Osmaston Hall ‘Courtesy of Derby City Council and www.picturethepast.org.uk’ ‘A Potted History of Proceeds from the sale of this booklet will contribute Osmaston’ towards other community projects undertaken by the Vol 1 Osmaston Community Association for the benefit of the Osmaston community. 2011 For more information please contact Alan Gill on 01332 601048 or Mick Whitehead on 01332 607097. 60 OSMASTON LOCAL HISTORY GROUP Acknowledgements CONTENTS Derby City Council Local Studies Library :- Page 3 Introduction Page 4 Osmaston by Derby To find out more about the history of Osmaston and Derby, visit Derby Local Studies Library, 25B Irongate, Derby DE1 Page 6 Osmaston Hall 3GL www.derby.gov.uk/libraries. Page 9 St James The Lesser Page 10 Memories of Osmaston by Arthur With thanks to Derby Museum and Picture the Past. Copies Shardlow of photographs are available from www.pictutethepast.org.uk. Page 14 Osmaston Municipal Park Many thanks to Mr Arthur Shardlow for sharing with us all Page 18 Sir John Eardley Wilmot his vast collection of news clippings and years of research Page 20 19th Century News articles into the history of Osmaston. Page 22 Osmaston Workhouse Page 23 Osmaston street names Page 24 A personal history by Alan Gill Page 26 The Mystery of White House Farm Page 28 WWI: The night a lost Zeppelin bombed Derby Page 30 Various Page 32 Rolls Royce in Osmaston Page 36 Skylarks in Osmaston by Mick Whitehead Page 48 Railway Iron works Page 49 Abingdon Street Tram Depot Page 50 Nightingale Road School Page 52 The Royal Shows Page 56 Various Page 59 Acknowledgements Mr Shardlow‘s map of Osmaston Parish 2 59 Introduction We hope that you the reader enjoys reading this booklet. It has been produced as part of community engagement activities undertaken in Osmaston by Meden Valley Making Places (MVMP) and the Osmaston Vision team from Derby City Council. We would like to dedicate this booklet to all the people past and present who have lived and worked in Osmaston and contributed to it‘s history. We would also like to thank everyone for their contributions with articles, stories, photos and memories included in this booklet. Some have come from local historians, some from existing and former residents, and some from newspaper and internet articles with acknowledgements provided. Many thanks to Derby City Council, Derby Museum and Art Gallery and www.picturethepast.org.uk for the use of their photographs. We would like to thank The Sinfin & Osmaston Neighbourhood Board for funding this booklet, and the Osmaston Regeneration Team for working together with members of the community in the development of the history group through talks, visits, meetings and slide shows. To all concerned, grateful thanks. Carol Avison, MVMP (Editor). 58 3 OSMASTON BY DERBY "OSMASTON, a parish in the hundred of Repton, county Derby, 2 miles S.E. of Derby, its post town. The village, which is of small extent, is situated on the road from London to Ashby-de-la- Zouch. The river Derwent, the canal, and the Midland railway pass through the parish. The inhabitants are wholly engaged in agriculture. The soil is sand and loam upon a subsoil of gravel." (Description's) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003] OSMASTON was a parish, in the union of Shardlow, in the county of Derby, 1¼ mile (S. S. E.) from Derby, chiefly occupied as milk- farms; the soil is a sandy and loamy earth, resting upon a deep bed of gravel. The river Derwent skirts the parish on the north- east, the Derby and Birmingham railway on the west, and the Mitre Island prior to building the Spider Bridge 1970 Derby canal runs through. The Hall, the seat of Sir Robert Wilmot, Bart., the principal owner in the parish, is a large stone mansion in the Italian style, with wings, and an observatory at the top; it is situated in park-like grounds, and contained many splendid rooms, and good pictures. The village was small and scattered. The church of St James the Lesser was a small ancient structure originally built after the Norman Conquest, much covered with ivy; in the chancel was a handsome painting of Our Saviour in the Manger, and some tablets are erected to the Wilmot and Horton families. After restoration in the late 19th Century it seated 120 people. It was demolished in 1952 and Ascot Drive now occupies the site. Osmaston Park Road The parish church of St James the Lesser 4 57 Various news cuttings THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, DERBY Arthur Shardlow There was a hospital for lepers outside the walls of Derby, above the Osmaston Road, somewhere near the present street of St. Leonard's; for this hospital like so many other leper-houses founded by the