Mrs Cope's Shop

 

Mrs Cope stands outside of her shop which was attached to the Navigation Inn at Bugsworth, Derbyshire, 1935

Read the full story of her family's local businesses and of life in a Derbyshire village: https://furnesshistory.blogspot.com/p/the-cope-family-ventures-in-buxworth.html

Keith Holford 1935 - 2020

We were sad to hear of the death on 15th June, of Keith Holford of Chinley.  Keith had been a great friend to this Society, contributing many articles and photographs relating to the history of our neighbouring village of Buxworth. Many of our members and friends will remember Keith as guest speaker at some of our past meetings. He had an extensive collection of historic photographs and a great store of meticulously researched historical facts and anecdotes about Buxworth and Chinley. Many of Keith Holford's articles may be found on this website.

Off The Rails

On Monday 9th September 1867 the most serious of the local rail incidents took place on the Midland line.  A goods train had entered the tunnel between Chapel and Peak Dale and had stopped to unload gravel for track maintenance.  Against the rules, a following train carrying 1000 sheep and cattle was allowed to enter the tunnel shortly after 5pm, where it crashed into the stationary ballast train.  A little girl had taken some clogs to her father, a blacksmith called Vaines, who was working in the tunnel and together they were in one of the wagons. She was the first fatality of the day.  Several other workmen were injured.  Two engines hauled the cattle train and these left the track causing the 23 cattle trucks to become detached and these started to roll backwards.  On leaving the tunnel, the guard and three drovers jumped and their injuries were not known. The telegraph wires were out of order and it was not until the wagons sped through Bugsworth that the signalman there, was able to warn New Mills and have the signals set to danger.  The train was seen approaching New Mills at 6pm A passenger express had already set off from New Mills and was halted by the signal after some distance.  Driver Cooper set the train in reverse and he, the fireman and guard all jumped off.  There was still a collision in which four cattle drovers were killed and a fifth injured.  Many sheep and cattle lay dead amongst the wreckage. The express in the meantime was still travelling backwards out of control and its speed increased due to the collision. The train was not brought to a halt until directed into a siding at Romiley. None of the passengers were injured although some suffered from shock.

Hello Dolly Lane !

In this article we will follow a route from from Furness Vale to Bugsworth.  We will start at the bottom Station Road and as we cross the bridge  we pass over the River Goyt, the original boundary between Cheshire and Derbyshire. Look at the change in the masonry of the bridge parapet and you will see where the Toll Cottage once stood.  The bridge is known as Joule Bridge or sometimes Jolly Bridge and this was part of the Thronsett Turnpike . Turnpikes were abolished by Local Government Act of 1888 to much local rejoicing.

The name of this little hamlet of Gow Hole was recorded in 1587 as Jawhill, the earliest record. Various spellings are subsequently found, no doubt, as the name became corrupted: Joliehole; Jollyhole; Jowhole and finally Gow Hole and as we have seen Joule in reference to the bridge. 

The junction of Marsh Lane and Ladypit Road in the 1920s.  The coal wharf is behind the wall onthe right.

Britannia Mill Buxworth

This is Google's satellite view of the Britannia Mill at Buxworth. Little remains of the four storey mill destroyed by fire in August 2005 and the site is described by many, as an eyesore.  

The mill was built in the late 18th or early 19th century for the manufacture of fustian, a coarse cotton fabric. It was originally powered by water drawn from the Black Brook. The water wheel was fed from two mill ponds. Landed at Liverpool, the raw cotton  was carried by canal to Buxworth and the finished goods were despatched by boat to Manchester. The mill had its own canal wharf next to teapot row. There was some rebuilding in 1851 and the site became part of the Bugsworth Hall Estate.

Fustian manufacture ceased in 1900 and the newly formed Britannia Wire Works Company moved into the now empty mill. Britannia manufactured a range of seating for the furniture, railway, aviation and motor trades as well as  matresses. The wire formed the sprung interiors. The company built up a considerable export business, the mill was extended and theponds filled in. Production ceased in May 1969 and the mill was occupied by PVC Group until the time of the fire.

There are now proposals to redevelop the site for housing. Rivertown Developments based in Buxworth hopes to build up to 110 homes in a mix of styles and size.

The websites of TPM Landscapes and Crowley Associates, planning consultants, not only detail the proposed developments but also provide considerable historical and site information with detailed maps showing how the mill developed. :
 http://www.tpmlandscape.co.uk/consultation/  

 http://crowleyassociates.co.uk/experience/britannia-mill/ 

Trevor Walmsley has recently contacted the History Society. He left New Mills in 1973 and now lives in New Zealand. His father in law, Lawrence Devine, was at Britannia all of his working life and was works manager until it closed in 1969. The photographs are of Mr Lawrence with his daughter Patricia; A calendar from the office and extracts from a patent deposited in 1945 for Ford car seats.

