C O N T E N T S

Editorial 2

From the Chairman 6

New Members 8

The latest Blue Plaquery: 8

Alice Wheeldon 9

Percival Willoughby, MD 9

Joseph Pickford 10

William Duesbury the elder 11

Revd. Thomas Gisborne & William Strutt FRS 11

John Whitehurst FRS 13

Derby’s Grade II Listed Buildings 30: Darley Hall Stables 15

Darley Hall Stables Conversion Plans 17

Darley Abbey’s New Fish Pass 18

DCMS Consultation on the Future of English Heritage 19

Derby Museums; Maker Fair 20

Derby Museum Friends 21

Biographical Dictionary of Derbyshire Architects to 1945: W – Y 22

Coming Society events 47

North Lees Hall 48

E D I T O R I A L

First of all, I would like to wish all readers a happy New Year for 2014. Secondly, I would like to offer our most hearty congratulations to Richard Blunt for his exemplary restoration of St. Helen’s House and for winning the Georgian Group’s prestigious award for it. It can only encourage others, and we must hope that the County Council, after 13 years of incompetent dithering, will swiftly grant him a lease of Elvaston Castle and let him get on with that, too. I know he would do an absolutely terrific job.

Our rise in membership, rightly highlighted by Alan Grimadell, our new chairman, is a most encouraging aspect of the recent past and something we would wish to build upon. Added to that, we have acquired two corporate members, some-thing we have not had in any numbers since Carole and I first joined in around 1980. I rather hope we might consider putting together a mailing shot to a select group of local firms inviting them to follow suit. Plenty of members and corporate members can only help to increase our clout, and in these rapidly changing times, clout is something we shall need in spades.

With signs of the economy

2 beginning to stir for the first time since the fiduciary disasters of 2008, we shall need great vigilance to monitor development s like Wilson Bowden’s on Full Street and the creep of new housing is all those green fragments of land still left around the fringes of the City, which we have been defending for years, with mixed success. Furthermore, whilst there are threats to these outer suburbs, there are plenty of brown field sites crying out for re-development, most noteworthy of which are Duckworth Square and Friar Gate station.

Full Street has been fallow since a little before the recession, and the impression given was that Wilson Bowden, the owners, had rather given up on it. Indeed, I must say I thought they were on the brink of doing a Metro-Holst = the developers of the ’Bus Station and Open Market who fell by the wayside in mid-flight and whose rescuer gave us the truly horrible Riverlights building, a gross gimcrack pile in tasteful battleship grey. But in fact, they were merely sitting on the plot until better times came, and, with a healthy cash injection from the Council, this has now come to pass.

Recently, we were treated to an architect’s projection of the replacement building, which I append. Readers will readily observe that this is just the first thing their computer CAD produced when the client’s requirement s were punched in. The applicants will be hoping that the planning committee will nod it through as it stands, but this is a conservation area, and the building will be seen across Cathedral Green in the context of the Cathedral (LGI), The College (LGII), and the Silk Mill (LGII). The site is also adjacent to the World Heritage Site, and anything to be built on it needs to be of terrific quality. What we have now is if anything worse that the old Police Station, which was at least built of brick.

Furthermore, I understand that the firm’s custodianship of the listed Magistrates’ Courts and old police station (the work of Herbert Aslin, 1933) has been less than perfect. The beautiful wrought bronze balustrade of the staircase inside has been hacked out and at least one of the bronze lamp holders which flanked the grand entrance has gone. Decorative metalwork was one of Aslin’s specialities, although we are not entirely sure which craftsman made it, although one suspects it was done by the local firm of Taylor, Whiting and Taylor. I have photographs of the external metal work and I can only hope that the internal metalwork was photographically recorded too, so that replicas can be fully re-instated, as the law requires.

With regard to Duckworth Square, the news that a scheme to regenerate it is in the pipeline is welcome. When I was on the board of Cityscape (our Urban Regeneration Company [URC] of blessed memory, rightly abolished in short order by the present government) we spent some time pursuing schemes to do something about Duckworth Square. The stumbling block was that this relatively modest space was divided amongst five freeholders, all of whom had completely unrealistic expectations of the value of their particular moiety, making the re-unification of the site virtually impossible. My view at the time was that one should try and create incentives for the freeholders by somehow involving them in any proposed development. One presumes that this problem has been overcome, perhaps by this very method.

Any development may well involve the future of the former Debenhams store (originally Ranby’s) and the United Reform Chapel, both of which we placed on the Local List as being of no small merit, despite their early 1960s modernist appearance. They are currently owned by Westfield, acquired get Debenhams to move and to prevent competition with the eponymous shopping arcade, which we hear is now to be sold. Debenhams especially follows the street line in a noble sweep, just like the Technical College did on Normanton Road before Wheatcrofts were allowed to level it (to no particular purpose) a decade or so ago. Again, the key issue here will be the form and purpose of whatever is intended to go there, bearing in mind that the conservation area we managed to get set up by the Council around Green Lane lies on its south side.

The Friar Gate GNR station site is linked to the problem of the Handyside railway bridge of 1876 (above). Clowes Investments has owned the site for decades, and there

4 have been at least three major schemes granted planning consent for it. None have been built, and the site continues to lie empty, generating accumulated value. The last scheme, to include a superstore by a major national retailer in the listed Bonded Warehouse was quite a good one, too. With a scheme there actually being built, there would be a much great incentive to do something positive about the bridge.

Readers will recall that we were led to believe, through a dexterous piece of salesmanship on the party of Lowbridge, the developers of the site opposite, that the bridge would be somehow incorporated, but of course, this never happened. The small print reminded us that it was up to the Council to undertake that part (some hope!). Driving past the copperclad monstrosity that they put up in our premier conservation area, one quickly reaches the conclusion that there are no takers for all this space that the Council, the Chamber of Trade and the Forkinistas claimed was ‘desperately needed as an essential spur to growth of a vibrant business community’ in this part of the City. Thus we may be waiting some time before the second block of this development gets built, which can only be a good thing. What is there now is meretricious enough; doubling it in size can only magnify the blight.

The Ford Street Horror: a half-completed empty vessel.

This of course, reminds us that, by the same token, the grisly Jury’s Inn development is only half built as well. A tower of apartments was granted planning consent adjacent and could still go up, further harming the setting of Pugin’s fine St. Marie’s church (to employ its original spelling) and compromising the City’s ravaged skyline.

The contribution of the Council to assist Wilson Bowden in re-developing the Full Street site was linked to the wholly laudable plan to re-locate the Derby Local Studies Library to the former Magistrates’ Court. What a pity that costs preclude the Council from exercising its right to be an archive repository and seeking to repatriate the City’s MS collections to Derby at the new site. Leaving these in the custodianship of

5 the grim junta who now run the County Council, makes me at least, uneasy; I can remember what befell the County’s once fine Museum service, its collections and respected officers in the 1980s. One must also worry about the future of the former County Council HQ where the Local Studies Library is presently based. Infill housing seems likely, but we must press for the retention of this splendid building by G. H. Widdows (see Biographical Dictionary, below).

A final thought: Dame Helen Ghosh, the career bureaucrat who now heads up the executive arm of the National Trust, has recently argued that the British are not as sentimental about heritage as many another nations. We were very un-reverential in the post-war period. We wanted to build a new nation in the image of the Festival of Britain: ‘Let’s knock everything down and build an Arndale Centre.’ Whereas in continental Europe they reconstructed what they had before. How true, how true! And by ‘we’ I presume she means her own kind: state civil servants and politicians, both local and national. I suspect that even in 1951, after six bleak years of austerity and hardship that make much of today’s difficulties pale into insignificance, most normal people were strongly against the evisceration of town centres however badly damaged they may have been. Yet it was that warped Utopianism that led to the destruction of such Derby buildings as The Old Mayor’s Parlour, St. Alkmund’s Church Yard, The Old Nottingham Castle Inn & the 1764 Wesleyan Chapel, the site of which lay empty for decades and which had they survived would have been priceless assets to any drive for tourism. The only saving grace was that the Council were so slow off the mark in what was then thought of as up-to-the-minute housing provision that they only ever built one tower block, for which they deserve our unswerving gratitude.

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

This is my first report following my election as chairman at the October AGM. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking former Chairman David Ling for his six years hard work. I’m delighted that David has decided to remain a member of the Civic Society Council in the role of Secretary. I also welcome on board our new Vice-Chairman Ashley Waterhouse, and our new Treasurer Phil Lucas. My thanks go to Jane Nellist, our former Treasurer who has now returned to Lincoln University and to Peter Steer our former Secretary, both for their support and dedication to the Society – thankfully Peter remains as a Council member. My thanks also go to Ann Eames for her many years as a Council member. In consequence, I can take pleasure in reporting that we have a very strong and active Council.

We ended 2013 with the launch of the John Whitehurst Blue Plaque. The priorities of the Civic Society during 2014 will be the continued launch of Blue Plaques on a regular basis together with the continuation of our so far highly successful membership drive. The list of members joined since the summer, below, emphasises

6 how successful this has been. During 2013 our membership secretary Robin Wood said that there had been an “unprecedented” increase in new members joining the society. I believe it is important that we continue to attract and introduce new members and that we actively promote the good work we all do.

The Council during 2013 voted to join Marketing Derby as a Bondholder. Marketing Derby was established to promote the City in every aspect; most companies within the City (large and small) are Bondholders, and we decided to play a part in this work – after all we share the same aims and hold similar views. There was a cost to become a member, but that cost was met be our increase in income from our enhanced membership during the year – our finances continue to remain at a very healthy level.

On the social side, the Society plays a stimulating part in the lives of our members. If you have never attended one of the events organised by Dave Parry, our inventive and experienced activities sub-committee chairman, give one a try – they are always interesting, fun, entertaining, and a pleasure to attend. What’s more, if you can think of something which the Society might do at any time in the year, let Dave know.

In conversation with The Dean, John Davies, we have decided to promote during 2014 four short talks in Derby Cathedral. Dave Parry, David Ling, Maxwell Craven, and Richard Felix have all agreed to deliver a talk on one of our Blue Plaque subjects. All of the talks will begin at 13.15hrs and end approximately half an hour later. They will be followed by a sandwich lunch. Furthermore, all the talks are free of charge th th th including the lunch! Therefore, the dates for your diary April 8 , May 6 and 20 , th and finally June 10 – all talks will be held on a Tuesday; arrival time is to be 1pm with an introduction from the Dean. More details will follow closer to the dates.

