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Message: Emoticon Listing HTML Help	[quote]MEMORIES OF Heanor 60 years ago Ripley & Heanor News 1963 Heanor or Heynor as it used to be spelt. Was a small village built round an Old Saxon Church on the summit of the hill. Later on there was an early Norman Church together with a vicarage, a School, an olde Hall, the village stocks a tithe barn, farms cottages the countryside fresh air and the people. The vicarage occupied the site of the present Conservative Club, whilst 50 yards or so away from the Vicarage on the Ilkeston Road was the great seat of learning a very tiny one-roomed school, recently demolished. On the left of the main entrance to the churchyard stood the “Olde Hall” of which the foundations are still in evidence. It was a fair specimen of a half-timbered English homestead in the days of the Tudors. The village stocks were in a very handy position, on the edge of the highway near the present Heanor Town Hall. Whilst the tithe barn was also there or thereabouts, with malt rooms adjoining. Two or three hundred years ago the second Heanor Hall was built. When the second Hall became the Heanor Technical School in 1893 it soon became an important seat of learning. From the beech trees in the grounds round the hall, to the oak trees in the park surrounding Shipley Hall, there was a mile or more of green fields and waving corn, stretching south over the Shipley Valley. We can imagine that the embracing hills on each side of the valley rejoiced in their verdure, whilst the two distant Halls from time to time sang aloud to each other in their pride. “How green is our valley” It was a grand picture. That was a long time before the present bulldozer desolation. There was no Mundy Street, no Wilmot Street, no Godfrey Street, no Market Place nor even a Ray Street. From near the Vicarage a ten-foot, high brick wall was continued down the slope as a stonewall to the Red Lion Square and the Derby Road. In the year 1792 the estate was owned and occupied by Mr John Sutton. There was a splendid seam of coal under the estate, six feet thick and known as Heanor hard coal. Mr Sutton worked this seam, and from the pithead, Sye Lane near the entrance to the Memorial Park, surplus was sent by horse tramway through the Vicarage field thence via the site of the Starthe, the residence of Mr F. Sisson, then down the slope and across Aldred’s Lane on to the Erewash Canal. On the death of Mr Sutton, Mr and Mrs Ray came to live with Mrs Sutton. Mrs Ray was her niece. After the top Hard seam had been worked out in 1833 Mr Ray took a long lease of the Kilburn Seam at Kilburn and Horsley Woodhouse, and worked the seam for 30 or so years, until his death on 29th December 1867, at the age of 85. Mr Ray was a broadminded and generous gentleman. His beautiful park and gardens were always open to Sunday school treats of Schools of all denominations. His last public appearance was at the foundation stone laying of the present Parish Church. The tower of the church is that of a 15th century building. The Rays lie buried in the family vault at Marlpool Cemetery. Mr Mundy purchased the estate in 1881 and Mundy Street became a thoroughfare in 1890. THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL The first Headmaster of the Technical School was Mr. R. Stoddard, B.Sc. and he had a good staff of teachers in all subjects. The school was financed by pupil’s fees, a 1d rate raised by the Heanor Authority and from charities like the Richardson Charity, Smalley, along with others. Heanor Technical Education Committee had as members Rev. C.E. L. Corfield, Mr T Mayfield, Mr J. Holmes and other gentlemen. Mr Holmes, who lived to be 90, visited the school from time to time dressed in silk hat and frock coat. The present new school is an imposing building, but the foundation of its success was laid in the old Heanor Hall, which became Heanor Technical School The Market Hotel near the church used to be called King of Prussia but the name was changed at the time of the 1914-18 War. On the right of church Street stood the White Hart and the Crown Inns. The White Hart was very old, and this Inn and the Crown were pulled down to widen the Road for the tramway from Ripley to Nottingham, which was opened in 1913. The crown was transferred to the building lower down Church Street. The pubs opened from 6am to 11pm and I think ale was 11/2 a pint or glass (I don’t know which) but I do know that Woodbines were five for 1d The water service in Heanor was poor and in summer we had to draw water and store it in earthenware tubs as the water supply was cut off for long periods at times. Ilkeston was as badly off as Heanor, and the two towns agreed to share in a scheme to lay a pipeline from Whatstandwell where there was ample water to supply both towns. Ilkeston and Heanor Water Board was formed, which gave us plenty of water and cut out a lot of worry for the housewife. This board has been taken over now by the South Derbyshire Water Board. The Gas works at Langley Mill