Old Whittington One Place Study

I found this story in the Guardian from 17th October 1856. Fascinating how the people who supposedly stepped in to help with an argument ended up on the wrong side of the law! The Fowler family owned Whittington Hall up until 1884.

Happy New Year to everyone who follows this One Place Study of Old Whittington.

New Years Eve 1874 – sounds as though there was a bit of rowdiness in Old Whittington! John Smith didn’t end up having much fun on New Years Eve 1873, according to this entry in Sheffield Independent 5th January 1874.

I remember many years ago, when I was in St Barnabas church choir visiting Whittington Hall at Christmas to sing carols to the ‘girls’.

Years before in 1945 it sounds like the inmates had a marvellous Christmas if this newspaper excerpt from the Derbyshire Times 28 December 1945 is anything to go by.

I never realised, until reading this, that the original annexe at the Swanwick Memorial Hall was in memory of Miss Mary Swanwick.

Derbyshire Times 25 July 1925. Interesting that using the annexe for a library and reading room was suggested here.

This article shows the police took the noise from rowdy behaviour late at night very seriously , this was when policemen were on the beat, things have changed a bit in the last 90 odd years and sadly no police men on the beat now!

The above photo taken around 1890 shows the old gas works and the railway line which went to Sheepbridge Works, Dunston and Barlow (Courtesy of Chesterfield Library)

This map posted by Paul Greenroad some time ago shows the junction with all the lines.

A later picture of the junction looking towards Sheepbridge?

Picture posted by Paul Greenroad

This sad story was in the Derbyshire Courier 1 Jan 1887, what a terrible mistake to make!

I was surprised to read how long the library has been situated at Swanwick Hall, it was discussed by the Trustees in March 1929 when they offered the Hall as a Delivery Station for Chesterfield Library at a rental of £10 per annum.

A newspaper report from 15 June 1929 confirms that a Delivery Station of the Chesterfield Library was to be opened in the Swanwick Memorial Hall.

New readers were to be enrolled on June 21st and it was hoped the issue of books would commence on 25th June.

I remember going there as a girl in the sixties when you used to go up the stairs at the back of the Hall.

Derbyshire Times 2 March 1929

Derbyshire Times 15 June 1929

Remembering the Fallen from all conflicts, and in  particular the men from Old Whittington 

THE FALLEN OF OLD WHITTINGTON 1914-1918

How many people can remember attending weddings at the Swanwick Hall? After the meal the chairs would be pushed to one side for dancing!

I definitely attended at least one in the 1960’s which was laid out like this. The image came from https://picturethepast.org.uk/ and was taken in 1966, Photographer R Wilsher