C. H. Aslin: detail of the river front of Derby Magistrates’ Courts showing surviving wrought iron work, December 2013.

I’m certain that all members will welcome the development at long last of the Magistrates Court (although we shall have to watch what they want to replace the demolished 1963 police station with!). and deplore the state of Friar Gate bridge, which was listed grade II in 1974 and acquired by Derby City Council (for £1), which is in a dreadful condition and deteriorating. I can report that a feasibility study funded by the Regeneration Directorate has recently been commissioned by the Derby City Council conservation team. The study should be complete in February 2014 and will form the basis for considering what action the Council might be able to bring about for the restoration and use of the bridge; also how our Society - and the group set up independently to draw attention to the bridge’s plight - could help.

Finally my thanks go to Derby City Council for our continued partnership with the Blue Plaque scheme, and equally to the Derby Telegraph and BBC Radio Derby for their coverage of events and promotion of this Society. On behalf of the Derby Civic Society Council we wish you all good health, prosperity, and peace for 2014.

Alan Grimadell

NEW MEMBERS (since late August 2013)

We warmly welcome the following new members and look forward to seeing them at future events. Private members Mr. & Mrs. Richard Aitken-Davies, 17 Quarndon Heights, Allestree, DE22 2XN Max Anderson, 36, Saundersfoot Way, Oakwood, Derby DE21 2RH Zamida Aslam, 135, Brighton Road, Alvaston, Derby DE24 8TB Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Bradley, 26, Parkside, Belper, Derbys., DE56 1HY Vy. Revd. Dr. John Davies, Derby Cathedral Centre, 18, Iron Gate, Derby, DE1 3GP Mr. & Mrs. William Hardcastle, Friar Gate House, 65, Friar Gate, Derby, DE1 1DJ Paul Hilsdon, 8, Quarndon View, Allestree, Derby DE22 2XJ Eileen Morgan, 34, Vicarage Drive, Chaddesden, Derby DE21 6LR Professor Jonathan Powers, DL, The Quandary, 100, Church Road, Quarndon, Derbys. DE22 5JA Tony Ruff, 33, Uplands Avenue, Littleover, Derby DE23 1GE Kevin Sanders, 92, Black Eagle Court, Burton-upon-Trent, Staffs., DE14 2LN Clare Schneck, Churchfields Farm, Brailsford, Derbysahire DE2 3BW Amanda Solloway, 211, Victoria Avenue, Borrowash, Derbyshire, DE72 3HG John Taylor, 33, Lime Grove, Chaddesden, Derby DE21 6WL

Corporate members Andy Leask, Role Mill, 49, Canal Street, Derby DE1 2RJ W. W. Winter Photographers Ltd., 45, Midland Road, Derby, DE1 2S

THE LATEST BLUE PLAQUERY

After many years of campaigning by the Society to have a proper Blue Plaque scheme to honour the Great and the Good of Derby’s past, the City Council have at last asked the Civic Society to work in partnership with them to promote Derby’s first official Blue Plaque scheme. This has been working as follows: The Society oversees the project and the City Council and the Society share the cost of plaques. Those being pioneered by the County Council seem to come in at around £500/600 each, but ours are appreciably less expensive. The plaques are 10 inch cast iron discs, with minimal information on them and with the names of the Council and Civic Society around the edge. The Society may approach outside organisations for contribution to the costs. 8

A small working party was formed with representatives from the Society and the Council. The scheme was publicised by a joint press launch inviting anyone to submit suggestions for names so that the public of Derby feel fully engaged with the project. Further publicity is obtained as each plaque is unveiled. This helps boost membership. The working party adjudicated on which of the nominations, deciding which should go on the list. The Society then did the necessary research; to arrive at the correct locations and to confirm the nominated person’s connection with the City and biography.

As readers of our summer Newsletter will know, the first plaque was be unveiled on the Silk Mill on the 22nd April at 5.15 pm by the Mayor of Derby. It is a joint plaque in honour of John Lombe and George Sorocold). Another plaque was unveiled on 1st May to commemorate Mrs. Alice Wheeldon (1867-1919), a socialist revolutionary and suffragist accused in 1917 (on questionable evidence of planning with her family to assassinate the Coalition Prime Minister, David Lloyd George and Arthur Henderson, Lloyd George’s Minister without Portfolio (also a senior member of the Parliamentary Labour Party – an unlikely target for a lady of Mrs. Wheeldon’s radical propensities!) Born Alice Marshall in Normanton Road, she was sentenced to 10 years, but released shortly afterwards on the intervention of the Prime Minister. Two of her four children later migrated to the USSR where her son Billy was liquidated by the CHEKA in 1924. Proposer: Keith Venables, Derby Peoples’ history/Alice Wheeldon Society.

A third plaque was st unveiled on 1 August to honour Dr. Perci-val th Willoughby, the 17 century surgeon, gynae-cological pioneer and author of Observations on Midwifery . A scion of the grand Willoughbys of Wollaton (now represented by Lord

th Middleton), he lived most of his working life in Derby in half of the large 15 century timber framed mansion called The Old Mayor’s Parlour in Tenant Street, which was demolished by the Council on 1948. His influence on midwifery and gynaecological science was far-reaching, although his seminal work on the subject was not published th until the early 19 century, although it was still considered highly relevant even then!

th September 16 saw the unveiling of a plaque on the house he built for himself 1768-69, to Joseph Pickford (1734-1782) Derby’s talented Georgian architect, responsible for St. Helen’s House, The Wedgwood factory and village at Etruria, Staffordshire, the Inn, stables and gatehouse at Edensor and Derby Alms-houses in Full Street for the Duke of Devonshire amongst many other important works crammed into a tragically short life. Apart from the Etruria Works for Josiah Wedgwood, Pickford designed and built for several other Lunar Society luminaries and was responsible for a number of elegant town houses in Friar Gate and at Ashbourne.

Pickford’s House, Friar Gate, 1768-69. The essentially Palladian façade is crammed with almost every architectural conceit possible, presumably to draw peoples’ attention to Pickford’s genius. Indeed, his genius lay in the fact that, for all that, the façade is beautifully proportioned and looks extremely good .

The Museum gave us all an excellent tea in the Brew House after the certemony, and the Society is very grateful to all those who organised this and who helped with it.

At the Landau Forte College, Fox Street, we unveiled a plaque to honour the important co-founder of the Derby China Factory: William Duesbury the elder. Like Dr. Willoughby’s house, the works are long gone, but part of the Landau Forte College occupies the site, and the College authorities were very pleased to host not only the plaque, which was unveiled th on 18 October, but a very enjoyable occasion at which the unveiling was done, as before, by the Mayor, Cllr. Fareed Hussain.

Left to Right: David Ling (then still our chairman, left),Keith Doble, chairman of the Landau Forte Governors), Kevin Oakes (CEO Steelite & Royal Crown Derby), the Mayor, Cllr. Fareed Hussain, Cllr. Martin Repton, and Mrs. E. Coffey, the Landau Forte Principal following the unveiling.

William Duesbury was an important enameller, a British entrepreneur, and co-founder of Royal Crown Derby. Duesbury acquired a share in the Derby Potworks on Cockpit Hill and went on to set up the Nottingham Road factory with André Planch . In 1773 Duesbury‘s hard work was rewarded by King George III who, after visiting the Derby works, granted him permission to incorporate the royal crown into the Derby back stamp after which the company was known as Royal Crown Derby. Duesbury died of a heart attack in 1786 at the age of 61, and is buried in St Alkmund‘s Church, Derby. The firm itself continued until 1848.

The next occasion took place at newly restored St. Helen’s House and, like the plaque on the Silk Mill, was a double one, commemorating both Revd. Thomas Gisborne the anti-slavery campaigner whose father commis-sioned the house from Joseph Pickford, but also William Strutt, FRS, the long-serving chairman of the Derby Improvement Commissions.

William Strutt (1756-1830) was the first son of Jedediah Strutt and, after joining his father’s cotton spinning business, focused his efforts on developing fire-resistant structures and technology in textile mills. He went on to become an amateur architect of some talent who designed many mills and bridges. He also designed the original Derbyshire General Infirmary in 1810. In 1807 he bought St Helen’s House living there until his death in 1830.

Rev. Thomas Gisborne (1758- 1846) was a landowner and Anglican priest who became a member of the Clapham sect and a close friend and ally of anti-slavery campaigner Wil- liam Wilberforce. He wrote several books and pamphlets to support the work of his friend. St Helen's House was designed by Joseph Pickford for Thomas' father, John Gisborne. Along with Richard French and Erasmus Darwin, Strutt and Gisborne were co-founders of Derby Philosophical Society.

After the unveiling: Cllr. Asif Afzal, David Ling and Paul Duffin, senior partner of Smith Cooper, the house’s new tenants.

The unveiling was followed by

12 a lavish reception hosted by Smith Cooper, the accountancy firm that now occupies the building, which was much appreciated by the many members who attended and also marked the beginning of the firm’s time at St. Helen’s House. The Civic Society is most grateful to Paul Duffin and his colleagues for their generosity.

In December the last plaque of the year was unveiled on the side of 25 Iron Gate and beside the arch into the yard which now leads down to the Derby Local Studies rd Library on 3 December. John Whitehurst’s life and career were fully dealt with in the previous issue of this Newsletter , so suffice it to say that the yard, now nameless but once Whitehurst’s Yard, led to the clock works where his firm made their incomparable clocks until they moved to Cherry Street in 1834 on the death of the second John Whitehurst.

A jolly group posed at the mouth of Whitehurst’s Yard after the unveiling, including Alan Grimadell (left) with Mr. & Mrs. Whitehurst (descendants of the clockmaker’s brother James, centre) and Cllr. Asif Afzal (right).

