Ockbrook - Part 04
- 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 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 of "Bohler" 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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