Ockbrook - Part 2
- Bakehouse Lane To The Settlement
w/e 25 January
2004
I left Part
01 of this series outside Plant's shop on the corner of New Street
and this part picks up the trail at the other end of New Street
which can be seen to the right of this image. Almost directly
opposite is Bakehouse Lane (hidden) and on the corner stands
another of those four or five pubs in the village. This one is
called the Queen's Head. It is not unusual for pubs to change
their names and this one is no exception as it was once known
as the Horse and Jockey. What is surprising though is that the
Queen that inspired the name change was Victoria and that the
event was her accession in 1837. During the Second World War,
the pub was used by the Home Guard as their HQ.
|
Walking by the
side of the pub along Bakehouse Lane soon leads to the Cricket
Club. The club was established in 1872 and one fine gentleman
who went by the name of Whackie Harrison played his last innings
for the club after a 42 year career in 1933.
|
At the top of
Bakehouse Lane the road turns right into The Settlement. There
is a lane to the left and a private drive between. At this junction
stands Grange Lodge, an 1865 building bounded by a picket fence
and surmounted by unusual ornate ridge tiles. Respecting the
"No Entry" sign on the fence, I walked down the lane
to the left for the next photo.
|
Grange Lodge was built as a
lodge house to The Grange which was formerly known as Swallows
Rest. I thought that name suggested yet another pub but I understand
that the house was built in the early nineteenth century as a
retirement home for William Mallalieu, a descendant of the Huguenots
and the last of the family to live in the area.
|
Returning to The Settlement this fine three storey
building on the right hand side was indeed, not only a pub but
also a malthouse and went by the name of the New Inn. It began
trading in 1792. This is perhaps an opportune time to relate
a little of the history of Ockbrook.
It is actually two villages in one, the original village dating
from the sixth century having been founded as an Anglo Saxon
settlement by Occa - hence the name Ockbrook. Life continued
in a rural nature until the 1700s when a gradual change started
to take place. Coal mining at the nearby villages of Dale and
Stanley provided employment for some of the men of Ockbrook.
The coal was transported through Ockbrook to the Derby Canal
at Borrowash and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
the village became an important stocking-making centre as industry
began to take hold. It was during this period that a Congregation
of the Moravian Church was formed and the church was built on
a hill to the north of the original village in 1752. Thus began
the Settlement.
|
We shall learn more about the
impact the Moravians had on the village in a later part in this
series but to return to the three storey ex-public house that
is now called Greenside, it is known that many visitors to the
Moravian Settlement stayed here, even on one occasion, the Bishop
of Lichfield. An extension to Greenside in 1865 and 1880 became
the Sunday School and a plaque on the wall (inset) shows that
it was used as an auxiliary hospital for injured servicemen during
the Great War (1914-1918).
|
