy of the pack including CD via the Derbyshire Services for Schools website. 2 Contents Your CD 2 Using this pack 4 A brief overview of Markham 5 Markham’s Communities 7 List of sources 9 Suggested activities 14 Markham Memories 16 Duckmanton School 17 About Derbyshire Record Office 19 3 Using this resource pack Develop your pupils' local knowledge and sense of identity through a study of Markham Colliery. Using real historical documents created at the colliery and in the local communities plus other appropriate sources, discover the history of Markham and the mining heritage of its communities. This pack has been bespokely designed by Derbyshire Record Office as part of ‘The Story Mine’, a project supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Derbyshire County Council to unearth and share stories from Markham Colliery. It consists of one printed booklet with a CD containing a selection of source material from the archives and local studies held by Derbyshire Record Office that can be used with pupils of different age groups. The pack works best when used in conjunction with the oral histories and other source material gathered on The Story Mine website (https://markhamstorymine.org/). The opportunity to experience original source material captures the imagination so that topics become more real to pupils as they relate to the local information. Using original source material is not just about being taught what happened in the past and how things have changed, it is also about pupils taking on the role of detective to discover for themselves what life was like. Through this process, even younger pupils can begin to develop research and communication skills and encourage already enquiring minds. By their nature original source material can be difficult to use, for example, featuring old styles of handwriting and sometimes lots of text. Some of the sources in this pack may present such difficulties. Where appropriate printed transcripts and guidance have been provided. In our experience, many pupils cope very well with some of the handwriting and relish the challenge and the thrill of deciphering individual words and sentences. The following pages list and describe the sources included on the CD. 4 A brief overview of Markham COAL is a hard rock created by dead plants being pressed by other rocks for millions of years. From the 1700s it became one of A MINE is an the most important sources of underground space fuel for industry and later for where people work to homes too bring coal or other minerals to the surface Source: Mineral Information Institute Coal has been mined in north Derbyshire since at least the Roman times and in 1842 there was at least one coal pit in Duckmanton (run by Benjamin Smith and Co.) but it was not until the Staveley Coal and Iron Company leased land from the Arkwright family that the large industrial enterprise of Markham Colliery was established. COLLIERY is the term usually used for industrial-scale mines with buildings and facilities on the surface including for transporting the coal away. The colliery at Markham was named after Charles Markham (1826-1888), whose family were very important in the history and development of the Staveley Company and the Chesterfield area. The first shaft was sunk in 1882, and a second one sunk in 1886 – Markham No. 1 and No. 2 pits respectively. A total of eight seams were worked at Markham between 1882 and 1994 when the colliery closed (ref: Barrow,1995, Poolsbrook). The SHAFT is a large hole A SEAM is a layer of from the surface of the colliery coal (often found to the mine underground. Usually underground) for ventilating or draining the mine and/or with a huge metal A new mine is SUNK cage like a lift for the miners by digging a new shaft 5 The Eiffel Tower (built 1887-1889) was the world’s tallest 400 building until 1930, it is 324 metres high. When the Eiffel Tower second pit was sunk at Markham it went 460 metres 300 underground. 200 100 By 1980 Markham was the largest colliery in the North 0 Derbyshire coalfield, and one of the largest in the country. There were 1970 employed underground and -100 380 on the surface. Annual output was 1.63 million -200 tonnes, that’s a daily average of 7050 tonnes – which is -300 about the same weight as the Eiffel Tower! -400 -500 Markham No. 2 For a timeline of the colliery, see markhamstorymine.org/ 6 Markham’s Communities Poolsbrook is a small mining village situated between two collieries, Ireland to the north-west and Markham to the south east, which provided much employment for the majority of males in the village. Poolsbrook derives its name from the brook Pool Brook which ran on the outskirts of the village and joined the River Doe Lea near Netherthorpe. … The