Cllr. Asif Afzal addresses the crowd at the unveiling. On the left (hands clasped behind back) is structural engineer and Society ex-secretary Peter Steer, who oversaw the erection of all the plaques, in front of him, Nick Smith of Smith’s Clocks, whose ancestor John Smith was an ex-employee of John Whitehurst II & III, beside him Mrs. Linda Ling, Chairman Alan Grimadell, centre, to the reight of him but further back, Committee member Roger Pegg, in front of him Mr. Whitehurst and at right, Davied Slinger, and rahrter hidden behind him Chloe Oswald, the Council officers responsible for the Council’s in-put to the scheme and Ashley Waterhouse.

Next year will see more plaques unveiled, so watch the website and the press!

Derby Civic Society would like to record their thanks to the Council officers with whom we are collaborating over this scheme, Dave Slinger and Chloe Oswald, and to record our great debt of gratitude to Peter Steer (left) for his unflappable supervision of the placing and erection of the plaques and for the industriousness and skill of Robert Chell, who has actually affixed them and who we were pleased to be able to welcome to the St. Helen’s House unveiling.

DERBY’S LISTED GRADE II BUILDINGS 30 Darley Hall Stable Block

by the Editor

When Alderman William Woolley decided to rebuild the old hall at Darley Abbey, which his father, the county’s homonymous historian, had bought on the proceeds of a prosperous career as a London tradesman, he fixed on the man who had been awarded the contract to rebuild Derby Corporation’s church, All Saints’, for the London architect James Gibbs, to produce a design and do the work. That man was Francis Smith of Warwick, an experienced builder-architect, renowned in his own day as now as the creator of a considerable oeuvre of Baroque country houses, his crowning achievement being Sutton Scarsdale (1724-1726).

Darley Hall, from the east, from a vignette on an estate map of 1755. [Derby Local Studies Library ]

The hall was sold by Woolley’s widow to John & Christopher Heath and they sold it in the 1770s to Robert Holden of the Aston-on-Trent family. At his behest it was rebuilt and extended by Joseph Pickford in 1778-1779, whilst William Emes simultaneously landscaped the park to great effect, using the river and the western scarp to stunning effect, and creating a screen of trees at the south end to separate it from St. Helen’s Park, which he had landscaped a decade before. The Hall was acquired by the Evans family of Darley House, and further rebuilt, possibly by H I Stevens, before being bequeathed to the Council by the widow of the last Mr. Evans in 1929.

Sometimes stable blocks were designed and built by the architect of the house, but in the case of Darley this does not seem to have been the case, for the they are at best pretty utilitarian. It may be that Smith (who charged ‘a guinea a day and a nag’ - the modern equivalent would be about £500 per day and a company car) produced a design for the house, but did not stop to undertake the building. but left that task to another man, and that the latter went on to design and build the stable block later.

Darley Hall, Darley Abbey: stable yard, from a recent photo- graph.

Darley Hall, Darley Abbey: Stable block, interior, 2013.

Whilst Smith was building All Saints’ (now the Cathedral) for Gibbs, he himself had several local jobs on the go, and had commissioned a Derby man to undertake the day-to-day work. That man was William Trimmer, of Friar Gate (see the Architects’ Dictionary in issue 97, pp. 41-42), and the likelihood is that he designed and built the Darley Hall stables, which he carried out in brick over two storeys around three sides of a courtyard, and covered with a slated roof. Entrance was via a full height arch on the west side, suggesting that the east side was probably closed originally by other outbuildings of the Hall. One aspect of the shameful neglect this building has endured at the hands of the Council, resulting in its having been placed on the national At Risk register, is a silver lining. Many of the stalls and other interior features have been preserved intact, which allows them to be a retained element in the planned restoration. The developer, of course, is the firm that, under a slightly different name, had made a strong pitch to restore Elvaston Castle, headed up by Brian Ashby’s daughter, Tanya Spilsbury, and it will be rewarding to see them bring the present scheme to fruition.

Permission has now been granted to allow the regeneration Darley Park's historic stables and bake-house, to create unique new work spaces for small and medium sized businesses in Derby. Darley Abbey Stables and adjacent Bakehouse (also an element of the scheme) form a component of the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site.

DARLEY STABLES: THE PLANS FOR CONVERSION by David Ling

The largest unit will be transformed to create a pilates and yoga studio over two floors with an associated treatment and physiotherapy room. There is already an interested party involved in negotiations with the developer for this unit, pending planning approval. Central to the character of the new Darley Abbey Stables will be the retention of historic features including the stalls and associated fixtures and fittings, which represent particularly fine examples of equine architecture. Easily damaged th 18 century lime ash floors, lath and plaster ceilings and some roof timbers must also have to be preserved due to their historical interest.

Heating pipes and a boiler room serving a stable block that was subsequently converted into a garage will also remain. They were apparently installed to warm a Bentley car owned by the Evans family. Dr Tanya Spilsbury, of Darley Abbey Stables Sanctuary, said: "We've been working closely with Derby City Council's regeneration, parks and planning departments for a long time in an effort to breathe some life back into these important historical assets. I'm passionate about finding new uses for historic buildings, so seeing this challenging project progress from plans to reality will be really heartening. "It will be fabulous to see jobs being created and businesses thriving in a group of buildings that have been derelict for some time. They are currently in a very sorry state of repair. Despite that, they're still full of character and, once repaired, they will be really interesting buildings to run a business from. They will certainly be different from your average

office bock or business unit, so we're hoping to attract businesses that like to stand out from the crowd." The new £850,000 Darley Abbey Stables development will be accessed through Darley Abbey village. The architect of the project is Lichfield-based Brownhill Hayward Brown, and the developer has commissioned local Darley Abbey-based consultancy Armsons as quantity surveyor. Mike Armson has commented that "Having been based in Darley Abbey for over 35 years, we are very pleased to be involved in this exciting and worthwhile project. It is really gratifying and good for Darley Abbey and Derby to see these old and dilapidated former outbuildings sympathetically restored for new use…. New and emerging businesses will be housed in these previously redundant facilities to the benefit of the local community in future years." With planning approval granted, the council will hand over the buildings to the developer on a long lease. A portion of the repair costs will be supported by the City's Regeneration Fund, which is also aiding the rejuvenation of the nearby Darley Abbey Mills site. Darley Abbey Stables will consist of around 600 square metres of office/studio space as well as lavatory and kitchen areas. Parking will be available for a small number of cars within the internal courtyard area. Work should start in the early summer, with an opening date in early 2014.

Tim Richardson, of commercial property agent Innes England, who will be marketing the business units on behalf of the developer, said that he was delighted to be involved as part of the team bringing the redundant buildings back to life for the benefit of the city, community and occupiers. He felt that once completed, the buildings will be likely to provide high quality, characterful space in a very pleasant environment and are likely to appeal to a range of businesses looking for distinctive accommodation that sets them apart.

The plans were approved by Derby City Council's planning Committee in October 2013. Anyone interested in finding out more about the forthcoming business work spaces should contact Tim Richardson, associate director at Innes England, on 01332 362244 or email [email protected]

DARLEY ABBEY’S NEW FISH PASS by David Ling

For the last 18 months or so Darley Abbey village seems to have been invaded with workmen digging here and there, but finally it seems to have come to an end. First, we had the water company laying new mains, closely followed by the gas company. It would seem that most of the services hadn’t been upgraded since Victorian times! No sooner had that been done than the city council decided to replace part of the culvert underneath Darley Street. This was particularly hazardous as deep excavations had to be carried out very close to some of the old cottages in the street which were, no doubt, built with shallow foundations. In the process an old wall opposite the Abbey Inn had to be demolished and rebuilt. It all seems to have been completed satisfactorily, and the road re-instated.

However, whilst this was going on more contractors arrived, with yet more diggers to construct the new fish pass on the island in the middle of the weir for the Trent Rivers Trust. The aim is for the Larinier fish pass to be unobtrusive but with sufficient flow to attract fish. I am pleased to say that work is now completed, and water is flowing through so members may judge for themselves how unobtrusive it is. I would be interested to know if anyone has spotted any salmon, or other migrating fish using it. The inlet for the pass is through a slot in the retaining wall of the island, and apparently canoeists were concerned their boats might become jammed in it. To avoid this, a grating has been placed in front of the slot which is rather unsightly. It is not known whether this is supposed to be permanent.

DCMS CONSULTATION PAPER ON THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH HERITAGE

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has published its consultation paper on the future of English Heritage. The paper sets out the plan (drawn up by the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission with Government approval and support) for splitting the organisation in two. ‘English Heritage’ will become a charity whose purposes will be the conservation and public enjoyment of the National Heritage th Collection (which the Daily Telegraph reported on 30 December, has a building stock in need of many millions of pounds worth of renovation and conservation); the Commission’s statutory duties and responsibilities for preserving England’s wider historic environment will be delivered under the new name of ‘Historic England’.

The document sets out the advantages of this strategic split and proposes an eight-year transitional period, during which £80 million of public money will be made available to the National Heritage Collection to fund an ambitious programme of investment

19 that will 'remedy conservation defects, create new exhibitions, renew existing ones and continue to improve the visitor experience through investment in presentation of the properties and visitor facilities’. English Heritage will be expected to raise a similar sum from third parties.

Members of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission hope that as many people as possible will respond to the consultation in order to demonstrate to Government that there is strong public interest in the heritage sector. Any comments made in answer to the consultation questions will also be useful to English Heritage as th the process of setting up the charity goes forward. The deadline for responses is 7 February 2014. *

DERBY MUSEUMS’ MAKER FAIR

At the beginning of December we were invited to Derby Museums’ Trust’s extraordinary Maker Fair, part of the celebrations marking the re-opening of the former industrial museum, albeit only at present on an occasional basis. Two days earlier we had the pleasure of the official re-opening which was astoundingly successful bearing in mind that we were re-opening what was only a vast open space, formerly the Industrial Museum’s Rolls-Royce gallery.

Derby Museums, Maker Fair: the scene outside the building, with the Robot Orchestra (left) and the rotated caravan in front of the Bakewell Gates.

The old RB211 gallery is relatively unchanged, and the displays accompanying the Fletcher Grasshopper engine are there, but the main ground floor gallery will be in due course available for functions, and will be a space of great value to the trust, although if they are able to secure their current massive Heritage Lottery Fund application, there will be a general re-display to pay tribute to the Enlightenment, Derby’s part in it and the industrial spin-offs therefrom.

