Darley Dale ‘Out and About’
Despite sharing the same DE4 post code, most of Darley Dale’s inhabitants prefer to think of themselves as living separate from neighbouring Matlock. Attempts to build on the small ‘green belt’ next to the DFS warehouse on the A6 between the two are met with furious objections. Darley Dale is, to them, still as it always has been, an independent village in its own right. Nowadays, the village is mainly a residential enclave on the border of the Peak District National Park, dominated by three large housing estates, where at least one them has a high proportion of bungalows popular with those preferring to live on the flat rather than hilly Matlock. Those estates and adjoining smaller developments link a chain of little hamlets strung along the spring-line on the eastern side of the Derwent valley – Hackney, Farley, Two Dales (formerly the less attractive sounding Toadhole), Hillside and Northwood. These together with Churchtown in the valley bottom make up what has become to be known as Darley Dale. The oldest remaining dwellings linking the past to the present are in those one-time hamlets. Dating from the 12th century, St Helen’s the parish church and spiritual focus to the area, stands oddly enough, just above the flood plain of the Derwent. It is probably the oldest building in the district, but the yew tree standing close to the church door is probably older still, making links to a pagan pre-Christian era. Although nothing remains other than the name of nearby Abbey Farm, it is likely that the church began as an oratory of a nearby small abbey whose monks preached beneath the yew’s spreading branches. South-west facing Hillside once had a number of specialist nurseries, although they no longer grow plants for sale – there is even a Darley Dale heather developed by one of them. Changing gardening fashions led to their demise and nowadays, domestic gardeners in the area buy their plants from Forest Nurseries, a perfect link between old and new. A rarity amongst garden centres, it is one of the few places where experienced advice can be given in answer to an amateur’s problem. The old pack horse way across the valley came by way of the river crossing at Darley Bridge below Wensley, and then climbed steep Sydnope Hill beyond Two Dales, or Toadhole as it then was, over the moors along Jagger’s Lane to Chesterfield. The old school for the district is on this road just before it reaches the original houses of Two Dales. With high windows to prevent wandering eyes, where pupils once had the ‘3 Rs’ hammered into their minds, the school has since been a bakery but is currently being converted into a house. ‘Jaggers’, or packhorse drovers, would have stopped for refreshment at the Plough Inn that stands on what is now a side road. Some carriers thankful at not having to climb the hill, would have turned off along Ladygrove Road towards the village mill. In the sixteenth century it became a flax-spinning factory powered by three reservoirs further up the narrow valley. Owned by the Dakeyne family, a dynasty of bankers and engineering inventors, it prospered for at least two centuries. In 1793 Daniel Dakeyne patented a machine known as the equilibrium, which he used in the mill as a more efficient way for preparing and spinning flax. Later, his brothers Edward and James, patented a hydraulic engine. An early version of a turbine engine, there is no record of its success, so one must assume that this innovative machine, though ahead of its time, was a failure. When the mill stopped spinning flax, it was taken over by S and E Johnson (East) Ltd for the preparation of animal feedstuffs, but since its closure, parts of the mill have been used by a variety of small industries, such as one making timber furniture. High grade pink gritstone was quarried by the Stancliffe Stone Company in Hall Dale Quarry on the hillside above Two Dales and carried by a narrow-gauge railway into the valley bottom. Most of the stone used to build the grand houses that sprang up along the valley sides and the A6 came from there. During Matlock’s hey-day as a Victorian spa, it became popular for businessmen to build their homes nearby, handily convenient to the numerous mini-spas that followed those started by John Smedley. With the demise of the fashion for immersion in cold water, one of them became a minor public school for daughters of the clergy. Known as St Elphin’s it moved to Darley Dale from its original site in Warrington to escape a cholera epidemic. One of its pupils (although she had left before the school moved to Matlock) was Richmal Compton, author of the famous Just William stories. Since the sudden and unexpected closure of the school in March 2005, the building has been steadily expanded into a high class retirement home. One of the businessmen who made Darley Dale his home was Sir Joseph Whitworth, engineer, inventor and philanthropist. He came to the area in 1854 when he bought Stancliffe Hall. By this time he was well established as an engineer based on his company in Manchester, specialising in making machine tools. One of his many inventions and innovations was to advocate a standard and uniform screw thread – until then every implement and machine had its own uniquely threaded screws. He also designed a measuring device that was accurate to a millionth of an inch – a bass relief of this machine is featured on Sir Joseph Whitworth’s memorial in Darley Dale Park. His philanthropy covered such things as a scholarship for graduate engineers studying at Manchester University, but he also helped the village where he had made his home. The Whitworth Hotel and adjacent Institute are the most tangible effect of his caring nature. Probably the biggest ‘village hall’ in the country, it provides space for public meetings, conference and lecture halls, theatrical events, indoor
Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Spondon House
