Ockbrook - Part 4
- God's Acre, Single Sisters & Two Pubs
w/e 28 March
2004
In this part
of our tour around Ockbrook we continue to look at some of the
buildings in the Moravian Settlement and also move into Green
Lane. The images from Ockbrook on this page with the exception
of the two pubs which were photographed in March, were captured
at the same time as those in the previous part.
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 We resume our series about Ockbrook on the Bishops'
Walk outside the Moravian Chapel (see Part
3) where, to the
right of the chapel, is this passage. The plaque on the wall
points the way to the Burial Ground at the rear of the building
and commemorates its consecration on April 6th 1752 by Bishop Peter Boehler - note the different spelling on the plaque.
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I took a number
of photos of the Burial Ground and was undecided as to which
to use here. Finally I stitched together two of them to form
the panoramic shot that forms the top half of this image and
added two more below. They all exude peace and tranquillity.
The Burial Ground is also known as God's Acre and a feature is
the lack of imposing headstones that are common in many other
cemeteries. Instead, if you look closely, you can see rows of
small engraved slabs bearing the person's name, age and the date
of their departing illustrating the Moravians belief that all
are equal. God's Acre now includes a Garden of Remembrance which
is also used for the scattering of ashes.
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Returning to the road we can
now see the properties to the left of centre of this picture
that were originally built as the Single Sisters' House. The
Sisters moved from a small cottage outside The Settlement where
the earliest day school for girls had been established in 1751,
to here in April 1760. Ten years later an extension was built
to include new workshops and today this extension has been converted
into three flats. The Sisters taught younger girls to spin, knit
and embroider as well as farming in a nearby plot known as the
Sisters' Field. Liley House, left of picture, was built in 1803
as the Girls' Boarding School and due to its success took over
the Single Sisters' House in the 1870s. The school's head teacher
is now the occupant of Liley House.
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Opposite the Single Sisters'
House the properties to the right of this image are collectively
known as "The Houses On The Hill" and we shall return
later to examine them more closely but for now, our route is
forward and left into Green Lane where we will view two more
of Ockbrook's pubs.
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The first of those two public
houses stands at the junction of The Settlement, the narrow entrance
to which can just be seen on the left of this image and Green
Lane to the right.
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Further down Green Lane and
standing back from the road is the Royal Oak, the oldest licensed
premises in the village dating from the early 1700s. An old well
near the front door is now capped with a stone slab but once
upon a time, water from the well was used to brew beer in the
pub. The Royal Oak has been, and still is, a popular meeting
place for several clubs and societies. Among those that have
crossed the threshold in the past have been the Female Benefit
Society; the Dale Abbey Society for the Prosecution of Felons
(prior to the formation of the Police Force) and the Ockbrook
Shaving and Swearing Club. In the days when cutthroat
razors were the fashion, shaving and swearing obviously went
together.
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