The Maker Fair was just what the title implied, an absolutely terrific festival of people who made things, from printing to electronics, from the sophisticated to the simple. There were endless opportunities for participation and masses of things to attract the interest of even the most cynical. My picture shows the scene outside the Silk Mill on the day, with a robot orchestra playing away and a ‘space capsule’, in which the foolhardy or nerveless could get inside what was actually a caravan, be strapped in and then experience a small slice of space travel by being revolved, rather gently. Mad but most engaging.

Laurence Chell and I spent a most enjoyable couple of hours there, trying things, chatting to exhibitors and generally drinking up the atmosphere. In the end, though, lack of a drinks licence told and we were forced to withdraw to the pub. We agreed though that if that was the sort of thing the Trust was able to put on, the success of the venture should be well assured and that it was a tribute to the staff who, we gathered, had worked very long hours – well beyond the ordinary call of duty – to mount and prepare the event. *

DERBY MUSEUM FRIENDS

Whilst on the subject of the Museums, it is worth reminding members who have no connection with them that they have been part of an independent trust since October 2012, and are now supported by grant aid and voluntary contributions. An important element in this is the Friends of Derby Museums, established for over 50 years and who raise many thousands of pounds annually.

They have now expanded their membership deep into the wider County with the aim of being able to call upon a much broader base of support for profile burnishing, fund raising and general networking. Last spring, the Friends raised over £11,000 towards the purchase of a pair of portraits of Francis Hurt of Alderwasley and his wife, just over a 10% proportion, in only 6 weeks. There is much membership overlap between the Civic Society and The Friends. Indeed, David Ling and I are also both members of the Museums’ Board of Trustees. The Friends can thus be regarded as a microcosmic version of our Society, for whilst we try to care for the whole of the City in many of its most sensitive aspects, the Friends focus care on the Museums, which form a vital element in the wider preservation, conservation and interpretation of the City’s incomparable heritage.

Any Society member who might feel inclined to join the Friends as well – the two seem to me to be entirely compatible – the subscriptions are modest: £15 for an individual, £25 for a couple, (£13 and £20 for retired individuals and couples) and £13 for students. Membership forms may be obtained from the Editor at the usual address, or from the Friends’ Membership Secretary (Dorothy Oliver, 14, Amber Road,

Allestree Derby, 01332 559109) or from the enquiry desk at the main Museum in the Strand. There is a twice yearly newsletter called The Orrery which endeavours to keep people up to date with Museum events.

A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF DERBYSHRE ARCHITECTS TO 1945 (CONCLUDED)

WAGSTAFF, William Henry, CE Working 1902/36 73 Saltergate, Chesterfield Eldest son of William Wagstaff of Killamarsh (1837-1890) and Hannah Storey, he th was baptised at Killamarsh 18 June 1858; his brothers were Clarence (b. 1859 later of Hooton Levett, Yorks) and Thomas Barnard (b. 1862). He trained in Nottingham, marrying there and where the younger of his two sons, Charles Herbert, was born in 1888. He had set up in Chesterfield by 1901. In 1902 W H Wagstaff, who was also a civil engineer published designs for the Cross Keys Hotel, Bolsover (closed recently and now a freezer food shop) and the Lord Arms , Temple Normanton. By the Great War he was practising as W H Wagstaff and Sons, the sons being Charles Herbert Wagstaff of Saltergate (1925) and, presumably, Clarence Barnard Wagstaff (b. 1884) of 154 Ashgate Road, Chesterfield (1936). [Architect 18/4/1952 p.8; Census; Kelly]

Bolsover Market Place: the Cross Keys.

WAITE, Richard, JP 1845-1925 15 St Mary's Gate, Derby th Richard Waite was born 17 August 1845, son of John Waite of Fish Hall, Hadlow, Kent and Postern Park, Tunbridge Wells. He came to Duffield in the late 1860s when he married Alice, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Turner of Duffield (1823-1862). By that time Alice and her spinster sister Elizabeth were joint owners of Greentrees,

Chapel Lane, Duffield, originally built by their grandfather John Turner, a farmer, butcher and maltster in the 1820s. Waite, who was churchwarden at Duffield from 1870, Poor Law Guardian 1875-1903 and Chairman of the Belper RDC from 1888, notably had W R LETHABY (see part II) as a pupil, in 1878. Sketches by him of Duffield Hall, etc., appear in a catalogue held by the RCHM(E) at York done during his time with Waite. He was also a Derbyshire County Council alderman from 1889 and was a JP from 1893. His wife died childless in 1900 and he thereupon re-married, his bride, Mabel Newnham (died 1957) giving him two daughters and a son, Reginald, later Air Vice Marshall Reginald Newnham Waite CB, CBE, who organised the British element of the Berlin Airlift. Waite designed Spring Hill (now Kirkstyles), Duffield for Sir James Allport in the 1880s. In 1880 he added a new kitchen to Greentrees (datestone) and rebuilt the south front in 1903. He also rebuilt the adjacent King's Head Inn in 1886. [Gaskell, E., Derbyshire Leaders (Derby, n.d. [1907]); Watson, W History of Duffield (2 vols. Derby 1991) II. 68-69, 75; Kelly; RCHM(E)]

R. Waite: Spring Hill (now Kirkstyles) Duffield, seen in 2009 [Hansons ]

WALKERDINE, Jesse Working 1849/70 William Street, Derby Originally a builder and founder (in 1840) of a firm which lasted to 1986. Jesse was born in 1807, the son of Nehemiah Walkerdine. He was working with his father, a mason, when he met and married Mary Rickards at Claines, Worcs., in 1835, going on to have three sons and five daughters by her. Apart from being a successful builder he.also designed some modest buildings, probably with the assistance of a pattern book, eg Abbey Street Chapel School (1872) and the 24 cottages on Granville Street Derby (1870). He made his fortune by acquiring a large plot of land in Derby's West End from the estate of Joseph Wright's whilom friend Rev. Thomas Gisborne, bounded by Watson St. and Clover St. on 21 October 1851 and building speculative artisans' housing thereon. His brother WILLIAM WALKERDINE (b. 1806, also a builder) acted as agent in the transaction. William made alterations to 79 (later 289) King Street for T. H. Henry in 1922 and was latterly of Chellaston. Jesse was succeeded by his son William, junior (b. 1847).

[Derby Mercury 22/10/1851; Glover (1849); Building Byelaw Approvals]

Jesse Walkerdine: cottage in Granville Street, Derby. Unfortunately, the original sash windows have been replaced by uPVC ones.

WALTON, Sidney Working c1909-1912 See BRYDEN & WALTON

WARD, John, MICE Working 1898/1921 Tenant Street, Derby Appointed Borough Surveyor 1898 and served until January 1921 when he was succeeded by C A CLEWS (qv.). Actually an engineer, for his architectural work appears to have been undertaken by ALEXANDER MACPHERSON (qv.). Nevertheless, he can be credited with Reginald Street Baths (1902- 1904) - a very fine edifice with wonderfully Moorish Turkish baths and high quality detailing (see right and below) - and the first phase of the Corporation Electricity Supply Depot, Full Street, 1898-1908. In 1915 he made extensions to the administration wing of the Borough Asylum. [Builder 8/1/1915) 49; Derbyshire Advertiser, Modern Mayors of Derby , (2 vols.1909 & 1936) II. 2,22; Deacon (1908) 576]

John Ward & Alexander MacPherson, Reginald Street Baths, Derby, 1904.

WARD, Thomas Working 1925 19 Stephenson Place, Chesterfield Practised as JOHNSON & WARD, although Johnson's identity remains elusive, perhaps W E Johnson of Chesterfield. [Kelly]

WATSON, Sydney Working 1903/25 3 Market Street, Heanor Watson was born at Alfeton and baptised at a Primitive Methodist chapel at Ripley in 1870, son of William and Rebecca Watson. He had not long been in Chesterfield when he advertised as an architect and building surveyor in 1903; he was later entered merely as an auctioneer. By 1911 he was living in Heanor. [Kelly]

WELCH, John 1760-1823 Bridge Gate, Derby st John Welch was born in Derby on 21 December 1760, son of Joseph and Mary Welch, who may have come to Derby from elsewhere, and who were dissenters, John nd not receiving baptism (at All Saints’) until 22 December 1786 aged 24. He began as a bricklayer, becoming a journeyman in 1781 and setting up as a builder and architect (“surveyor”). He married the widow of a publican, in the shape of Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Tomlinson of Duffield, builder, and whose husband (by whom she had three children) had been Joshua Simmonds (d. Feb. 1787), landlord and proprietor of the Greyhound , Friar Gate since before 1774, when he had been a barber. They married at St Werburgh on 9th August 1789. They went on to have four children: Joseph (b.1793), Henry (b.1797 and later his father’s successor as “builder & surveyor” as well as a brick maker), Elizabeth (b. 1790 later Mrs. John Hopkinson) and Charlotte (b.1796).

John Welch, Judges’ Lodgings, St. Mary’s Gate 1809-1811.

Welch built the shot tower on the Morledge for William Cox in 1809 (the contractor was James Gascoyne of Littleover, his former apprentice, assistant and founder of a th contracting firm that survived into the early 20 century), and designed and built the goals at Ashbourne and Wirksworth (left and right, below, both now converted as private residences) as well as the new Derby Borough Gaol on Brook Street in 1813- 1815 at a cost of £800. The crowning glory of Welch’s career (as far as we know it) was his design for the Judges’ Lodgings in St. Mary’s Gate (1809-11), a very accomplished large residence of three storeys forming the eastern range of the courtyard in which the Shire Hall lies (now the Magistrates’ Courts). He also designed an engine house at Little Eaton for the Canal Company to house their new

weighbridge in 1808-1809.