Spondon House was a fine Georgian mansion, in reality a secondary seat on the Locko estate of the Drury Lowes. Yet it was not without presence, and its history not without interest. All accounts of the house, the building records for which are absent from the Drury-Lowe archive at the University of Nottingham Library, aver that it was built as a dower house, and its plain, well-proportioned appearance suggest that this event took place in the last quarter of the 18th century. The house itself, as built, was of brick, a single pile with three bays and two and a half storeys, gable ended with prominent kneelers, with a central arched entrance under a broken pediment, standing in landscaped grounds. By the time of the first known illustration of it – a lithograph of c. 1840 – the ground floor windows flanking this door had been modified with canted bays under perfunctory hipped roofs, part of a Regency makeover which included the addition of a lower, two bay matching wing on the SE angle, still of two and a half storeys. The north side, too, apart from (probably) two ground floor tripartite windows, was quite devoid of fenestration. In the mid-Victorian period, the house was extended yet again by a two storey wing with service accommodation on the NE side. This included the provision of the second staircase and the moving of the main entrance from the centre of the original range to the angle of that and the Regency SE addition, making way for a conservatory, very like that of Spondon Hall, along the south front. The new staircase was lit by an octagonal, conical top-light with a shallow roof topped by a jaunty ball finial, sitting a little awkwardly on a flat section of roof where the two additional ranges met, at the east end of the main range. The first Lowe of Locko, was John (1704-1771), eldest of the four sons of Vincent Lowe of Denby by Theodosia, a daughter of John Marriott of Alscot, Gloucestershire. John married his mother’s niece, Sydney Marriott, herself the sole heiress of the family’s Gloucestershire estate, but they had no issue. His next brother, Vincent, had pre-deceased him unmarried, whilst the next, Stead Lowe, migrated to America, leaving a son, Stead. The youngest brother, Richard (1716-1785) therefore succeeded John at Locko in 1771. Most genealogies sanitise the family history at this point, having him die unmarried but, late in life, he did marry, his bride being his long-standing maîtresse en titre, Ellen Leyton, previously mother by him of three daughters. On Richard’s death, however, the estate reverted, not to the American Stead Lowe, junior, as one might expect, but to William Drury, a Nottingham-born London merchant, whose grandmother had been Vincent Lowe’s sister, and in 1790 he assumed the additional surname and arms of Lowe by Royal Sign Manual. He then set about greatly enlarging the reasonably modest provincial Baroque Smith of Warwick Locko Hall, but died in July 1827 leaving only a daughter and heiress, Mary Anne, who had run away to get married at Gretna Green in August 1800. Why the skulduggery – which drew down the displeasure of her parents – is unclear, because her swain was entirely suitable: Robert Holden of Nuthall Temple and Darley Hall (1765-1844). Indeed, the Holdens were of rather more distinguished lineage than the Drurys, and just as well off! Spondon House, being so plain and simple, was probably built for the widowed Ellen Lowe and her three daughters, which would suggest a building date of 1785, which looks entirely right. Possibly William Drury wanted nothing much to do with poor Ellen, and Spondon House would have been provided with the minimum of ornament and a lowish cost, probably built by the Locko estate foreman using a plan and elevations from one of the many well-illustrated builders’ manuals then available. The rooms inside, according to a late friend who was educated there, were quite plain and the staircase (albeit moved, as noted above) was typical of the period, being timber with mahogany rail and stick balusters. It is not clear when Ellen Lowe died but, by 1801, runaway Mary Anne and Robert Holden were in residence, and they not only re-named it Aston Lodge (after the Aston-on-Trent estate from which these Holdens sprang) but set about enlarging it. They appear to have put in the windows either side of the entrance and also added the substantial, but slightly lower range to the right of the entrance. However, by 1814, Aston Lodge, as it now was, became vacant yet again, which must suggest that, with the then recent improvements wrought to Locko by John Dodds and William Lees of Derby, there was room for two households there. Thus in that year Spondon House was let to Miss Edwards who founded an ‘Academy for Young Ladies’ which flourished there until 1844. That was the year Robert Holden died, and Miss Edwards was obliged to re-locate to Derby, so that his widow Mary Anne could move in, her son William Drury Holden (thereafter Lowe) having succeeded to Locko. For her, without doubt, was the NE extension built, resulting in the new entrance, conservatory and moved staircase with the accompanying strange roof arrangements at the east end of the house. Yet in the event, she died only five years later, in 1849, leaving Spondon House (as it was once more) vacant. In 1854 a new lease was acquired by Revd. Thomas Gascoigne, who founded a prep school called ‘Spondon House School for the sons of Gentlemen’ there. He was joined in 1874 by Revd. Edward Priestland, who married his daughter and later took over as proprietor and headmaster of what, under his enthusiastic guidance, was to become one of the best schools of its type in the area; the Australians even played their cricket team in 1898! So much so, that following Priestland’s retirement, and under his successor, C. H. T. Hayman, it amalgamated with Winchester
Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles : Collectible UK Comics
I can still recall, aged five or six, being taken out by my nanny to catch a train for a visit to the Science Museum at London – a favourite destination of mine at that age. On the way to our suburban station was a newsagent’s shop, with current titles and the day’s papers displayed at the door. One item caught my attention immediately: a coloured comic, most of the front page of which was covered with a superbly painted disintegrating spaceship. Apart from the fact that the presentation was streets better than anything else in my experience, the impact was immediate. I duly expended fourpence of my very limited pocket money (6d = 2.5p) on a copy and was hooked. I read it, later supplemented by the Beano (founded 1938), thanks to my parents’ forebearance in adding it to the newsagent’s delivery, until I was sent away to prep school four years later. The reason it was so superior was that Eagle was printed in colour photogravure (aided by Eric Bemrose) on good quality paper with artwork of superb quality by Frank Hampson. The founder and editor was Revd. Marcus Morris a Lancashire parson and Christian values informed the content without being either apparent or tiresome. This content was itself pleasing to me: PC 49, the bumbling Harris Tweed and his piratical oppo, Capt. Pugwash (later of TV fame), Luck of the Legion, not