Old Whittington One Place Study

I was reading a newspaper article in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph 12 March 1908. It references a book which was written in 1908 by Samuel Henry Stones who lived in Old Whittington.

It lists the book as a sixpenny publication, I thought I would check if it was available to buy and it was on Amazon at £55.47! I decided to check the local library and they had a copy available to borrow.

It has the story of the Revolution but what I find interesting are the references Mr Stones makes to people and places who were living in Old Whittington in 1908. I will post some of this information later, but for now there is an interesting photograph of the 1888 bicentenary celebrations of the Revolution. It was a very well attended affair and probably many of our ancestors could be on this photograph (if they came from the Whittington area of course).

Photo from Whittington and the Glorious Revolution 1688 author S H Stones published by W C Leng & Co published 1908.

The marriage of Minnie Wright of Old Whittington and Mr Douglas Wise Driver was reported in great detail in the Derbyshire Courier 12 October 1912. The descriptions of the clothes are given in great detail and from reading the report it sounds as though the sister of the bride nearly stole the show! “A toilette which was greatly admired was that of Miss Wright, sister of the bride. It was of fraise-coloured ninon, made with a “balloon” tunic, with a flat flounce of Florentine guipure over an underskirt of charmeuse”.

I think the sisters dress may have looked something like this –

Picture from https://repeatedoriginals.com/

The full description of the wedding is below.

I never realised there was a Freemasons Lodge in Whittington, this extract from the Derbyshire Courier 15 October 1904 confirms there was. It mentions that meetings were held at the Institute, I only know of the Sheepbridge Institute (photo below).

I always believed the ‘Masons ‘ was a secretive society but several members are named in this excerpt.

Photo courtesy of Brian Fogg (Old Whittington and Me) https://oldwhittingtonops.com/2025/07/27/old-whittington-and-me/

Taken from the Derbyshire Times 21 August 1926. I have seen a couple of other incidents of people being hurt whilst outcropping in the Holland/Prospect Road areas.

The only map I could find near that date was 1914-1915 and it does show a couple of areas of possible outcrops but they are behind Broom House and towards the railway line. Could they possibly be the areas mentioned? If anyone has any other ideas please let me know.

This article was published in the Derbyshire Courier 3 August 1912. Mrs Nunney was the grandmother of Peter Nunney who is commemorated on the memorial window at St Bartholomews Old Whittington. She was married to Samuel Nunney who was the mole catcher for the Duke of Leeds. Some time ago I wrote about Samuel and his family. https://oldwhittingtonops.com/nunney/

Memorial window in St Bartholomews church.

The Swanwick family were well known for opening their grounds to garden parties and charitable events for local people. As on this occasion reported in the Derbyshire Courier September 2nd 1916 they opened their garden for 59 wounded soldiers from Chesterfield.

This article from the Derbyshire Times 21 May 1910 reports on the Salvation Army procession in Whittington. It sounds like a very well attended event and whilst not just covering Old Whittington the Primitive Methodist church in Old Whittington was represented under the leadership of Mr C Mettam. ( Mettam is a very well known name in Whittington).

The picture of the procession shows “the girls in pretty attire”.

This article from Sheffield Daily Telegraph 7 September 1929 highlights how Old Whittington is changing and how it has lost many familiar points of interest. The writer would certainly notices some changes now since 1929!

Back in July I was lucky enough to be able to meet my daughter in France and we travelled to Belgium to visit the graves of our some of the men I researched during 2017- 2018.

I have visited many WW1 and WW2 graves over the years but this visit felt much more personal.

It was emotional to be able to stand at the graves of these men, whose short lives I feel I know quite well, and to see how well looked after they are. These men who came from Whittington would have never imagined they would have remained in the middle of the Belgian countryside, but they remain in very peaceful and well tended places.

Photos of most of the graves have already been posted on the webpages but I thought it would be nice to post the ones taken on my visit as they are more up to date.

We stayed near to Ypres and the graves we visited were:

Horace Aaron buried at Spoilbank Cemetery

J Vaughan buried at New Irish Farm Cemetery

H Taylor buried at New Irish Farm Cemetery

J Kynaston is buried at White House Cemetery

Arthur Chambers (Booth) is buried at Perth Cemetery (China Wall)

J Atkinson is buried at Talana Farm Cemetery

H Adams is buried at Mendingham Military Cemetery

M Clayton is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery

The remaining men we visited were on the Tyne Cot or Menin Gate memorial for the soldiers who died but were never found.

The Menim Gate Memorial:

The men were all from the Notts and Derbys Regiment ( The Sherwoods)

They were:

William M Bowman, George Kirk, Thomas W S Pendleton, Wm Jas Thurman and Frank Wheelhouse Morgan.

The Tyne Cot Memorial:

The men were –

William Leslie Gaunt – Sherwoods

John Green -Sherwoods

Charles Leggitt – Sherwoods

Horace Lewis – Highland Light Infantry

All the mens stories are available to read here https://oldwhittingtonops.com/the-fallen-of-old-whittington-1914-1918/