Ockbrook - Part 6
- Back Down The Hill
w/e 30 May
2004
We began our
exploration of Ockbrook in December last year and since then
we have learned that the village is actually two rolled into
one. We left the old part of the village founded in the 6th century
to walk up Bakehouse Lane to where the Moravian Church set up
"The Settlement" on the hill to the north. Now we begin
our descent back towards our starting point and the conclusion
of the series in the next and final part.
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On a clear day there are
some excellent views from here across the surrounding countryside
to the south of the village. We could retrace our steps down
The Settlement and turn left at Greenside (see Part
2) but a convenient
footpath across the green open space opposite the Moravian School
is a useful shortcut.
From the corner
of the tennis courts, the path leads to the road in front of
a Shopstones Cottages. The two cottages numbered 9 and 11 (centre
right) were built in 1799 and the garage at the side of number
9 was originally a workshop. Number 11 was designated initially
by the Church Elders as the Girls' Boarding School which at that
time comprised five day scholars and one boarder. The following
year, 1800, larger premises were required and the school moved
to Hillside which we saw in Part
5.
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In 1825 two
more cottages, 13 and 15, were added at the left hand side of
the row. At that time the cottages were inhabited by some of
the stocking makers that had come to ply their trade in the village.
The building on the far right of this picture is another that
we saw earlier called Greenside (Part
2).
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A left turn at Shopstones Cottages
now takes us past this building which as the name plaque at the
porch shows is known as the Old Post Office. It stands on the
site of a barn complex which is where the Brethren preached when
they first arrived in Ockbrook in 1739/40. Offering "quality
goods at reasonable prices" it was converted in 1768 to
the Moravian Congregation Shop and replaced by a new shop in
1820. It continued trading until the end of the 1920s when the
shopkeeper, Mr John Orchard, died but by this time it was not
a viable business.
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The road in front of the cottages
has now narrowed to become one of the village's many jittys and
alleyways and here can be seen one of the cast iron lamp columns
that still survives in Ockbrook. They were originally supplied
by gas, conversion to electricity began in 1929 but the village
lamp lighter could still be seen making his way around the village
with ladder and taper as late as 1945.
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The particular jitty that we
are following, now bisected by a fairly new development, eventually
emerges onto Flood Street at the side of the Ockbrook Garden
Shoppe. There is another cast iron lamp column here complete
with ladder arms but in this view it is hidden in the shadows
beneath the tree.
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The shop was built in 1915 and
for many years traded as a branch of the Derby Co-operative Society.
The only evidence of this nowadays is to be seen in shop porch
which still retains the initials DSC in the floor.
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