to mention Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future (flying through space quite effortlessly in the year 2000 which I felt perfectly plausible) pitting himself against the Venusian tyrant Mekon on his flying potty, not to mention Vora King of Space and other implacable adversaries, all supported by Spaceman Digby and Spacewoman Peabody. I also like the wonderfully well drawn cutaway version of transport wonders in the middle, especially when they dissected a Southern Pacific and put it in the original livery, three years after nationalisation! The Eagle, launched in 1950, was by no means that early a starter, for my second choice, the Beano (which gave me a more light-hearted view of the world), began in 1938, and I preferred it to its rival the Dandy, a year older, despite my enjoyment of Desperate Dan and his cow pies. The former survives, the latter which ended in 2012. Not for me, though, the Boys’ Own Paper, however (a little too earnest), which lasted from 1879 to 1967. Later after having to go and live with my seven cousins in the early 1960s, I was re-introduced to Eagle (much reduced in quality), along with its stablemates, Girl, Robin and Swift. Space precludes any attempt to adumbrate upon the virtues or otherwise of Beezer (1956-1993), Lion (1952-1974), Valiant (1962-1976), Knockout (1939-1963), Rover (1922-1973), Tiger (1954-1985), Topper (1953-1990) or indeed a poor thing called TV Comic (1951-1984) but back numbers of all (and others) are collectible and have a (generally modest) value. Funnily enough the Eagle attracts less money than some of the others, mainly because of its quality and popularity. It sold well (no. 1 sold out, 900,000!) and quality paper meant that it is far more durable than most. No. 1 would go today for around £150, later issues of the first volume (1950-51) around £70-£90 in mint condition but less than £10 in average state. Contrast this with Beano and Dandy: both were published by D C Thompson and the first one of each came with a (very modest) free gift, with Dandy a whistle and with Beano the following year a mask. Both, I might add, have been copied to deceive. Their appeal, magnified during the war, was irreverence and slapstick. Over ten years ago the former, complete and in good condition made £20,350, whereas one has to go back near 20 years to find a price for a first issue Beano, when one (with pressie) made £6,280, although you could comfortably double that figure today. In 1951 Dennis the Menace was introduced and the relevant issue might fetch £350 -£400 at auction, although by the time he had been promoted to the cover, his value in mint will have dropped to around £15. Dandy’s early issues vary (through condition) from £40 to £300, but the first four issues again can reach four figures, with later pre-war issues £1-20 and later still, just pence up to £5 and more recent ones no higher than £2. There are websites devoted to all the minutiae of these comics’ publication history, which one does need to have to hand to enjoy collecting them, but unless you have found a landmark issue in a vile state, just look out at your local car boot or general sales (such as we run fortnightly at Bamford’s) for editions in decent condition, from very fine to pristine. Most of these publications also produced annuals, and these too are highly collectable. Eagle’s first, in 1951 will make over £1000 in mint condition, although £40 should buy a worn copy, with declining values for subsequent issues, none of which are that rare due to the quantity published. Beano started its annual in 1940 with the war on and whilst a tatty one might be had for under £500, a near-mint one would be worth nearer £4000 and the remaining wartime issues tell a similar story, although with slightly diminished values. The variety of published comics is such that collecting old issues can be quite rewarding, especially if you really enjoy browsing the content, an inclination often exacerbated by an affliction called nostalgia. The only thing to say is, do your research first and then seek out the very earliest (or best landmark) issues you can and where possible in the very best condition. You should not have to pay too much on the whole, and buying miscellaneous bundles often reveals better condition copies (or rarities) within, which can be a good way of proceeding. Then one can extract the items one wants and put the remainder back into auction or onto e-bay. 00
Berlin Beyond Checkpoint Charlie
It came as a bit of a shock to be woken by four year-old Lotte impatiently jigging up and down crying ‘die Toilete ist kaputt’. With visions of the apartment flooding and drowning us, I staggered out of bed ready to use my non-existent plumbing skills, only to find that the toilet seat had come off its hinges, something even I could fix. We were staying with friends in Spandau, one of Berlin’s many suburbs, known to us mainly as the place where Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy was held after the Nuremberg trials. Like many parts of Berlin, the town is built around an ancient citadel, but today is mainly devoted to industry. The big attraction to us is that it is served, as most places do in and around Germany’s capital, with an efficient rail and bus network. Armed with a three-day pass we were able to travel far and wide, even on the ferries cruising along Berlin’s surrounding network of canals and lakes. Most visitors to Berlin are mainly on popular short breaks and concentrate on attractions close to the city centre, such as Checkpoint Charlie. This is where the Russian and American sectors came face to face, and became a flashpoint where Word War 3 could have started following some minor stand-off. The Brandenburg Gate is the city’s focal point where the ancient thoroughfares meet, and during the height of the Cold War was where visiting American presidents affirmed their support for Germany’s struggle; this is where President Kennedy inadvertently called himself a doughnut when he said ‘ich bin ein Berliner’, a local delicacy. Most of the wall that separated east and west has gone, apart from a short section covered by graffiti of a high standard. Visitors looking for Nazi memorabilia are likely to be met by shrugs, locals try to forget their unhappy past and look towards the future. The only remaining link with Nazi-ism is the uncovered dungeon area of the Gestapo headquarter; Hitler’s bunker is appropriately lost under a car park. Since re-unification on 3rd October 1990, Berlin has been transformed into a vibrant city, the nation’s capital, with national