By marrying Mrs. Simmonds, Welch became the proprietor of the Greyhound , although it is doubtful that he would have run it himself. Nor was it likely that he would wish his bride to remain running a small pub that essentially served the boozy farmers who frequented the weekly cattle sales in Friar Gate opposite the tavern (there is still a bull ring let into a paving slab outside). The likelihood is that they put in a tenant and retired to Welch’s house in Bridge Gate. Welch was a canny soul, however, and it seems likely that he decided to improve the potential of the property, which by this time seems to have included the cottage adjoining to the west, later 75 Friar Gate (the street was first numbered around 1823 starting at St. Werburgh’s going up the Nuns’ Green (N) side and returning down the south side. The Greyhound became no. 76). He seems to have designed and built the delightfully proportioned brick façade to pull the two properties together. Behind, he did what small proprietors all over the Borough were doing to cope with the rapidly burgeoning population of the town, and built a court of eight unbelievably mean brick cottages – thenceforth called Court No. 1, Friar Gate or Greyhound Yard.

That these cottages were Welch’s work is supported by the fact that he went on to have something of a track record for such things, building twenty cottages around 1821 on Siddals Road called Welch Terrace and Ordish Square; they looked very stylish, with the facades much in similar style to that of the Greyhound (albeit on a bigger scale) but were mean within. When the Welch family sold the freehold is also unknown. Welch himself died in 1823, his wife some years later and his son Henry continued until around 1832 when he moved to Borrowash to become a brickmaker, with a home in Spondon. It may be he sold his freehold then; if so, to whom remains a mystery.

John Welch, The Greyhound , Friar Gate, Derby. The pub originally occiupied the left hand side, with an arch in the middle, and a shop and cottage on the right. The façade, put on to an older building by Welch, was originally symmetrical, but has since had some of the fenestration moved and altered and the central entrance closed up and replaced by a door.

[Henry, junior: Brewer’s Circular Guide and Commercial Directory of Derby for 1823 & 1824 (Derby (1824) 49); DLSL DBR/E/.86 ; Pigot’s Directory of Derby (London 1818) 3; Judges’ Lodging: Derby Mercury 14/12/1809; Gaol houses: ibid., 25/1/1810; Shot Tower, Times 16/4/1824; Parish Registers; Welch’s obit., Derby & Chesterfield Reporter 16/1/1823; DLSL Canal Company deposit DL 076 No. 138 p. 276 dated 8/11/1808].

WHEATLEY, Alfred Working 1886/1908 Bramfield, Burton Road, Derby th Self-designed house built in Burton Road prior to 1902. Wheatley was born 9 June th 1861 and baptised at St. Alkmund 4 April 1867, his mother being a widow, Harriet Wheatley. His son Alfred Evans Wheatley was born 4/8/1886 and was living in 1902. He was also assistant architect to the Midland Railway by 1908. [Tachella (1902) 160]

WHITAKER, H Wright Working 1920/1952 Breadsall Rectory, Breadsall Son of Rev. John Ayton Whitaker, rector of Breadsall, Whitaker was an amateur who designed and carved a replica of the screen of Breadsall church to replace that destroyed in the fire of 1914. It was dedicated 1929 and additions were made by him in 1952.

WHITEHURST, William Henry Working 1885/1910 St. Peter’s Parish, Derby th Builder born 12 April 1864, third son of George Whitehurst, silk threader, great grandson of James Whitehurst of Derby, an employee at the clock manufactory of his cousin, John Whitehurst II. He married St. Peter, Derby, 24/10/1885 Katherine (b.1863, d. 1910), dau. of Joseph Newton, fitter, and had numerous issue. He put in plans for house for Mr. Bresser, Village Street, Normanton in 1892 and others for houses in St. Thomas’s Road New Normanton. [Family information supplemented courtesy Mrs. Jean Glanville 23/3/1996; BBA Sharldow RDC 16/7/1892]

WHITMORE, Arthur See ELEY, O.

WIDDOWS, Bernard, RIBA, ALAA 1903-1983 1-3, St. James’s Street, later 51 Queen Street, Derby Son of GEORGE HENRY WIDDOWS (qv.) he was born 1903, educated at Derby School and articled to his father. He married at St James the Greater, Leicester 18/4/1929 Vera Mary Hagon of Leicester. He joined Naylor, Sale & Woore (qv. NAYLOR & SALE) in 1933 and worked there until 1969. He built himself a house at Ladycroft, Allestree, although he later lived at Woodcote, Turnditch. He was LRIBA by 1936. He designed all the original houses on Burley Lane, Quarndon, 1932-38, St. Paul’s Vicarage and The Laurels, Church Street, also in Quarndon 1935. He also designed St Luke's, Loscoe 1936-8 built by F Sisson & Sons, Langley Mill for £8,000. He was involved on a vast amount of other work for NAYLOR, SALE & th WIDDOWS, much of it, however, post-war. He died 8 February 1983. [Combes (2004) 206; Kelly; ex inf. Peter Billson; Thorpe (1990); Harris (2008) 128].

Bernard Widdows: St. Luke, Loscoe, 1936-37. [I. A. H. Combes ]

WIDDOWS, George Henry, FRIBA Working 1892/1945 51 Queen Street, Derby Widdows was an East Anglian, having been born in Norwich in 1867/8 and articled to J Lacey of Norwich 1887-1892. He later worked in London, York and Bolton before coming to Derby as head of the Architectural Office, Borough Surveyor's Dept 1898, serving until 1904 when MACPHERSON took over the work and Widdows joined NAYLOR & SALE. He was made ARIBA in 1908. Also in 1904 he worked under the County Surveyor J W Horston (an engineer) as Architect to the County Education Committee. As such he designed a large number of interesting and innovative schools, starting with Croft Infants, Alfreton (1904) followed by Bolsover Infants, Darley Dale Infants, north Wingfield Infants, Shirebrook Primary and Nursery and Cresswell Elementary schools.. He also built Heanor Technical College (focusing on the 17th century hall) in 1912, Ilkeston Grammar School (1913-14, Listed Grade II*) which incorporated stained glass windows and Long Eaton Grammar School 1910. In 1921 he converted Swanwick Hall into a Grammar School, endowing it with very elegant additions to Pickford’s original plain brick villa.

G. H. Widdows: Ilkeston Grammar School (now the Ormiston Enterprise Academy) 1913-1914 (LGII*).

He invariably used underfloor heating, the floors being of closely fitted block made from sawdust and resin. He later became County Architect, serving until 1936. It was he who converted the King's Arms County Hotel , St Mary's Gate into a library in 1934. Other work included adding a side chapel to Allestree Parish Church 1929 and many other commissions covered by the oeuvre of NAYLOR & SALE. He lived at Ladycroft, Hazlewood Road, Duffield (by himself 1926) but had resided in the village

30 from before the Great War and by his wife Mary was father of BERNARD WIDDOWS, Wystan, Mary and Barbara Widdows (qv.) [Deacon (1908) 574; DNB; Kelly; Gray (1985) 384; Barker (1989) 26; Derby Daily Express 21/10/1929; Derbyshire Advertiser 30/3/1934 p.11; DLC (3/2004) 5 & (1/2006) 3; Pevsner (1978) 46, 78, 145, 252,266, 287, 336, 346 ]

WIGGINTON, William Working 1848/49 5 Arboretum Terrace, Osmaston Road, Derby th Born son of William and Sarah Wigginton at Oakham, Rutland 8 October 1810 of a Northamptonshire family. Little is known of his career but he is notable for having designed Derby's first purpose-built flats for artisans. He signed the lithographed perspective view (engraved by R K Thomas) dated 1848, a copy of which is in the collections of Derby Museum. They were built to a less decorated exterior style in 1849 and pulled down in 1927. He also designed a "Large Inn with hall attached for sittings of the County Court" at Belper (1850), five houses on Osmaston Road (1849) and Ilkeston National Schools, 1850. [Derbyshire Advertiser 3/12/1926 p.5 c.6; Derby Mercury 5/9/1849; 24/4/1850; Builder 17/8/1850]

WILCOCKSON & CUTTS Working 1912/1936 12 Saltergate, Chesterfield Thomas Smeaton Wilcockson was working alone at 22 Knifesmithgate, Chesterfield 1912 but by 1925 had entered into partnership with JOSEPH BRIAN CUTTS (qv.). They designed Kennings, Queen St., Derby 1929 for Sir George Kenning and Ridgewood (Lodge) Derby Road, Cromford for himself 1928 in ashlar in a late, developed Arts-and-Crafts style. [Derby BBA 14734 23/5/1929; Derby Telegraph 6/8/2013; Kelly]

Wilcockson & Cutts, Kennings Garage,m Queen Street, Derby 1929.

WILD, Matthew Eyre, jr. Working 1908/1911

Born 1882 at Newthorpe, Notts, son of Matthew Eyre Wild, senior (b. Pinxton 1849) of Kimberley, Notts., he would have finished his articles c. 1903 and he married th Henrietta Westlake 5 September 1912 at Brimington. He was architect to Pilsley Colliery Co Ltd. [Kelly]

WILDGOOSE, Davis Mark Working 1908/1936 Steep Turnpike, Matlock th He was baptised 27 June 1858 at the Matlock Primitive Methodist chapel, son of John Wildgoose and Rachel Davis; he had five other brothers and a sister. Previous to 1925 he lived at Edge Road, Matlock. He designed the new Primitive Methodist Chapel, Hackney, Darley Dale 1908. [Barton (1993) 80; Kelly]

Davis Wildgoose: Hackney Primitive Methodist Chapel, 1908-1912.