was an important undertaking under Mr John Andrews and this has been taken over by the East Midlands Gas Board. CHURCH LIFE Sixty years ago the Parish Church of Heanor, with the Rev. C. E. L. Corfield as vicar was a very important part of life in Heanor. The parish included Langley Mill, Langley Aldercar and Marlpool. Langley Mill and Marlpool and Langley Churches were corrugated iron buildings and Langley still is. Aldercar Church is of Stone also Langley Mill was built of stone when it replaced the old iron building and Marlpool Church is a brick building. The five Churches had fine Sunday Schools with over 2,000 scholars at one time. The Parish Church of Heanor, being the oldest, has some interesting memorials to the Mundy family, the Gregory’s and to Samuel Watson, who was a sculptor and some of his work can be seen in Chatsworth House. Langley Mill and Aldercar and Marlpool and Langley have been formed into separate parishes, and are all doing good work. The churchwardens to the parish church were Mr Windle and Mr Stone and Mr E Turner was choirmaster, who with his brother Mr J. Turner did fine work in church and Sunday school. Mr E. Lomax was the organist, and was always in his place at the services. The Church ran two successful Institutes and a Band of Hope, and the Sunday school treats, held in July, were grand times for the children. A procession of horse-drawn carts or drays with children in fancy dress, and headed by the Church Temperance Band, paraded the Streets and finished up at the National Schools in High Street where a good tea awaited them. After tea, everyone went to the Vicarage fields and played games and there were roundabouts and other amusements. The old National School were very old and stood where the Labour Exchange is now. Senior girls and infants were taught there with Miss Roper as headmistress of the girls and Mrs Elliott head of the infants. The boys left there at about seven years of age and went to Mundy Street School, which was built in 1899 before this School was built the boys had to go to Smalley Boys Endowed School. The headmaster of Mundy Street School was Mr H. Dix a strict but fair-minded gentleman respected by all in more ways than one. The schools had not the comforts of our present modern schools. We had no playing fields and the desks were uncomfortable and sometimes overcrowded. No central heating in those days. Big coal fires or stoves made the classroom over heated or rather cold, and teacher or scholar had to stoke up when needed. [/quote]
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Jennypeg
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Favourite Old Heanor Memories
replied on: 3/15/2008 12:57:54 PM

MEMORIES OF Heanor
60 years ago
Ripley & Heanor News 1963

Heanor or Heynor as it used to be spelt. Was a small village built round an Old Saxon Church on the summit of the hill. Later on there was an early Norman Church together with a vicarage, a School, an olde Hall, the village stocks a tithe barn, farms cottages the countryside fresh air and the people. The vicarage occupied the site of the present Conservative Club, whilst 50 yards or so away from the Vicarage on the Ilkeston Road was the great seat of learning a very tiny one-roomed school, recently demolished.
On the left of the main entrance to the churchyard stood the “Olde Hall” of which the foundations are still in evidence. It was a fair specimen of a half-timbered English homestead in the days of the Tudors. The village stocks were in a very handy position, on the edge of the highway near the present Heanor Town Hall. Whilst the tithe barn was also there or thereabouts, with malt rooms adjoining. Two or three hundred years ago the second Heanor Hall was built. When the second Hall became the Heanor Technical School in 1893 it soon became an important seat of learning. From the beech trees in the grounds round the hall, to the oak trees in the park surrounding Shipley Hall, there was a mile or more of green fields and waving corn, stretching south over the Shipley Valley. We can imagine that the embracing hills on each side of the valley rejoiced in their verdure, whilst the two distant Halls from time to time sang aloud to each other in their pride. “How green is our valley” It was a grand picture. That was a long time before the present bulldozer desolation.
There was no Mundy Street, no Wilmot Street, no Godfrey Street, no Market Place nor even a Ray Street. From near the Vicarage a ten-foot, high brick wall was continued down the slope as a stonewall to the Red Lion Square and the Derby Road. In the year 1792 the estate was owned and occupied by Mr John Sutton.
There was a splendid seam of coal under the estate, six feet thick and known as Heanor hard coal. Mr Sutton worked this seam, and from the pithead, Sye Lane near the entrance to the Memorial Park, surplus was sent by horse tramway through the Vicarage field thence via the site of the Starthe, the residence of Mr F. Sisson, then down the slope and across Aldred’s Lane on to the Erewash Canal.