government once again based on the rebuilt Reichstag. Berlin citizens prefer visitors to come and spend their money in and around its most famous street, the Kurfürstendamm, or Ku’damm where the K.D.W store, Berlin’s Harrods completes three kilometres of boutiques, bookstores and restaurants. It was originally a riding path to the Grunewald hunting lodge, laid out by Elector-Prince Joachim II in the 16th century. The most lasting memorial to the horrors of war stands a little to the side of the top end of the Ku’damm. This is the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church dating from 1895. Badly damaged in 1945, it like its associate twin, Coventry Cathedral has been restored as a symbol of the horrors of war. The badly damaged spire and central section has been made safe, leaving it looking rather like a rotten tooth and like Coventry, a modern church has been built around the ruins. Made entirely of glass blocks with a bell tower to one side of the ruins, and the octagonal nave on the other. One has to admit that the result might not appeal to everyone, and in fact the resulting building is known as the ‘lipstick and powder compact’. It is only when one goes inside that its beauty becomes apparent. Light streams through coloured glass in ever changing patterns matching the sun’s passing. As a memorial built to a Kaiser, the modern church remembers those Germans who stood up to the cruelties of the Nazi regime and in a darkened corner, the Stalingrad Madonna is a memorial to soldiers who were forced to hold out against impossible odds. Drawn by Surgeon/Pastor Kurt Reuber, it is a simple charcoal sketch on the back of a Russian military map, of mother and child and was placed near the entrance to a front-line hospital at Christmas 1942. Whilst Reuber didn’t survive captivity somehow the poster’s touching beauty was saved by other prisoners held for decades in Russian prison camps. It isn’t necessary to move far from the centre of Berlin to find interesting alternatives. Charlottenburg Palace is a matter of minutes ride by bus from the memorial church and is where Berliners can enjoy their most accessible piece of countryside. Built in 1695-99, it was where Prussian kings had their summer residence. A smaller version of Versailles, it was expanded during the course of the following decades and can even boast its own ‘Hall of Mirrors’. A large garden laid out in the English style runs down to the river and the Schinkel Pavilion, which Friedrich Wilhelm III built as a summer house. Inside is a collection of delicate historical Meissen porcelain. Many of the royal hunting lodges now serve as first class hotels and restaurants. Twenty-odd years ago we were fortunate in being able to explore the Brandenburg countryside surrounding East Berlin during the spring following re-unification. Then, everywhere people were still coming to terms with the new found freedom. We went out to Köpenick, a pretty satellite town built around an ancient castle a sort way to the east of Berlin. Though attractive, it was once the headquarters of the feared Stasi, the DDR’s secret police. We had been told to make our way to a spot in the middle of a dense forest, where, we were told, we would find an interesting restaurant. After a struggle involving a bendy-bus with a changed route number, we did find it and it turned out to be where the party faithful met, pre and post 1945 beneath a cluster of stag and boar’s heads. With the loss of its earlier clientele it was a rather sad place, but the service and food were still as good as in earlier times. No doubt it has since recovered its former glory. Wansee, a lake to the west of Berlin is a long stretch of a widened part
Celebrity Interview – Steve Delaney aka Count Arthur Strong
The voice on the other end of the telephone is confident and assured. It’s soon evident that Steve Delaney is a businessman as much as an entertainer. You hear only occasionally a trace of Steve’s alter ego: the bumbling, pompous, delusional, malapropism-uttering Count Arthur Strong. The character came to light in the early 1980s when Steve was at drama school. But Count Arthur existed only in Steve’s head for the next 15 years until he and a friend started running comedy evenings. Steve opened up the shows as Count Arthur who has been with him ever since. Count Arthur has seven radio series, three television series and more than a dozen tours behind him. He is preparing to take his new show, Count Arthur Strong is Alive and Unplugged, on the road. He will be appearing at Buxton Opera House – “one of my favourite theatres” – for the sixth time as well as Derby Theatre during a three-month trek around the country. It follows previous tours which had more exotic names, such as Somebody Up There Licks Me in 2015 and The Sound of Mucus in 2017. If you haven’t come across him, you won’t know what to expect from the septuagenarian Count Arthur whose trademarks are his trilby hat, bow tie, dark-framed glasses and pencil-thin moustache. Steve reckons it’s hard to explain exactly what one of his shows entails because it unfolds on the night and he doesn’t want to give anything away. “I always find it extremely difficult to comment on live shows. You’ll see all the traits that Arthur’s known for: delusional traits, the notion that he’s always succeeding when he’s actually failing. But I can’t really go into specifics.” He says fans can expect “more of the same” – although that doesn’t mean there won’t be any new material in the show. “Arthur’s Arthur – he couldn’t do anything wildly different. Hopefully it’s the writing that makes each show different.” When I spoke to Steve he was taking the week off to finish his new show. “It’s all pretty much written but some of the words aren’t necessarily in the right order, as Eric Morecambe might say. “I enjoy the craft of writing. It’s quite a challenge reproducing the same thing and giving it a freshness night after night. “I like the discipline of reproducing things pretty much verbatim. I also enjoy being able to pause and go off at a tangent if I want to. But that’s never the modus operandi – that’s just a happy occurrence, really.” Steve Delaney who this year turns 64 was born in Leeds where his father was a foundryman and his mother a seamstress. Steve became a carpenter before he went to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, graduating in 1982. He appeared in television dramas including Juliet Bravo, Casualty, The Bill and All Creatures Great and Small, returning to carpentry during lean times as an actor. He explains how the idea for Count