Old Village was started around 1860 and consisted of 213 terraced houses or cottages as they were called. … Early in the 1900s besides the 213 cottages, the village consisted of Woodhead’s grocery shop, the School and School House which was built in 1902, a public house with dwelling attached, a Co-operative Store with a house built on in 1909 and 3 houses known as the Coop Villas. – extract from Donald Barrow (1995) Poolsbrook Past and Present, p. 6 The ancient settlement of Duckmanton (pre-dating the Domesday Book of 1086 was located near to Calow, the other side of Arkwright Town (see source A1 1955- 2005). The current town of Duckmanton is the combined former villages of Long, Middle and Far Duckmanton (see source A1 1837-1938). Use the sources in this pack to learn with your pupils more about the history of Duckmanton. Arkwright Town was established after 1897 when the Staveley Company purchased land for 229 houses in 7 rows for a mining community to serve the company’s collieries nearby, although only 160 houses on 5 rows were built (see source A1 – 1955). Mining communities had already been or were being constructed at Poolsbrook, Markham (for officials and skilled workers) and Bonds Main. The rows were divided into 3 terraced blocks containing between 6 to 12 houses. Rows were each separated by open back yards containing earth middens (i.e. dunghill) and coal houses for each property with pairs of properties sharing a common ash pit (usually for disposing of toilet waste ready for collection by the nightsoilsmen). Service roads were constructed to separate the back yards with lighting provided by gas from the Chesterfield gas plant. Water was pumped into a tap in each kitchen by pumps sited on Deepsick Lane. A school was built in 1900 to educate some 422 children and the headmaster lived in a house nearby. There were shops, a railway station, public house (the Station Hotel), a Miners Welfare and Methodist Chapel. Allotments were created along 7 with children's play areas to the side of the railway. In the 1930's the gas lighting was replaced by electric lighting supplied by generators at Staveley Works and the old outside middens and ash pits were replaced with water closets and modern sewage pipes. Arkwright Colliery opened in 1938. In 1947 the National Coal Board became the new landlords of Arkwright Town and undertook the restoration of the village, demolishing the outside buildings and providing indoor bathrooms and toilets. On 9 November 1988 a state of emergency was called in the village and British Gas engineers were called investigating reports of a gas leak at one of the houses in Hardwick Street. After investigating the problem, they reported that it was not a leak on their mains but one of methane escaping from underground workings at Arkwright Colliery (which had closed in January that year). Ultimately, all the houses were demolished and ‘the village crossed the road’ in 1995. – www.abridgewater.freeserve.co.uk – Simon Beckett, The Independent on Sunday, 17 Apr 1994 8 List of Sources Unless otherwise stated the sources in this pack are from the archives and local studies (LS) collections at Derbyshire Record Office. The following abbreviations are used for sources from elsewhere: BNA – British Newspaper Archive, www.britishnewspaperarchive.org.uk PTP – Picture the Past, www.picturethepast.org.uk A. Maps and Plans These sources show how the area around Markham colliery has changed from before the colliery was established to the creation of Markham Vale. The first map, dated 1837, shows that all the land in Sutton and Duckmanton was owned by the Arkwright family. 1. Extract from the Sutton cum Duckmanton Tithe Map, 1837 (D2223/A/PI/32a); Ordnance Survey maps showing the area around Markham Colliery, 1883-2005 (OS/6/C/26.NW; OS/6/NG/SK47.SE; OS/6/NG/SK47.SW), with enlargement for 1899 (OS/25/C/25.4, 25.8, 26.1, 26.5) and slides featuring extracts from the Ordnance Survey maps for comparison over time. Note: the 1883 map was surveyed in 1875 so it actually shows the area just before Markham Colliery was established in 1882. 2. Plan of pithead baths, c1939 (N40/11/7) Unfortunately, due to the condition of the original plan it has not been possible to produce this image to any greater quality. 3. Surface site plan, 1970 and Underground layout plan, 1972 (D3722/2/18) 4. Site plan, Oct 1993 5. Plan of proposed layout of Markham Vale, c1999, from Derbyshire County Council New beginning: making the difference for the North Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire coalfield (LS 338.94251) 6. Map of mines in North Derbyshire, 1981 (from a brochure produced on the occasion of a visit by Ivor Manley, Deputy Secretary of State of Energy, 12 Aug) (N42/1/30) B.