Ockbrook - Part 1
- A Little Corner Of Church Street
w/e 28 December
2003
Between April and November 2003, I ran a monthly series on this
site featuring the village of Stanton By Dale. I've now turned my attention
to another village between Ilkeston and the county town of Derby
and will be adding pages once again on a monthly basis through
the first part of 2004. Much of the historical information you
will read, will have been gleaned from a leaflet published in
1992 in the "Village Trails in Erewash" series by the
Erewash Groundwork
Trust with the support of the Countryside Commission. The
Commission ceased its work in 1999 but its objectives and programmes
have continued within the Countryside Agency. The leaflet invites us
to "journey back in time along the jittys and alleyways
of Ockbrook" and although it details almost two dozen sites
of historical interest, it leaves the route to one's own making.
What better place to start then than outside the White Swan in
Church Street.
|
Situated only
four miles from Derby, Ockbrook despite being a small village,
is well served by public houses. I can think of at least four
- there may be more - but this one, the White Swan stands in
Church Street and faces All Saint's Church.
|
I was unable
to gain access to the Church when I visited and it was difficult
to get a good view of it from the road due to the evergreen trees
that obscure it. A dull and damp afternoon did not aid photography
but from the churchyard I was able to obtain this view of the
Church. All Saints' became the Parish Church about 1550 but the
tower dates from the twelfth century. During the period between
these two dates it had been a chapel under the jurisdiction of
Elvaston. Elvaston lies about two miles to the south.
|
The churchyard
is also a good vantage point for Church Farm. This timber-framed
building with its steeply pitched, plain tile roof is a seventeenth
century construction but was party rebuilt and extended in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Butter and cheese were still
being made here in the 1930s.
|
Following one of Ockbrook's
many jittys, I emerged onto Church Street against the Village
Hall. According to the leaflet, the hall has had a chequered
history. It goes on to say that the lower floor was once used
as a stable and coach house and the upper part was a girls' school
room until 1828 when Mr Pares of Hopwell Hall paid for a new
building. I presume this is the "new" building as I
could not detect any evidence of an upper floor.
|
Next to the hall is the
site of Ockbrook's last blacksmith's shop. The name on the wall
"The Old Forge" points to the building's former use
although some eighty years have now passed since the shop closed
its doors for business in the 1920s.
|
On the opposite side of Church
Street at the corner of New Street, the large ground floor window
is perhaps a pointer to the fact that this building was formerly
a shop. I have a dim and distant memory of the shop when it was
still trading in the 1970s. It opened as a shop in 1902 and it
was the daughters of the founders, Mr and Mrs Henry Plant, who
carried the business on until 1969. The sisters sold the business
and until its closure in the late 70's it was known as "Kenderdine's"
after the new owners. The shop was also one of five sites in
Ockbrook that took on the duties of the Post Office over the
years.
|