Arthur came to him while he was at drama school. “It was just for an exercise to show something to the rest of the year, something that everybody had to do. I came up with an oddball five-minute sketch and it was a very embryonic version of Arthur. But it went down very well – a lot of people laughed.” When he resurrected Count Arthur for the comedy evenings, people immediately liked the character. “I got instant feedback and I thought ‘this is better than auditioning’ which I wasn’t really suited for. I didn’t have the right temperament for it. So I packed acting in and just concentrated on bringing Arthur on at my pace.” Five months after Count Arthur Strong was unleashed on the unsuspecting public, Steve took him to the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe. His Edinburgh shows increased his popularity, although he has not played the festival for several years. “When I went to Edinburgh it was to get people from arts centres along to see the show and book a tour on the back of Edinburgh. Even if you were at a good venue, you still tended to come away with eight or nine thousand pounds worth of debt.” In 2004 Count Arthur Strong was given his own BBC Radio 4 show. Five years later it won the Sony award for best radio comedy. Fifty episodes have now been broadcast including a Christmas special last year. Another special has been recorded which should hit the airwaves in eight months’ time. Almost five years ago Count Arthur’s facial oddities were revealed on the small screen when BBC2 transmitted the first series of a new sitcom. Steve co-wrote it with Graham Linehan who had penned shows such as Father Ted and The IT Crowd. Three series were produced, with the second and third transferring to BBC1. But last year the BBC announced that no more would be made despite the show being voted fourth-best sitcom of the 21st century by the Radio Times. Steve refuses to criticise the Corporation although he admits it was unfortunate that transmission dates and times were moved around. The general election meant two shows in the second series were put back by a fortnight and others were delayed because of tennis at Wimbledon. “The television series was a great bonus. You just have to take the decision and move on. “If you look back and analyse these things, we were shunted around quite a bit for the entire three series. You live and die by the ratings and we just didn’t get enough people watching it. “Graham and I felt that with every series we were almost starting from scratch, which was frustrating. I’m quite philosophical about it – I’m very busy with the rest of the stuff I do with Arthur.” Like many people who work in show business, Steve says his career has had a fair amount of fortune. “I’ve been lucky to be able to perform live, to
Product Test – Regenerate with Dr. Hauschka
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The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Willesley Hall, Ashby
Until the local government reforms of 1888-1889 Derbyshire did not sit inside a single boundary; it has detached ‘islands’, mainly to its south, created in the Saxon period by assarting – clearing of woodland by men of Derbyshire in un-adopted regions. The settlements so created, once the County system had become established in the mid-10th century, tended to become detached parts of the area (county) of the people who had initially created them. Several counties had them. Derbyshire itself boasted Appleby Parva, Chilcote, Clifton Camville, Donisthorpe, Edingale, Measham, Oakthorpe, Ravenstone (the most southerly), Stretton-en-le-Field – and Willesley. Since 1889 they have been divided amongst Leicestershire and Staffordshire. Several of these ‘islands’ had substantial country houses, and indeed most of them have vanished, some almost without trace. Willesley was probably the grandest though. The place itself was one of those granted by the Mercian grandee Wulfric Spott to the Abbey of Burton in his will, but post-Conquest it was divided between the de Ferrers Earls of Derby (later the Duchy of Lancaster) and the Abbey. The manorial estate was initially tenanted under them by the de Willesley family who built a chapel, before passing it on to the Ingwardby family and then, also by inheritance, to the Abneys of Ingleby, who eventually united the estate. These families had few properties outside Willesley, so it is likely that there was an historic manor house, probably on the site of the house that was demolished in 1953. Unfortunately, nothing is known of its early appearance. The later house, which formed the core of the later one, was described by William Woolley in his History of Derbyshire (1713) as ‘a good seat’, with the Lysons’ brothers (1817) adding ‘The manor house which is in the form of a letter H, appears to have been built in or about the time of Charles I’ – that is the period 1625-1649. It was taxed on 16 hearths in 1670 suggesting that it was a substantial building. The earliest picture is an engraving of 1820, showing a substantial brick house of two stories and attics, with an eleven bay façade, the projecting cross-wings at each end of the main block being of three bays. The gables were elaborately shaped, rather similar to those of contemporary Thrumpton Hall, on the County’s Nottinghamshire border, and these may well be original to c. 1630, suggesting its builder was George Abney or his son James. However, the late Professor Andor Gomme, looking at the heavily stone-clad rusticated façade with its Ionic pilasters enclosing a swagger pedimented doorcase, was confident in attributing these later features to a fairly drastic 1720s rebuilding by Francis Smith of Warwick, architect of Sutton Scarsdale, a house which it closely resembles in these details. Smith, judging from some later accounts, also opened out the interior to create a double height hall and installed a fine timber staircase behind it, whilst at the same time endowing the gables with slim Baroque urn finials. The windows were deepened, sashed and given stone key-blocks. The rhythm of the façade has much in common with another work by Smith, Stanford Hall on the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire border, just off the M1. The rustication probably owes its inspiration to another Northamptonshire house, Lamport Hall, where a similar treatment was meted out to an earlier house by Wren’s follower, John Webb from 1655. A landscaped park of 155 acres was created, including a modest lake, and this may have been later and attributable to William Emes (1729-1803), a locally based follower of Capability