WILKES, Benjamin Francis Boynton Working 1912/1926 2 Market Street, Ilkeston th A Wesleyan Methodist, Wilkes was born at Ilkeston 11 January 1879, son of Benjamin Wilkes and Elizabeth (Betsy) Boynton. He would have qualified c. 1900 and probably worked for H T Sudbury before setting up on his own account c. 1910. [Kelly]

WILKINSON, John Working 1818-1820

King Street, Derby In October 1820 one John Wilkinson published engraved plans and elevations of All Saints', Derby (now the Cathedral) showing a design to replace a Gibbs's church with a late perpendicular arrangement to match the tower. This was part of an attempt to petition the Corporation of Derby (as patrons) and the Duke of Devonshire (as High Steward of the Borough) to realize the Scheme. The attempt fortunately failed. Nothing more is known of his oeuvre . Not much is known of Wilkinson, except that he is listed as John Wilkinson & Son, architects at King Street, Derby in the 1818 Directory published by Pigot & Co. After that, neither he nor the son recurs in a Derby directory and thus they probably moved away. It is likely that this man is the John son of John Wilkinson born at Mansfield in 1762, father of WILLIAM WILKINSON of Mansfield (1784-1830) who, apart from designing Barlow Vicarage (1819) and making repairs to St. Mary & All Saints’, Chesterfield, made an extraordinary design for a National Mausoleum which he presented to the Prince Regent in 1814. He may have been the son of ‘& Son’ of Pigot’s Directory of 1818. On the basis of the unsolicited design for the National Mausoleum, it may be that the father was behind it, as well as for the wholly deplorable plan to destroy Gibbs’s nave at All Saints’ and replace it with Gothic Revival. [William Wilkinson: Colvin (208) 1126; John: Derby Mercury 10/10/1830; engraving of West elevation of All Saints’, Derby Museum, Goodey Catalogue No. 221; Pigot (1818) 8]

WILLIAMS, John Working 1926/36 Knabb House, Knabb Road, Darley Dale [Kelly]

WILLS, John, FCSC 1846-1906 Victoria Chambers, 22 St Peter's Church Yard, Derby Wills came from Devonshire, being born in Ebrington Street, Dodbrook, near Kingsbridge in 1846, son of William and Mary Wills. He set up in practice in Dodbrook in 1866, moving to Derby a decade later, marrying Jane Ross and having two sons (qqv) and two daughters, Minnie and Flora, all living 1881. He worked until around the turn of the century, whereupon he retired to his house in Salcombe th (Devon) where he died 20 June 1906. Whilst in Derby he served as a Borough Councillor for Becket Ward for a decade from the mid-1880s. He "designed or re-modelled over two hundred churches and schools of various denominations (over) half in the gothic style" (a testament to the transformational qualities of rail travel, making so ambitious an oeuvre a practical possibility); he chiefly worked with the Wesleyan Methodists, although himself a Primitive Methodist. He specialized in improving acoustics in churches, and wrote "Hints to Trustees of Church Property". His son JOHN ROSS WILLS (qv) continued the firm into the 1920s. His chapels can be found all over the British Isles, e.g. Wallington (Surrey), Aske (1878) and his Baptist church at Holland Road in Hove (Sussex) has been called one of the most important Non-conformist chapels of the Victorian era in that County . In Derby he designed, inter alia , Ashbourne Road Wesleyan (1878), Normanton Road (Rose Hill (1882), Corden St. (1880s), Dunkirk (1880s), Allestree (1895), St Peter's Church Yard (rebuilt 1892), Osmaston Wesleyan Chapel, London Road (1901-2) and it may reasonably assumed that his involvement

33 may be detected at almost any other Wesleyan Church of architectural quality in the City. In Derbyshire he designed, inter alia , chapels at Holloway (1883) New Brampton (1888) and Fairfield (1887).

John Wills: above: montage of completed commissions, c. 1890, below: Dodbrook , Whitaker Road, Derby.

His public buildings included his own offices, the Public Benefit Boot & Shoe Co., Babington Lane (1897, now Waterstones) and another branch of the same in Hull (1885) along with extensions to The Field, Osmaston Road, the home of their proprietor; 24- 28 London Road (1886/7), the Derby Coffee and Cocoa House, 38 Cornmarket (rebuilt 1880). He designed his own house, Dodbrook, Whitaker Road, Derby, but prior to 1888 he had lived at 15 (later 17), Wilson Street, which he also designed and named Dodbrook; extensions to Boden’s Lace factory plus the almshouses and chapel there and for the same client, 30 artisans’ cottages at Chard (Somerset, 1891), 4 houses in Uttoxeter New Road (including No.41, 1888) and residences at Salcombe (1879) and Kingsbridge (Devon, 1883:

four including a semi-detached pair), at Llandyssul (Carmarthenshire, c1880), Brighton (Sussex) and Banbury (Oxon). [Anon., Derby, Arts Trades and Industry (n.d. but c1891) 103; Architect 28/3/1883, 6/7, 13/7 and 3/8/1888; Derby Daily Telegraph 9/1/1902; Derby Local Studies Library Building Byelaw Approvals, passim ., Cooke; Derbyshire Family History Society Branch News 62 (9/1992)14; Kelly; Shardslow RDC BBA 50/1908; obit., Derby Telegraph 21/6/1906 & Builder 7/7/1906]

John Wills: Public Benefit Shoe Co shop, 1897 (now Waterstone’s), less pinnacles.

WILLS, John Ross, LRIBA Working 1900/1926 Victoria Chambers, 22 St Peter's Church Yard, Derby Younger son of JOHN WILLS (qv) and Jane ( née Ross), he was baptised at the Central Primitive Methodist Chapel, adjacent to his father’s offices (and designed, th ironically, not by the elder Wills but by GILES & BROOKHOUSE qv) 20 July 1882. He went to Derby Technical College, was articled to his father 1896-1903 and was thereafter his partner, being made LRIBA in 1912. He designed a row of half- timbered vaguely Arts-and-Crafts shops on the corner of Green Lane and St. Peter’s Church Yard, opposite his offices in 1922-23, on the site of Green Hill House, demolished to make way for the development, by G. W. Brown. He continued his father’s practice, especially with regard to Chapels, eg. Primitive Methodist Chapel, Littleover 3/6/1908. He also had an office in Piccadilly, and later in Pall Mall in London from c. 1910 so he most likely designed some chapels in the metropolis at least.. [DLSL BBA 1921 & 10/1925; Shardlow RDC BBA 59/1908]

J. R. Wills: shops in Green Lane, Derby 1923.

WILLS, William Francis, MSA Working 1897/1908 Victoria Chambers, 22 St. Peter’s Church Yard, Derby th Elder son of JOHN WILLS, he was born in Derby 19 November 1876, articled to his father 1890-1897 and thereafter in partnership with him to 1906. He continued in partnership with his younger brother until he moved to Matlock in 1911 where he lived in a self-designed villa called Gavarnie until at least 1926. [Deacon, C. W., Court Guide and County Blue Book (London 1908) 575]

WILSON, Benjamin Working 1850/1872 12 Cornmarket, Derby Originally from Sheffield, Wilson set up an office at Alfreton (King St.) c1850 and in Derby. He was known for being irascible and difficult to work with. His first known domestic commission was Stanley House, Duffield Road, Derby, for the ironfounder Thomas Swingler (1851, see front cover), followed by three commissions in Alfreton: George & Dragon Inn , the Assembly Rooms, and in 1854-5 extensions to Alfreton Hall, as well as winning a competition to design a new church, St. Lawrence at Heanor in 1857 (built by 1868, demolished 1981).

Benjamin Wilson: Alfreton Hall, east wing, 1854-55.

In 1859-60 he built St Andrew, Swanwick, and a year later, Ashbourne Town Hall, followed in 1862 by the impressive Corn Exchange, Derby with its domed tower, although the drum in not well integrated into the rest of the building. He was also consulted in 1864 over the debâcle surrounding the Derby Market Hall (cf. THORBURN, R). The same year he designed the New Jerusalem Chapel, Babington Lane, and built the new rectory at Weston-on-Trent, converting its predecessor into a farm. At Melbourne he designed a silk mill for John Hemsley (1861), the cemetery lodges and in 1869 altered the Methodist chapel there. In 1867-8 he was responsible

36 for a larger corner shop and offices at the SE angle of Derby Market Place and three shops in Iron Gate. Finally he built St Paul's Infants' School, Little Chester (1870-1) and restored St Giles's Old Matlock (chancel and nave, 1871) but to no good purpose according to Dr. Cox. Derby Hills Farm at Melbourne was also one of his designs (for Viscount Palmerston). He also did the Chapels, Lodges and layout of a number of other cemeteries: Uttoxeter, Ilkeston, and Heanor among them. It is likely that his oeuvre was much more extensive than even the foregoing suggests. A local lad, Frederick Woodward (1852-1872), articled to him in 1867, wrote to his brother in November 1870: ‘Iron Gate is almost all pulled down now but is not really half built up again. The corner shop [with the Market Place] has been finished about six months. Steer the jeweller is in it. Bennett’s, late Weatherhead’s shop is also finished [to a design by H. I. Stevens], they have been in it about a month now. Haskew’s, the largest job yet, is not quite finished. Another small one is just beginning to rise. We have got the largest job of the lot, the rebuilding of the houses at the corner of Amen Alley [now Emily Brigden] and a heavy job my governor made of it. That which should have been the handsomest building in the street has turned out to be perhaps not the worst, but certainly not the best…I do not aspire to the honour of having had a hand in the making of it …’

Benjamin Wilson: Fred Woodward’s ‘houses at the corner of Amen Alley’ 1870-71.

Wilson was probably born at Bradfield, Yorkshire in 1816, son of William Wilson. th He married at Derby on 29 December 1855, his bride being Mary, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Waterfield of Osmaston Road. He served as a Councillor at Derby

37 in the 1860s, and took GEORGE THOMPSON into partnership c1875 as WILSON & THOMPSON. [Builder XV 190 & XXXVII 189, 756; Building Byelaw Approvals, passim .; Combes (2008) 2-6; Derby Mercury 9/1/1856 (marriage), 27/2/1861 & 22/1/1862; Johnson (n.d.)188;; Letter from Frederick Woodward, courtesy J. V. Woodward, Esq., Lichfield Joint Record Office B/C/5 (9/3/1864) & B/A/1311 (1865); Naylor (2003) 26; Pevsner (1978) 272, 336; Slater; South Derbyshire Heritage News XXVII (6/2008) 3; White]

WILSON, James Anthony, RIBA 1877-1923 Ashbourne Road, Derby Also of 3 Old Serjeant's Inn, London EC. He was a son of Arthur Wilson JP, of 30 rd Ashbourne Road, and was born 3 February 1877 at Derby, educated at Derby School and in 1902 was working in the office of G F BODLEY. His brother Hugh was a notable musician. J A Wilson died 12/1923. [Tachella (1902)126; RIBA]

WINDLE, Frank Working 1912 183 Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield Frank Windle was born in 1876, son of Francis (b. 1845) and Mary Windle of Newbold-by-Chesterfield, and would have passed his articles c 1897, He had set up on his own account in Chesterfield by 1911. [Census; Kelly]