Normans was dedicated in honour of the French hermit. It was a house of royal foundation and probably established by Henry II, From: ‗A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 486-491‘. Topographical and Historical Account of Derbyshire (Magna Britannia Vol. 5) Osmaston (by Derby) - by Daniel and Samuel Lysons, 1817 [Included with Lyson's Magna Britannia Vol 5: Derbyshire, page 101: DERBY Osmaston, is situated about three miles from Derby, near the road to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. In the Domesday Survey, it is written Osmundestune, and no doubt it took its name from Osmund, the Saxon possessor, in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The manor was granted to Robert Holland, in 1307, as an appendage of Melbourn, with which manor it has passed ever since, and is now the property of the Marquis of Hastings. The principal estate here belongs to Sir Robert Wilmot, Bart, descended from a younger branch of the Wilmots of Chaddesden. Sir Nicholas Wilmot of Osmaston, Serjeant at law, in the reign of Charles II, was fourth son of Robert Wilmot, Esq. of Chaddesden, by the heiress of Shrigley. The late Sir Robert Wilmot, of Osmaston, was created a Baronet in 1772. Sir John Eardly Wilmot, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who died in 1792, was of this branch of the family, being a younger son of Sir Nicholas Wilmot. Osmaston-hall, the seat of Sir Robert Wilmot, has been for a few years past unoccupied, during the present baronet's residence at Bath and on the continent. (Source. www.genuki.org.uk) 56 5 During the time of the Black Death in England in 1349 one In 1936 the London Midland and Scottish Railway found a third of the population of Derby died and because of use for part of the site and built the Railway School of numbers of corpses, many were piled in carts and taken to Transport. This school over the years attracted many the graveyard of St James The Lesser for burial. According visitors from home and abroad. Unfortunately it has now to CJ Payne, they were buried in one large grave in closed. It spelt the end for the Royal Show at Osmaston. Osmaston, which became known as ‗Deadman‘s Lane‘ and the adjacent field ‗Blood Sprinkle Field‘. Prior to that the church had been used for the burial of only single people, with all others interred at St Peter‘s Church in Derby. Osmaston Hall Osmaston Hall was built in 1696 in brick and stone for Robert Wilmot, High Sheriff of Derbyshire. In 1689. Robert The Royal Shows brought fame to Osmaston. The name had the house rebuilt in 1702 and during the eighteenth must have been known throughout the length and breadth century there were further additions and changes to not only of the Country. For five times in its history Osmaston must the house but also its gardens and the extensive grounds have been on the lips of thousands visiting the Shows and which were recorded in the late eighteenth century as 3700 those who read about it in national and local newspapers. acres. Osmaston can also lay claim that it was visited more times by royalty than any other village in the county if not the Before it was purchased in 1890 by the Midland Railway country. Company. it contained a fine art collection which included numerous paintings. The house and gardens were reportedly sold for £86,000. At the time of the purchase the hall was the home of the Reverend Sir George Lewis Wilmot-Horton, Bart. (who died in 1887). There were five lodges on the estate, and it is said that the Lodge keeper and his family lived in one and slept in the other lodge of the pair either side the London Road gates. 6 55 The Royal Show made one final visit to Osmaston in 1933 It was the home to William Darwin Fox who was an English when King George V and Queen Mary attended. On this clergyman, naturalist, and a second cousin of Charles occasion they stayed at Chatsworth House at the invitation Robert Darwin who regularly stayed at the hall. The Fox of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, as the Duke was family rented the house from the owner Sir Robert Wilmot, the president of the Derbyshire Agricultural Society. The 2nd Baronet. Sir Robert Wilmot Bart was the natural son of 1933 Show was a combined industrial and agricultural Sir Robert Wilmot the first baronet of Osmaston Hall, who exhibition. A large section being devoted to industry in an was the Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. endeavour to stimulate employment in the area. The Show was claimed as a huge success, the sun shone and the The grounds were laid out by William Emes, a well-known attendance was 100,000, well down on previous shows held local landscape gardener.