Brown. The man who commissioned these works was probably not Sir Edward Abney (died 1728), a senior retired judge, who has been blind for the last twenty years of his life, but his son, Sir Thomas (1691-1750). And so matters rested until 1791 then Thomas Abney of Willesley, the last of his direct line, died, leaving an only daughter, Parnell, married to a member of an illustrious neighbouring family, Maj. Charles Hastings, a French-born natural son of Francis, 10th Earl of Huntingdon, whose chief seat was then Ashby Castle. Thomas, who had a distinguished military and diplomatic career was raised to a baronetcy in 1806, assuming the surname and arms of Abney-Hastings by Royal Licence. During the Napoleonic Wars he entertained at Willesley numerous officers of the French navy and Grand Armée with whom he felt to a degree at home, being a fluent French speaker and the son of a Parisian actress. He was also a prominent Freemason, as trait he shared with many of them. His younger son, Francis (born at Willesley in 1794) was a distinguished naval architect and commander. He was recruited by the Greek insurgents, financed by the Byzantine grandee and banker Prince Paul Rhodokanakis-Doukas, to oversee the building and to command the Karteria, the first steam powered warship ever to see action. At her helm, he effectively reduced the threat of the Ottoman navy and, despite being carried off by disease, like his friend Byron, at Missolonghi in 1828, made a considerable contribution to the liberation of Greece. His bust in bronze may still be seen there. Unfortunately Sir Thomas shot himself in 1823, and the estate passed to his elder son, the 2nd baronet. He later set about enlarging the house. The south front acquired a pair of small gables over the bays flanking the entrance and a coat-of-arms above an inscribed tablet was placed between them. The formerly plain west side was much extended, with similar gables, but largely lower and irregular, extending back to the small stone chapel, founded by Michael de Willesley before 1270, but later clad in stone and embattled some years before. But the changes did not stop there. A medium sized manor house was about to become a major seat, for the north side, where there was previously a re-entrant courtyard, was replaced by a three storey square plan diapered brick tower ending in four ogee topped pinnacles at the angles, all joined by a pierced stone balustrade,
Over The Sea to Capri … And The Villa San Michelle
The breathtaking view from this enchanted spot creates the feeling that time has ceased to exist. Exiting Amalfi harbour for our trip to Capri was made tricky due to the fact that I wanted to film it all as it happened. I admit that I’m not the worlds most happy person on a boat especially as it swayed a bit to avoid a yacht entering the harbour. Fortunately we could still see the bottom of the bay through the crystal clear water. With twenty people on board on what I considered a small boat for this epic journey along the Amalfi coast the captain, driver or whatever he called himself dressed in shorts and t-shirt, rather than a proper uniform of epaulettes, an ornamental shoulder piece displaying various stripes, colours and emblems, got the boat up to speed. He didn’t even have a captains table that we could dine together at. Maybe I got the wrong idea of this cruise. As the sea spray lifted beautifully into the air we marvelled as the dramatic coastline revealed its small coves and caves. Occasionally a dolphin appeared, something I hadn’t been prepared for here. With the village of Positano, which we visited many years ago, over to our right (or is that starboard?), we ploughed on. Positano was a former poor fishing village and port and has grown in the last 70 years into a major tourist attraction. Peach and terracotta houses that impossibly cling to the hillsides drop down to the beach where famous people have walked including Mick Jagger, Franco Zaffirelli and little me! Capri was our destination which people kept telling me was famous for Gracie Fields living there. Why did she sing about Bluebirds in Dover when she lived on Capri? I suppose it didn’t rhyme! I was however more interested in Swedish-born physician Axel Munthe; born 1857 and died 1949, author of the book ‘The Story of San Michele’ published in 1926 and a best seller in numerous languages, reprinted constantly over the years. He spoke English, German, French, Italian and possibly a few more. In 1892, he was appointed physician to the Swedish royal family and served as the personal physician of the Crown Princess, Victoria of Baden, continuing when she became Queen consort until her death in 1930. His life as a doctor was tinged with sadness, tragedy and happiness and this is reflected in the book which he pointed out isn’t an autobiography. You can laugh and cry as you read his life’s experiences. Villa San Michele is on Capri if you’re wondering where I was going with the above. It was lovingly restored by Munthe and is a must see on a visit to Anacapri. The island of Capri was for many years strewn with remains of marble columns and Roman remains which Munthe used to build Villa San Michele on the site of a once Imperial Roman Villa and a medieval Chapel. The climb up to the villa from Marina Grande meanders through the shops, cafes and numerous tourists. The villa features according to their web site villasanmichele.eu. Two thousand year-old sculptures, replicas of ancient masterpieces of art, Roman tombstones mixed with 18th-century furniture – everything arranged in a fanciful way in rooms and loggias where the sunlight plays on the polychromatic marble floors. Above all you will find a romantic garden with cypresses, myrtle and exotic flowers, filled with birdsong and sweet scents. In the remotest corner by the chapel the sphinx awaits you. Day after day it keeps perfectly still on the balustrade, watching the world spinning round. The breathtaking view from this enchanted spot creates the feeling that time has ceased to exist.” None of the above is an exaggeration, this is a truly spectacular place to visit and being perched on the edge of the cliff affords outstanding views. You could lose yourself in this setting for hours on end. Hour long walks are arranged every day from April to October. Munthe also acquired the mountainside in order to stop the locals spreading nets to catch the birds and sell them off, so he created a sanctuary for migratory birds. I had to smile at the selling technique for Mount Solaro “Soaring 589 metres above sea level”. Wow only yesterday we were up Vesuvius