Draycott & Wilne - Part 02 - Lodge St & South St
w/e 02 September 2012
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
In the first part of our wanderings around Draycott
we moved from Station Road across the mouth of Lodge Street and
as far as the former Methodist Chapel that is now St Mary's Church
in Victoria Road. For this second part we return to Lodge Street
and follow it into South Street.
We saw the old blacksmith's shop in Part 01 on the corner of
Lodge Street and standing next to it is another building that
is very similar in shape to St Mary's Church. This is not surprising
as, although this is now a residential property, it was the village's
first chapel and is now named Chapel House.
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Lodge Street itself is only a short thoroughfare but contains
an eclectic mix of modern buildings and old converted farmhouses.
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Lodge Street takes it name from Draycott Lodge which stands behind
the white wall at the end of the street. The age of the house
is uncertain as it was extended in the Georgian and Regency periods
but a timber beam in the building carried the date 1675.
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Opposite Draycott Lodge and at the junction with South Street
is another old building that has a seventeenth century gable
and this is the Manor House.
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The centre of the village these days is probably the area known
as "The City" where Victoria Road and Market Street
meet but in days gone by it was South Street that formed the
old village centre. It was along here that there were many shops
and trades including a glazier, a caster, a shoemaker, a saddler,
a boathouse, a baker and a grocer.
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  About two-thirds of the way along South Street
is Walk Close which is the route we will follow back to Victoria
Road. The corner building, Derwent House, also bears a sign for
the adjacent and associated business, the Beetroot Tree Gallery
for Contemporary Art. No village centre would be complete without
a pub and the Gallery believed to date from the early seventeenth
century was previously the Cleaver Inn in times gone by. The
building has also been used in the past as a farm shop and as
a workshop for a coffin maker. Currently on the ground floor
there is a small gift shop and a café that opens out onto
a small and pleasant courtyard where homemade or locally produced
food can be enjoyed with a selection of Fairtrade coffees or
teas.
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The upper floor in the Beetroot Gallery split into two levels,
houses a variety of art and craft exhibitions by different artists
and also provides an opportunity to see the internal structure
of the building complete with its ancient wooden beams. The Beetroot
Gallery also run courses, workshops and events throughout the
year.
For much more information about the Beetroot
Tree Gallery see their dedicated website.
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Across South Street from the Beetroot Gallery is what appears
to be another old farm building but this is actually called The
Old Forge. A blacksmith is another of the trades that occupied
premises on South Street when this was the centre of the village
and as can be seen from the above image horse riding is still
popular in the area.
  I wonder how much mail is delivered to
the wrong address as the corner of Lodge Street where we began
this part also has an old blacksmith's shop that is called The
Old Forge. From South Street though our route now takes us into
Walk Close (left), along a footpath into Victoria Avenue (right)
and back to Victoria Road which is where we will resume our leisurely
walk around Draycott in Part 03.
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