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.

Shirt's Bridge

There had long been a track or footpath leading from Big Tree Farm on Dolly Lane, towards Waterside. The 1885 Ordnance Survey map shows this crossing the Midland Railway over a bridge which had been buit in 1865. When Gowhole Sidings were constructed, the footbridge was extended in 1903 to span the numerous tracks. This was named and numbered by the railway as Bridge 121 but was sometimes known locally as Shirt's Bridge. 

Both the original span and the extension are seen in this photograph taken in the 1940s. The locomotive is No 3271 heading south with a train of empty wagons. A group of three train spotters sit at the trackside. Big Tree Farm is on the hillside

Les Footitt recalls the bridge from the late 1960s:  
"It brings back the memory of being with my brothers and friends in the late 1960s. We would always be out exploring up at the disused sidings. As you approached the bridge from Waterside , you would walk through the tunnel to the bridge and the then turn left to go up about 10 stone steps, then turn right up another flight of stone steps until you were on the wooden walkway across to Big Tree. Well, it was at the bottom of the steps that we found that the earth had fallen away revealing a small hole and we could see that it was hollow inside. We returned at a later date with torches and scraped a bit more soil out until we could squeeze through on our bellies into what was to us a secret cave. We went there on numerous occasions to play in the “cave” until we eventually got too big to squeeze through the gap. I think the bridge was demolished in the mid 1970s".

Les also describes the far end of the bridge:
 You actually came down a flight of about 10 stone steps from Big tree on to the wooden walkway.  so if you were to walk along the bridge from Waterside end towards the Big Tree end all you saw were the stone steps as if it was a dead end  and no exit until you were at the bottom of the steps.

The bridge has long been demolished but following the path from Big Tree Farm still leads to a descending flight of steps.  The path crosses the site of the sidings at ground level and then passes under the remaining railway tracks through the original tunnel.

 Neil Ferguson-Lee's photographs  show the view along the bridge  with the rising flight of steps at the far end.

   















 Below is the tunnel under the main railway line. This is the view towards Waterside.

 

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.

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