at 1200 meters above sea level. However, I have to say that when you are that high on a small island looking out at a short stretch of land and shimmering sea it seems higher than Vesuvius and more picturesque to boot. From this vantage point we had a snapshot of our journeys over the years, The bay of Naples, the Amalfi coastline and over to the mountains in Calabria. If visiting natural caverns floats your boat you can join the queue along with people from around the world to visit the Blue Grotto. The cavern is 25 meters wide and 60 meters long, with a tiny one metre entrance. Lying on your back in a wooden rowing boat is the only way in! Inside the dark cavern you will enjoy the breathtaking deep blue ocean. Floating here is an experience that should definitely be on your personal bucket list. A short walk from the harbour are the Augustus Gardens from which you can view the dramatic Faraglioni, three towering rock formations which jut out from the Mediterranean just off the coast. Food on Capri is simple the most popular dish being ravioli capresi . The pasta is light and filled with marjoram, parmesan and aged ricotta cheese, all tossed together with a fresh tomato and basil sauce. The beauty of this is that there is not a lettuce leaf in sight. Perfect. Freshly caught shrimps are also extremely popular and sometimes served sautéed or raw! So much of this food is served with pasta and I can handle that plus of course a customary glass of wine. What better way to enjoy this than by sitting outside in the sun watching the
Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Railway Locomotive Name Plates
Last year we had a whole bunch of railwayana through Bamfords, mainly authentic relics of the great age of travel, but amongst them the nameplate of a locomotive built by the Southern Railway just after the Second World War and known to enthusiasts (in my time at least) as a ‘spam can’. These were large mixed traffic semi-streamlined engines, partly called after places in the West Country (where they were intended to serve) and partly after matters connected with the Battle of Britain and destined for service in Kent. The particular item was Battle of Britain Winston Churchill – the very locomotive which had pulled the late prime minister’s funeral train to Bladon, Oxfordshire, where he was buried. I am old enough to recall seeing it (despite poor reception in mountainous North Wales) on a black-and-white TV that January day in 1965. Such was the fame of this relatively short-lived machine that I knew that what we had was a full sized replica, and it duly sold for a couple of hundred pounds (non-replica) money, as it were. There are plenty of these around, although a new replica can cost you quite a bit more. Look out for one of the initial locomotive of the ‘Lord Nelson’ class (SR again) and you’ll have to shell out £790 for a solid brass copy in full size. But it got me thinking. If you can pay nearly £800 for a replica of a nameplate of a famous – say an ‘iconic’ – locomotive, what might the cost of an original be? Locomotives have borne names ever since Rocket and its rivals vied for supremacy at the Rainhill trials in 1829, so there are nominally a lot around. Yet 19th century survivals are fantastically rare most, sadly, were scrapped with the time-expired bearers of the name. Nearly everything now available for sale comes from the last generation of steam locomotives (I leave aside nameplates from diesel and electric locomotives: they are less sought after, usually of less good quality materials and commoner, despite still making relatively good money). Most engines with names were express passenger ones of various sizes. The handsomest were those on the locomotives of the old Great Western, cast in brass on heavy plates, often curved to fit over a wheel splasher. Modest Cobham Hall fetched £5,800 in 2010. Other companies used steel ones, usually smaller, although the Southern Railway did brass ones until the war. Rarity is often an indicator of price, so one works out the number of a particular class of engines built and multiplies the total by two (there being a name plate on either side of the engine). Thus Derbyshire-born Sir Nigel Gresley designed the not particularly memorable ‘Hunt’ & ‘Shire’ class of 4-4-0 locomotives in the 1920s. The LNER built forty two of them, meaning there must have been 84 nameplates, mainly counties but also names of particular Hunts. I recall sitting with my father around 1961 when we learnt from his newspaper that British Railways were scrapping these engines and, by applying to BR one could acquire a nameplate of one’s choice for about £75 – scrap value plus cartage. As one of these machines had been called The Craven, I urged Papa to put in an offer for it, but when they told him the price (which in retrospect he could well have afforded) he demurred. Yet it would have made a splendid investment today, 57 years later, for one sold not so long ago for £15,100! Another reason for them being scarcer than they are is that many were presented by BR to the institutions after which the engine had taken its name. Thus many ‘Battle of Britain’ class engines had their squadron number nameplates with their accompanying badges, enamelled onto a large attached oval, were presented to the relevant squadron HQs. Football clubs whose names had adorned LNER B17 class engines were presented with the relevant plates, and to all sort of stately homes received plates from Great Western Railway ‘Castle’, ‘Hall’, ‘Manor’ and ‘Grange’ class locomotives.. But to acquire these wonderful items, one requires fantastically deep pockets. Top price to date was a sister engine of world speed record breaking Mallard, called Golden Fleece. One plate alone went for £60,000 in December 2014, whilst another from its sister engine Golden Eagle fetched £31,000 two years ago. Mind you, less romantic names suffer price-wise: Another Mallard sister, prosaically named after a director of the company, Sir Murrough Wilson, only made a paltry £19,600! The nameplates from the equivalent top-link locomotives on the rival LMS also make similar money, although neither are much to look at compared with one from a ‘spam can’ or a GWR engine: ‘Princess Coronation’ class Pacific City of Liverpool made £36,900 (place loyalty, no doubt!) whereas Queen Elizabeth from a similar engine, but from its days as a streamliner, made £51,500. More affordable are brass nameplates of the Southern’s likeable but modest ‘King Arthur’ class engines, retailing at around £8,000 at present, although the obscure Malorian Sir Durnore made £8,600 not long ago, so heaven knows what King Arthur himself might command! In other words, it is fame and popularity which makes the big money. Take the sister engines of Flying Scotsman. Most were named after racehorses which had won classics in the forty years or so before the engines were named. This in itself resulted in some oddities, like Dandy Dinmont (survivor of a serious collision before the war), Call Boy and Galopin (geddit?). Thus, Minoru has recently sold for a very modest £7,000, but one of the more famous members of the class could add a nought easily – or very nearly. Industrial locos also often carried names. They were usually simple little engines and accordingly had simple names, like Jane, Mersey, Powerful, Diamond or Colliery No. 1. These plates can actually be affordable, and start at something in the order of £250 rising to £1,250 for better known ones. The added pleasure