WINN, Joseph Harrison Working 1901/2 52 Walbrook Road, Derby th Winn was born at Halifax in 5 September 1871 son of John and Edith Winn, and was brought up at Lincoln. Having passed his articles in 1893, he was appointed assistant architect under CHARLES TRUBSHAW of the Midland Railway. In 1911 he was living at Plumtree, Nottinghamshire. [Cooke]

E. F. Wirgman: shops in St. Peter’s Church Yard, Derby 1889 (see below ).

WIRGMAN, Edward Francis 1851-1907 16 Tenant Street, Derby Younger son of Rev. Augustus Wirgman (1809- 1874), vicar of Hartington and Jane Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Pearson of South Wingfield Hall. The family came originally from Surrey. E. F. Wirgman was born at Bradbourne, Derbyshire in August 1851 and passed his articles in 1872, thereafter working as part of Messrs. FREEMAN & NAYLOR (qv) in Derby before setting up on his own account. His only known independent work in Derby was a half-timbered shop and dentist’s surgery in St. Peter’s Church Yard (see left). He must have found insufficient work in

Derby, however, for he later moved to Birkenhead in Cheshire. He married Mary Madoline, daughter of Rev. L. Buckwell and had two sons and a daughter. [Fox-Davies (1910) 1744 & ibid . (1929) II. 2122; RIBA; Local Studies Library, Derby, Tilley/W]

WOOD, Edward Working 1879 Liversage Street, Derby Son of John Wood, a mason, Edward Wood was born c. 1818, working as a stone mason from 1838 and as a builder from 1855. He was a contractor and founder of a firm which survived until the 1990s through five generations of the family. He designed a shop front on Sadler Gate Bridge, Derby in 1879. He without doubt undertook numerous other designs, too, most probably using a pattern book. [Derby LSL Building Bylaw Application No. 2439 of 15/9/1879]

WOOD, Henry Moses, d.1867 Buxton Wood was born at Basford, near Nottingham in 1788 and educated at Nottingham Grammar School, thereafter becoming a pupil of the Nottingham architect Edward Staveley (1768-1837), under whom he qualified in 1809 and whose assistant he for a time became. In 1811 he married Miss Wilson of Shelford Manor Notts., and they went on to have eleven children. He also succeeded Staveley as City Surveyor in 1837, continuing until 1859. He set up in practice in Nottingham c. 1816 in a loose association with Staveley with whom he produced a well surveyed map of Nottingham in 1830-31 and was soon afterwards elected to the Council. He was the last Borough Chamberlain before the reforms under the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act kicked in, under which he became the City’s first Sheriff. He was also much involved with banking and insurance in the City. He was first President of the Nottingham Architectural Association in 1862. He retired to Buxton, dying there on th 28 September 1867 leaving by his wife Mary Wilson two daughters and two sons, Henry Walker Wood of Nottingham, architect and Arthur Augustus Wood, playwright. His style was very much in the late Georgian Mould, and he was building in Greek revival even into the 1850s. He was also a good surveyor and landscaper, designing the Nottingham Arboretum in 1852 (carried out by Samuel Curtis). In Derbyshire he designed and built St Matthew, Darley Abbey for the Evans family 1818-9, Sawley parsonage in 1822-24 and in 1825 the elegant and well-proportioned school at Darley Abbey. He was remembered as ‘...tolerant and liberal, a Whig of the old school...polite, polished in his demeanour and very genial in disposition....a gentleman.’ Another acquaintance wrote: ‘He was a man of genial and companionable disposition and was remarkable in his public speeches for the florid and highly ornate style of his oratory.’ His obituary rather unkindly said that ‘The public buildings that owe their origin to Mr. Wood’s architectural genius are not either numerous or [ sic ] remarkable.’ [Ex info. Ken Brand; Nottingham Civic Society Newsletter 67 & 151 (4/2013); Glover, II (1833) 350, and Bodleian Library, Records of Queen Anne's Bounty; Colvin (2008) 1139-1140]

H. M. Wood: Darley Abbey, former school 1825.

WOOD, John Working 1885 48, Liversage Street, Derby Designed a studio to be added to Ravenshoe , Burton Road, Derby for THOMAS SIMMONDS (qv), the Principal of the Art College, who no doubt had much influence on the design, which was in Arts-and-Crafts style and included much decorative stained glass. He was assisted by W. Rushton. [Derby LSL Building Bylaw Application no. 3482 of 23/5/1885]

WOOD, Neville Blackwell, LRIBA Working 1935/6 34 Iron Gate, Derby th He was baptised 4 March c1904 at St. Alkmund, Derby, son of Frederick Eli and Louisa Wood of Cromford. In practice as OGDEN & WOOD, he lived at Lindum House, Arthur Street, marrying Una Mary, daughter of John William Dodd of Cheshire in August 1932. [Borough Directory; Kelly]

WOOD, William 1815-1848 An architect about whom little is known, he drew plans and elevations of Etwall Hall c. 1845. [DRO D1066M/P1-4]

WOODHOUSE, Thomas Working 1771 Crich This man drew plans for a farmhouse to be built at Crich and advertised for tenders in April 1771. He was born at Crich in June 1727, son of another Thomas (a mason who th died 1746) and was buried at Crich 11 May 1792. Had he himself been a mason one

40 might have expected him to have been prepared to build the house himself; he may therefore have been a quarry proprietor; it is highly unlikely that he was an architect. [Derby Mercury 19/4/1771]

WOODHOUSE, Tom His partnership with Col. Maurice Hunter commenced in 1897, see HUNTER & WOODHOUSE. [DRO D3772/T42/44]

WOODHOUSE, Thomas Jackson Working 1840 Derby Thomas Jackson Woodhouse was born at Bedworth, Warwickshire in December 1793 son of John Woodhouse and Dorothy Jackson. In 1815 he was living in St. Peter’s nd Parish, Derby and on 2 October married Deborah Smith at Nuneaton, Warwickshire. She predeceased him after having had at least four children by him and in 1845 he married again, to Maria Brierley at Church Lawford, also in Warwickshire and becoming the father of a fourth son, Brierley Woodhouse. He designed a wood store and adjacent manager’s house at Long Eaton for the Midland Counties Railway in 1840. The house was a typical three bay Regency villa. The store was rebuilt after a fire in 1850 and converted into a sheet store four years later by the Midland Railway. [Erewash Borough Council, Local List]

WOODS, Walter Harry, LRIBA, MRSI Working 1908/1936 38 Carrfield Avenue, Long Eaton th Born in Petersfield, Hants. on 30 November 1873, son of Henry and Rosina Maria Woods, W. H. Woods had an office at Central Chambers, High Street, Long Eaton. [Kelly]

WOORE, Joseph Alfred, ARIBA 1875-1956 Douglas Street, Derby J. A. Woore was son of Henry and Elizabeth Woore of Pentrich (Henry being son of th Joseph, of Pentrich, 1804-1879) and born on 30 May 1875, educated at Derby School 1890-1892. He was made LRIBA 1898, winning the Pugin studentship medal of the RIBA. He entered partnership with NAYLOR & SALE (later NAYLOR, SALE & WOORE), 1902, and was later of Duffield and London. A Quaker, he married Patricia (‘Pattie’ 1875-1959) daughter of John Miers of Bradley in 1902 and died April 1956. He designed Plumtree Cotftage, Fritchley for himself before 1908. He had a son PETER WOORE, (qv). [Deacon (1908) 574]

WOORE, Peter, RIBA Working from c1925 61 Friar Gate, Derby Son of J A WOORE (qv.) and also later a partner in NAYLOR, SALE & WOORE. First known work was a delightful Arts & Crafts house in Voyseyish style called Hieron's Wood, Little Eaton for his uncle the book dealer, Frank Woore, 1927. He also built and later extended the Thatched Cottage, Ireton Wood, and rebuilt and extended Fern Bank, Quarndon in which village he designed a house for himself at 93, Burley Lane in 1960. The majority of his known output is, however, post 1945, eg. St. Nicholas church, Allestree (1957-58). He married Felicity Mary (1920-2012) and his son Ian continued his practice in Derby as Peter Woore:Watkins.

[Combes (2004) 207; Harris (2008) 129; Derby Telegraph, 26/7/1993 & 8/8/2012]

WORRALL, John Working 1817/57 Market Place, Buxton Born at Chesterfield in 1781 son of Robert Worrall and originally a mason, but later described as an "able and experienced architect" who undertook designs and estimate 1 of £2,432 – 5s – 2 /2 for a new church at Fairfield in 1815, but not proceeded with until 1838 to a much modified design (qv. SWANN). He married Mary Ward at th Chesterfield on 15 October 1802 and their son John (born 1809) married at Fairfield forty years later. He died between 1841 and 1851, being succeeded by his son John, also of Buxton in the latter year. William Worrall of Terrace Road, Buxton, stone mason, 1862, was the son of John, junior. He married Sarah Ann daughter of Samuel Riley in 1854. [Cox (1876) II. 270; Derbyshire Life 8/1994; Pigot; Bagshaw; White; Slater]

WRIGHT, James Working 1880/1908 23 St James's Street, Derby st Son of Robert and Anne Wright he was baptised at St. Werburgh, Derby on 31 October 1849. He is thought to have served articles with STEVENS AND ROBINSON (qv) c. 1865-1872. Later he was in partnership with R EVANS Senior (qv.) c1880 to 1887, and from then until October 1898 with JOHN TOMLINSON as WRIGHT & TOMLINSON. From 1898 until his retirement in 1908 he was in partnership with T H THORPE (qv.) as WRIGHT & THORPE. In 1887 he designed the Melbourne Jubilee Monument, Market Place (signed). He also designed most of Burton brewer J Eadie & Co's inns in Derby, including the Roebuck, Amy Street (1890), the once lavish Cambridge , Dairyhouse Road, Litchurch (1892, dated), the former Lord Nelson , Wardwick and the more domestic Navigation Inn, Wilmorton (1895). He was also responsible for the former Royal Oak , Market Place (1889, now Royal Oak House, the Derby Registry Office) also for Eadie, an Arts-and-Crafts venture in half timber over ashlared Warrington sandstone and, facing across the Market Place, his Flemish revival HQ for rival firm of Pountian & Co. (1888). He did much domestic and retail work in the City, too, especially in the Burton Road. [DLSL Building Bylaw applications, passim ., T H Thorpe Assocs., letter from G Pollard Esq 30/9/1992; Kelly; Derby & Chesterfield Reporter 29/11/1895 p.6 c.6]

James Wright: the Lord Nelson Wardwick minus cresting on the corner gable.