 

 

 

 The following photographs show the blaze being tackled by the fire brigade, the derelict building and the former Britannia road vehicles. 

 

Growing Up In Buxworth

Jackie and Terry Prior, family relatives living nearby escorted me to my first day at Buxworth School. I didn't realise it at the time but this was the first day of my independence. So my early education started in the Infants Class under the watchful eye of Miss. Littlewood. With a well built human frame, knitted woollen skirts and jackets together with pince-nez glasses, the spitting image for Miss Prism, She cosseted,  cajoled and corrected  her little charges in equal measure.

 

Buxworth School

There were no pre-school groups in the late thirties and early forties, just common or garden infants under the buxom but gentle-womanly Miss. Littlewood. I was a late starter to a full school life in Buxworth because I had been in and out of school and had spent a few weeks in Manchester Royal Infirmary with a suspected mastoid.  I can pin point the date from an entry in the Buxworth School Logbook. 16-12-1941. Dr Bamber made a medical inspection of all pupils. At 1-20 pm she examined Keith Holford and ordered him to be sent home at once -- likelihood of a developing mastoid trouble.” No mastoid, but the hospital justified their existence by removing my tonsils. My stay too, left me with a  lifelong anathema to the smell of boiling cabbage and fish poached in milk. Christmas Eve brought horror rather than happiness when a fancy dressed monkey monkeyed his or her way through the children's wards. Since that day I have never knowingly found time to utter a good word regarding monkeys. The bonus however was Christmas presents at both the hospital and later at home.

The full story by Keith Holford, may be read here:

 http://furnesshistory.blogspot.cz/p/home-ondranged-childhood-during-ww2.html

The Cope Family Ventures in Buxworth.

Introduction

Over a three day weekend in June 1992 the “Friends of Buxworth / Bugsworth School inaugurated the first “Bygone Buxworth”. It was to be held in Buxworth School. The turnout was something to write home about. The school was packed to the gunnel's with past and present villagers jostling to see both the historical displays and to meet up with long lost friends. The outcome at a post mortem meeting was that with the numerous offerings of more historical material and the interest generated, that a further 10 day exhibition would be staged when the school was not operational during the summer. This occurred in the summer of 1994.

  

A taste of what was on offer in 1992 follows. The Navigation Inn staged a “Canal Themed Weekend” Richard Hall, the then Chinley milkman brought his shire horses to the Bugsworth Basin. Opposite Buxworth School a slide show and lecture entitled “The Peak Forest Canal and the Bugsworth Basin” was held in the former Primitive Methodist Tabernacle Chapel  A display of old photographs and documents was mounted in the main schoolroom. Morris Dancers, Clog Dancers, Live Theatre and a Jazz and Blues Band filled in the gaps. I produced a 28 page booklet plainly entitled “Bugsworth” for the occasion. An amalgam of local residents recounted businesses and ventures that I edited into an article entitled “Shop-keeping in Bugsworth over 60 years.” Other villagers contributed various Bugsworth / Buxworth related articles.  The booklet sold well and feedback came back fast and furious, mostly landing into my possession as the historical editor. One of the families mentioned was the Cope family who had over many years ran three separate businesses in Bugsworth / Buxworth, ending in 1944. Derek Cope their son, unsolicited, furnished me with a 20 page account of their business dealings, plus a chronological list denoting the names of previous landlords who had kept either the Bull's Head or the Navigation Inn. The list of landlords spanned the years 1842—1941.

Keith Holford. November 2016

Running a business in Buxworth 1932- 1944

Derek's edited article reads --- My parents first commercial venture was the chip shop, which stood at the foot of “ The Dungeon ” the footpath that runs from the former Post Office on New Road, diagonally to the Navigation Inn, adjacent to the Bugsworth Basin. It was a dark wooden shack with a steeply sloping roof and a brick chimney at the side facing the Black Brook. There was a serving counter on the left with the frying fittings behind, a long table with a bench seat faced the counter. At the back, steps led down to the dank and dismal storage area for the fish, potatoes, oil and mineral waters, with a small extension at the rear for the empties.