Celebrity Interview – Kay Mellor
Kay Mellor can hardly contain her excitement. The scriptwriter and director who was behind such gripping television dramas as Band of Gold, Playing the Field and The Syndicate has come up with her first musical which will visit Nottingham on a huge tour – and she can barely stop herself from attending every night. She’s teamed up with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s son Nick to write Fat Friends the Musical. The popular characters from her TV series Fat Friends, which aired for five years from 2000 are back, but are now living in a world of mobile phones and social media. Kay says the themes featured in the work are even more relevant now. “The diet industry is absolutely booming and people are feeling really bad about their body image. Magazines are showing super-skinny people and saying ‘you need to look like this to be of any worth to anybody’. And I’m trying to challenge that.” The cast includes Jodie Prenger as Kelly Stevenson, a bride-to-be who works in her father’s fish and chip shop; former cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff as her fiancé Kevin; The X Factor winner Sam Bailey as Kelly’s mother Betty; former Coronation Street actor Kevin Kennedy as Kelly’s dad Fergus; and ex-Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton as slimming guru Julia Fleshman. Originally Flintoff was not going to take to the stage in Nottingham because of other commitments. Now he will be in the show from Monday until Thursday, with Joel Montague sharing the role on Friday and Saturday. “Freddie loves this musical. You can see when he’s on stage how much he loves it,” says Kay. “Joel is fantastic so nobody’s seeing something second best if they come at the end of the week. He’s amazing and has the voice of an angel.” Kay says everyone she approached to be in Fat Friends the Musical agreed straight away. “I’ve got a dream cast. I didn’t know whether Sam Bailey could act. She came to audition for me and I knew within five seconds of her saying her lines that she could play this part – she’s amazing.” She pays tribute to composer Nick Lloyd Webber for being very careful about who he chose for the ensemble. “He had a sound in his head that he wanted for the chorus. Sometimes I’d say about a singer ‘they’ve got a lovely voice’ and he’d say ‘it’s not quite what I want’. When the ensemble sing it’s incredible. It just fills the auditorium.” Lloyd Webber also wrote the music for Loves, Lies and Records, Kay’s 2017 TV series which was set in a register office. “He gets my work and that’s not always easy. You could turn it into a dirge or it could be too poppy. But Nick understands it. He’s got an understanding of character. I think he’s a really smart man.” So what’s the difference between writing a stage play and writing a musical? “It’s different inasmuch as you have to think where the songs will come in. A song has to tell you something different from what the dialogue says – it either needs to let you in on a thought that you’re not privy to or it needs to move the plot on. “It was very difficult because I didn’t know the language of musical theatre. I’d sat in many auditoriums watching musicals and loving them but I didn’t know how to go about it. “A song’s a poem with a melody going on in my head. And Nick would say ‘well, just sing it’. I’ve got the most terrible singing voice to be honest with you, so I croaked down the phone what would be in my head. I’m sure he had a good few laughs but it gave us an idea. And then he’d come up with something absolutely stunning.” Kay Mellor OBE was born Kay Daniel on 11 May 1951 in Leeds to a Catholic father George and a Jewish mother Dinah. She has an older brother, Robert. Her parents divorced when she was young and she was brought up by her mother. She trained as an actress and secured parts in the soap opera Albion Market and the TV series All Creatures Great and Small. Her writing career began in the 1980s with Granada Television. She worked on Coronation Street and also wrote for Albion Market. She then penned seven episodes of the Channel 4 drama Brookside. Bosses at Granada spotted her talent and broadcast her first major series, Band of Gold. Starring Geraldine James, Cathy Tyson, Barbara Dickson and Samantha Morton, the programme revolved around the lives of a group of sex workers in Bradford’s red-light district. She also branched out into theatre. Her play A Passionate Woman featuring Derby-born Gwen Taylor had a run at the old Derby Playhouse in 1995 and a later version was seen in Nottingham. “I missed it in Derby but I did see it in Nottingham,” says Kay. “It went down so well there. Sometimes people immediately get my work and it seemed that the Nottingham audience did. “Gwen is a fabulous actress and I love her to bits. She’s a wonderful woman.” Kay was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Award in 1997 for outstanding writing for television. She was appointed an OBE in the 2009 birthday honours and in 2014 she was awarded the Writers’ Guild Award for outstanding contribution to writing. Kay is hoping to have a holiday after Fat Friends the Musical finishes its tour. She has had a really busy time, penning two television series as well as the musical. After Loves, Lies and Records, she wrote and directed Girlfriends, a series about three middle-aged women. They have been friends since their teenage years and get into all sorts of scrapes. It starred Miranda Richardson, Phyllis Logan and Zoë Wanamaker. Kay says she couldn’t believe her luck to get such great actresses for the six-part series. Girlfriends also featured Rachel Dale who trained at the University of Derby and
