Old Whittington One Place Study

Although William wasn’t born in Whittington he lived and worked in the area. He certainly had an interesting and varied life.

According to the 1881 census the address for the Hand family was “near the church” Old Whittington. In 1891 the family had moved to High St and were still there in 1901, by 1911 they were living at Holland Road, but according to the newspaper report of 1914 the couple had moved again and were living at 66 Church St.

As far as I can check without certification William Hands died in 1922.

Hope you find this excerpt from the Belper News 3 April 1914 interesting. Love the fact that at 75 William Hands was still working.

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ accessed 06/02/22

Sheffield Independent 4 February 1895.

I was very surprised to read that a funeral and a wedding took place in the burnt out ruins. It sounds as though the wedding would have been memorable “The fact of a wedding taking place, as it were, in the open air, produced considerable interest. The ceremony presented and uncommon site, for amidst falling snow and a snow covered chancel a bride and bridegroom were joined in matrimony”.

Further to my earlier post re the fire at St Bartholomews in January 1895. Just over one week later a meeting had taken place to discuss the raising of funds to rebuild the church.

This was achieved the following year and the church re-opened in September 1896.

The fire in the early hours of 29 January 1895 caused a huge explosion and could be seen as far away as Stonegravels. The wintry weather slowed the progress of the firemen and the hydrants were frozen.

The Nunney family lived on Church St. and Charles Nunney was walking past early in the morning and raised the alarm at about 1am.

The full report of the fire was published in the Sheffield Evening Telegraph on 29 January 1895

(Picture http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

Further reading at http://www.mosboroughhistory.co.uk/2020/07/22/whittington-church-burnt-down-c-w-lees-diary/

From the Derbyshire Times January 6th 1939. All look to be having great fun.

I found this article about the opening of the new Wesleyan chapel at Old Whittington in the Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald 2nd November 1895.

At first I was unsure which chapel it referred to as it mentions it is situated near to the Revolution House, but after a visit to Whittington I realised it is the chapel on Church St. which is now the Seventh Day Adventist church. (There was another chapel just past the Revolution House on the main road).

The newspaper report is interesting for the information on the building of the chapel, but it is also interesting from a genealogical point of view as it contains plenty of names of people who lived in Whittington in the mid 1890’s.

A sad story to start the New Year from the Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald 23rd July 1892.

I don’t normally post sad events that I find in the newspapers but this young lady had a very tragic end to her life due to mismatched love!

I have been sent a photo by Elizabeth Pemberton of the gas works at the bottom of Whittington Hill clearly showing the managers house, it was taken around 1890 and it not one I have seen before. At this time the manager would have been William D Holford.

When I was researching the soldiers of WW1 I came across John Smitheman https://oldwhittingtonops.com/smitheman-john/ John died in March 1916, but sadly his young daughter Ellen pre-deceased him in February 1916, she was just 4 years old. Whether he would know he had lost his daughter I have no idea, but I was contacted this week by Johns grandson and he sent me a picture of this memorial plaque for both his grandfather and his aunt. They were both obviously greatly missed.

For anyone interested in the history of the Revolution House –

Chesterfield and District Local History Society are having their first talk since before Covid. This will be held at St Thomas’s Church , Brampton , on Monday September 20th at 7- 30pm, and the talk is “The Revolution House “, by Charlotte Mitchell , from Chesterfield Museum.

Visitors are welcome. Parking is free.

It will be in one of the rooms near to the cafe.