YARDLEY, Thomas William Working 1870/1925 Alexandra Road, Swadlincote th Yardley was born 11 February 1844 at Hartshorne son of James and Marianne Yardley and married Hannah Fearnes at Hartshorne in 1866. He lived at Church Gresley for most of his life, being recorded there in 1911. A Wesleyan Methodist, he and his wife had two daughters. [Census; Kelly]

YE(A)VELE(Y), Henry de Working 1358/91 Yeaveley Born c1327, son of Roger de Yeaveley of Uttoxeter, Mason, and Marion his wife and possibly grandson of John Le Mason of Yeaveley, a free mason in 1278. No doubt apprenticed to his father, a combination of flair and good connections resulted in his moving to London by 1358 when he was working on Kennington Manor House, Surrey. His numerous works represent a stunning array of largely secular Gothic, although nothing is known of any work he may have executed in Derbyshire. His castles included The Bloody Tower, London and Queenborough, Kent (1361), Arundel, E Sussex (1380), Saltwood, Kent (1383), Canterbury, Kent (1385-90), Winchester Hants (1390), and parts of the Palace of Westminster (1362-5), Savoy Palace, London (1376) and the stunning roof of Westminster Hall (1393-95). He built London Bridge (1395) and one at Chelmsford (1372). Religious buildings included St Katharine by the Tower, London (1351), work at Westminster Abbey (1352-1362), the nave at Canterbury Cathedral (1377-1391) and the church and college at

Maidstone, Kent (1390s). He also was responsible for the Tombs of John of Gaunt (St Paul's, 1374) Edward III (Westminster Abbey 1377) and Richard II and his Queen (1399-1400). He died 1400 his will being proved 12th September that year. He had two wives but no known children. [Harvey (1987) 358-66]

Henry de Yeaveley: Saltwood Castle, Kent, the surviving gatehouse, sdeen in an early 19 th century view/ It was l.ong the seat of the Deedes family (to which the late Bill Deedes, editor of the Daily Telegraph , belonged)and after that was purchased by Lord Clark, passing to his son, the late alan Clark, MP whose family still live there.

YE(A)VELE(Y), Robert de Working 1361-1369 Yeaveley A brother of HENRY de YEAVELEY (qv.) and also a mason, who followed his brother to London, working on the Tower of London (1361-5) and in charge of work at Wallingford Castle, Berks (1364-1369). [Harvey (1987) 366-7]

YOUNG, Julian Working 1858-1878 Charnwood Street; offices: Iron Gate Chambers Julian Young was a scion of the minor aristocracy, having been the great-grandson of nd Sir William Young 2 Bt. of Dominica. The first baronet’s father was a Scots Jacobite who went to the West Indies to practice as a doctor after the ’Fifteen. The nd title was bestowed for services as Governor of Dominica, and the 2 Bt. was, in his turn, Governor of Tobago, as well as an MP, a FRS and FSA. That they owned estates there is to the highest degree likely, with all the implications that carries in today’s world of heightened awareness of past iniquities.

The architect practiced in Derby because his grandfather, Major George Young, had married Mary, daughter of Joseph Wright’s patron, the freemasonic lawyer John Harrison. His father, also Julian, was a parson. Young himself was born in 1837. It is not known for certain with whom Young served his articles, but in 1858, when he first comes to notice, he was the junior partner of Edwin Thompson of Derby (1801- 1883) and their partnership remained intact for 20 years. The likelihood is that it was under Thompson that he learned his craft. His most notable building was the Pearson building, other-wise Big School, added to the north side of St. Helen’s House in 1874 for the governors of Derby School (left). It is an ashlar faced parody of Pickford’s dignified adjacent façade of 1766-67 and an affront to an exceptional building. His houses on Green Lane for Edwin Thomson’s son George of 1876 and in Burton Road (west side) for the glass & china dealer J L Carter are unexceptional. Young & Thompson collaborated in 1869-70 on the Derby Co- operative & Provident Society’s first department store on Albert Street (demolished 1980).

Julian Young (with Edwin Thompson), Derby Co-operative Society store, Albert Street, 1869-70.

The changes made to All Saints, were the most destructive undertaken since Gibbs, Smith and Trimmer built it and earn a page of savage invective from the pens of Canon J C Cox and Sir W H St. John Hope in their monumental account of the church (The Chronicles of the Collegiate Church of All Saints’, Derby ) written within a

45 decade of the events. Although Young was the executive arm of the works, the real culprit was another Scots grandee, the Revd. Sholto Douglas, then vicar, a scion of the ancient Earls (later Marquesses and Dukes) of Queensbury. His disposition seems to have been every bit as imperious as the demeanour of his kinsman, Oscar Wilde’s nemesis, combined with an aggressively low-church (or even Kirk) outlook. The prevailing zeitgeist was also very much for the Gothic, and Classical architecture, especially of churches, was considered decadent and effete by the muscular Christians of the period. Furthermore, Douglas seems to have obtained faculties for his works retrospectively and only then as a result of being challenged by local men with the determination, connoisseurship and resources to do so. Even so, many of the modifications agreed in compromises hammered out before the Diocesan Chancellor seem to have been ignored. Cox & Hope wrote: The alterations included the building of a commodious vestry at the east end of the church and the utilising for seats of the two sides of the chancel. But this plan involved unfortunately the disturbance and loss of much of Bakewell’s excellent ironwork and the rendering ridiculous of the elaborate Cavendish monument [of 1683: a monumental domed aedicule of Black Marble and alabaster complete with statuary]. A little more ingenuity might have avoided both these blunders and spared the original design of the church, as well as its most remarkable monument, with no sacrifice of sitting accommodation. The authors also go on to attack Young’s replacement of Bakewell’s beautiful iron altar and the removal of its marble top, which was mounted on the adjacent wall with a long self-justificatory inscription (even that has now vanished). The pulpit of 1725 was also removed but later recovered from a builder’s yard by Cox, who bought it and presented it to the parish church at Pleasley. The new one failed to elicit much enthusiasm from the authors, especially as, instead of being placed by the south aisle pillar as Gibbs had intended its predecessor to go, it was plonked in the centre of the nave by the chancel arch so that none of the congregation could see the altar, which is no doubt just what the vicar’s kinsmen in the Kirk would have thought most proper. The side railings and gates of the Cavendish monument were also removed from the Devonshire Quire and the latter ‘sold or otherwise disposed of’. The railings themselves were put round the sides of the ‘communion space’ – i.e. the chancel. Furthermore, Bakewell’s chancel gates were still, in 1881 lying largely forgotten in the Town Vault. Cox & Hope concluded: The total cost of this, in most respects unfortunate ‘restoration’ amounted to no less than a sum than £5,991 – 6s – 1d. At the same time, the road outside was widened by negotiation with the Corporation, which involved the loss of Bakewell’s outside railings, monumental gates, and Gibbs’s Baroque piers. The gates were probably the ones reported at about that time to have been erected outside Mill Hill House by Alderman Renals, but which are now lost entirely. Much of this damage was to some extent rectified in Temple Moore’s alterations of 1903. Edwin Haslam made replacement sections for the re-erected Bakewell screen and in the 1950s, Ron Beddoes supplied a side gate for the north side at the same time as he re-erected the gates that had been rescued from St. Mary’s Gate House in front of the Cathedral’s west door. The vestry, a rather inconsequential-looking appendage, was removed as part of Ron’s rebuilding of 1968-1971. The altar table meanwhile has at least has been given a new marble top (Pencil Vein Sicilian instead of the original Duke’s Red polished limestone) although has yet to be replaced where its creator

46 intended and, like its twin at All Saints’, Loughborough, it languishes rather under- used in the Cavendish Quire. No obituary for Young has yet come to light. [BBA; Cox & Hope (1881)]

In the summer Newsletter we will begin the dictionary of non-Derbyshire architects working in Derbyshire. A brief biographical note of each will be followed only by the buildings within the historic county for which they were responsible.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 21st January LIFE CAN BE FUNNY A talk by PAT HALL St Mary’s Social Centre 7.30 pm

Friday 14th February COFFEE MORNING AND ABCD AWARDS PRESENTATION St Mary’s Social Centre 11am - 12noon

Thursday 6th March ANNUAL LUNCH at THE ENGINE SHED The Round House, Derby College, 11.30 am for 12 noon

Tuesday 22nd April THE FRIARGATE LINE A talk by KEITH BLOOD St Mary’s Social Centre 7.30 pm

Tuesday 20th May THE BRONTE CONNECTION WITH HATHERSAGE A talk by REG HOBSON St Mary’s Social Centre 7.30 pm

Monday 9th June AN EVENING AT KILBURN HALL Sherry Reception at 7.00 pm

Tickets where required from & enquiries to;: David Parry 110, Kedleston Road, Derby DFE22 1FW.

North Lees Hall, Hathersage Outseats, allegedly Thornfield in the novel Jane Eyre

Top: The house from the north, 2012. Right: The ruins of the pre- Reformation domestic Chapel, from an old postcard.

The present house, firmly attributed to Robert Smythson, the architect of Hardwick and Wollaton, was built in 1593 as a hunting lodge for William Jessop of Broom Hall, Yorks. It was th extended in the 17 cnetuury by the Greaves family of Greaves-in-Beeley, and added to the adjacent Brookfield estate (no Archers connection!) by Joseph Holworthy (husband of Joseph Wright’s niece) in the 1820s, when indeed a branch of the ubiquitous Eyres lived there as tenant farmers and had been so since 1750 and only left in 1882 by which time the steel-making Camell family from Sheffield owned the estate. The incomparable setting and the genius loci probably did much to inspire its inclusion in Jane Eyre, whose author was a frequent Hathersage visitor rd [Heavily abridged from Craven, M. & Stanley M, The Derbyshire Country House, 3 rev. edn., 2 Vols. Ashbourne 2001), I. 161-162].

To learn more, come to the Society’s lecture by Reg Hobson on 20 th May 2014!