On the death of Mr Sutton, Mr and Mrs Ray came to live with Mrs Sutton. Mrs Ray was her niece. After the top Hard seam had been worked out in 1833 Mr Ray took a long lease of the Kilburn Seam at Kilburn and Horsley Woodhouse, and worked the seam for 30 or so years, until his death on 29th December 1867, at the age of 85. Mr Ray was a broadminded and generous gentleman. His beautiful park and gardens were always open to Sunday school treats of Schools of all denominations. His last public appearance was at the foundation stone laying of the present Parish Church. The tower of the church is that of a 15th century building. The Rays lie buried in the family vault at Marlpool Cemetery. Mr Mundy purchased the estate in 1881 and Mundy Street became a thoroughfare in 1890.
THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL
The first Headmaster of the Technical School was Mr. R. Stoddard, B.Sc. and he had a good staff of teachers in all subjects. The school was financed by pupil’s fees, a 1d rate raised by the Heanor Authority and from charities like the Richardson Charity, Smalley, along with others.
Heanor Technical Education Committee had as members Rev. C.E. L. Corfield, Mr T Mayfield, Mr J. Holmes and other gentlemen. Mr Holmes, who lived to be 90, visited the school from time to time dressed in silk hat and frock coat. The present new school is an imposing building, but the foundation of its success was laid in the old Heanor Hall, which became Heanor Technical School
The Market Hotel near the church used to be called King of Prussia but the name was changed at the time of the 1914-18 War.
On the right of church Street stood the White Hart and the Crown Inns. The White Hart was very old, and this Inn and the Crown were pulled down to widen the Road for the tramway from Ripley to Nottingham, which was opened in 1913. The crown was transferred to the building lower down Church Street. The pubs opened from 6am to 11pm and I think ale was 11/2 a pint or glass (I don’t know which) but I do know that Woodbines were five for 1d
The water service in Heanor was poor and in summer we had to draw water and store it in earthenware tubs as the water supply was cut off for long periods at times. Ilkeston was as badly off as Heanor, and the two towns agreed to share in a scheme to lay a pipeline from Whatstandwell where there was ample water to supply both towns. Ilkeston and Heanor Water Board was formed, which gave us plenty of water and cut out a lot of worry for the housewife. This board has been taken over now by the South Derbyshire Water Board.
The Gas works at Langley Mill was an important undertaking under Mr John Andrews and this has been taken over by the East Midlands Gas Board.
CHURCH LIFE
Sixty years ago the Parish Church of Heanor, with the Rev. C. E. L. Corfield as vicar was a very important part of life in Heanor. The parish included Langley Mill, Langley Aldercar and Marlpool. Langley Mill and Marlpool and Langley Churches were corrugated iron buildings and Langley still is. Aldercar Church is of Stone also Langley Mill was built of stone when it replaced the old iron building and Marlpool Church is a brick building. The five Churches had fine Sunday Schools with over 2,000 scholars at one time. The Parish Church of Heanor, being the oldest, has some interesting memorials to the Mundy family, the Gregory’s and to Samuel Watson, who was a sculptor and some of his work can be seen in Chatsworth House. Langley Mill and Aldercar and Marlpool and Langley have been formed into separate parishes, and are all doing good work. The churchwardens to the parish church were Mr Windle and Mr Stone and Mr E Turner was choirmaster, who with his brother Mr J. Turner did fine work in church and Sunday school. Mr E. Lomax was the organist, and was always in his place at the services. The Church ran two successful Institutes and a Band of Hope, and the Sunday school treats, held in July, were grand times for the children. A procession of horse-drawn carts or drays with children in fancy dress, and headed by the Church Temperance Band, paraded the Streets and finished up at the National Schools in High Street where a good tea awaited them. After tea, everyone went to the Vicarage fields and played games and there were roundabouts and other amusements. The old National School were very old and stood where the Labour Exchange is now. Senior girls and infants were taught there with Miss Roper as headmistress of the girls and Mrs Elliott head of the infants. The boys left there at about seven years of age and went to Mundy Street School, which was built in 1899 before this School was built the boys had to go to Smalley Boys Endowed School. The headmaster of Mundy Street School was Mr H. Dix a strict but fair-minded gentleman respected by all in more ways than one. The schools had not the comforts of our present modern schools. We had no playing fields and the desks were uncomfortable and sometimes overcrowded. No central heating in those days. Big coal fires or stoves made the classroom over heated or rather cold, and teacher or scholar had to stoke up when needed.

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