The village Chip Shop is pictured left of centre

Now this occupation was the before the latter days of the redoubtable “Maude Stiles ” -- Chip Shopper Keeper Extraordinaire. In fact my earliest memories in life are connected with the “fip fop”. The chip cutter was on the serving counter. A long handled lever with a heavy metal block below forced down the potatoes into a mesh of blades, the square chips then fell into a basin below. No bags of ready made chips, you made your own. The fish was delivered to the Buxworth Station in wooden tubs packed with ice. One memory is going with my mother to collect the tub on a cold winter-day, the ground being covered in snow. The fish tub was lowered onto a small porter's trolley and I can still hear the crackle of the frozen snow under the iron wheels of the trolley as we left the station. After a year or two with the chip shop, my parents moved into the realms of higher commerce and took on the Navigation Inn, always known as “The Navvy”. Life was broadening and memories are now more plentiful.

What The Papers Said

John Allen sold his wife for 3s 6d; the electric fluid entered a cottage and smashed the furniture; a bear and a deer absconded from a boat and The Bugsworth Nick Club terrified local women. 

One Saturday evening, not long ago, a man who had been making a little too free with "John Barleycorn", had to pass through Taxal churchyard where a deep grave had been dug (for an interment on the morrow), close to the footpath over which the jolly fellow had to pass on his way home; and being rather unsteady in his gait, and not quite able to maintain his true perpendicular, he unfortunately fell into the grave; and being unable to get out again, he quietly resigned himself to his fate and went to sleep. Shortly afterwards, one of his boon companions, in passing the same way, had the misfortune to fall into the same grave and rouse the first occupant from his sleep, who feeling himself offended at the intruders visit, muttered out in an angry growl "It's strange one cannot lie quietly in the grave". Read about these and other curious stories in "What The Papers Said" a selection of news reports from the 19th and 20th centuries about the Derbyshire villages of Bugsworth, Furness Vale and Whaley Bridge.price £2.40.  Follow the link below to download your copy.
 http://amzn.to/1myVLJI

A printed version of the book is available from the History Society

I

Lady Pit. A Local Coal Mine

Lady Pit, one of our local collieries closed in 1903. It was operated by the Beard and Bugsworth Colliery Company  and was one of several mines owned by  L & E Hall. This mine, also known as Beard Colliery was opened in 1816 – 1818 and was the largest in the vicinity of Furness Vale.  There were numerous shafts: Air Pit; Chain Pit; Furnace Pit, Lady Pit; Blind Pit, Deans Piece Pit and Bullbower Pit.

A feature of the mine was the Jowhole Tunnel which was dug in 1853. This ran in a straight, almost westerly direction to a yard off of Marsh Lane near Gow Hole Farm. Here was a wharf where coal could be loaded by tipplers on to road vehicles. A horse drawn tramway ran through the tunnel and this opened into a number of sidings at Gow Hole. The site is now Nick Rowleys Yard.

The opening of the railway between Sheffield and Manchester allowed high quality, inexpensive coal to be transported across the Pennines and our local mines could not stand up to the competition.

Lady Pit was sited at the point where Dolly Lane meets Lady Pit Road. The buildings have been demolished and the land restored to farming.  The colliery was served by a short railway line which extended from Gowhole sidings, crossing the field on a low embankment which may still be seen in the photograph below.

The Tin Bath

Two "Black Fives" crossing Brierley Park Bridge in Buxworth on Sunday Morning.  This was a steam hauled excursion train from Preston to Sheffield.

Photo courtesy of Jack Hardman

Neighbours in Bugsworth

Bugsworth Basin Heritage Trust has taken over the work of the former Inland Waterways Protection Society. Formed in 1958 this organisation has been instrumental in the restoration and management of this once busy inland port.  The Heritage Trust has a brand new website full of historical information as well as a guide to the canal basin.  http://www.bugsworthbasin.org/
The Protection Society published a quarterly newsletter containing articles about the restoration of Bugsworth as well as news and historical features of the canal system. An archive of newsletters between 2001 and 2012 is available online: http://old.bugsworthbasin.org/pages/news.htm

Don't miss our December meeting when Ian Edgar tells the story of the restoration of Bugsworth Basin.

Brierley Green

A digitally coloured  photograph of Brierley Green Congregational Chapel, Bugsworth

Bugsworth past.

From the Manchester Guardian February 1928

Beard and Bugsworth Colliery - Lady Pit

Lady Pit, owned by the Beard and Bugsworth Colliery Company stood at the corner of Ladypit Road and Dolly Lane. It closed in 1909.  I had never seen any photographs of the mine and assumed that none had survived. It's surprising what can be found when studying and enlarging an old photograph. One picture from our archives features Bangs Bridge, the footbridge over the canal near the water treatment works. Look in the background and there, behind a very long goods train is Lady Pit.  At that distance it is a little bit misty but all of the buildings can be clearly seen.

The chimney survived long after closure only to be demolished in the late 1940's by a lightning strike which scattered the bricks a distance of 100 metres..