History Snippets of Glossop 1986

Here a series of historical snippets describing Glossop life in 1986.



Shirehill Hospital
Shirehill Hospital was opened in the 1800's as a workhouse. It is now a long stay hospital for the elderly. It does not have a casualty Department. There are 8 large rooms and a few rooms where equipment is stored. Four of the rooms are bedrooms and four are day rooms. The women's rooms are on the bottom floor and the men's rooms are upstairs. There are 60 beds in the hospital and all are filled. All the rooms are fully decorated and carpeted to make the patients feel more at home. The patients may do basket making, sewing, knitting, play dominoes or just sit and talk. In the summer the patients can sit out on the verandah. They say it is just like being at home.


The patients at Shirehill Hospital get their first drink at 6.30am. They can get up anytime between 8am and 10am. Breakfast is served at 9am. The patients are expected to get dressed when they get up. At 11am they have another cup of tea and biscuits. Dinner is served at 12 noon and afterwards they can go over to the day centre where they can make baskets or do other activities. On Mondays a lady comes from the library and the patients can loan books. If they feel tired then the patients can go to bed. Those who are bedridden have their own radio and there are televisions in all wards. At 5.30pm tea is served and after the patients may stay up until about 11pm.


The Commercial Inn
The Commercial Inn is a public house in Old Glossop. It is a typical pub which has a games room with a pool table and a darts board. The pool and darts team play other pubs on saturday nights. There is also a domino's team. Upstairs there is a room for hire. It has a small dance floor and a bar. This costs about £25 for one night. The most popular drink is handpumped bitter,which is kept downstairs in the cellar. The pub also sells food,ranging from pizzas to fish fingers and chips. They also do a special childrens menu.All these meals are eaten in the dining room. They also have lots of activities to do with music,for instance they have a disco,live music, and organ playing


Old Glossop Sub Post Office
Old Glossop post office is a sub post office on Manor Park Road. It sells stamps, National Savings Certificates, Premium Bonds,and you can use the National Savings Bank. You can also buy T.V., car and dog licences. The shop also sells gift tokens,sweets and cards. One person works there and he is expected to be efficient in handling money.Approximately 350 pensions and 290 family allowances are paid out each week. Some people travel from Chunal, Hadfield and Old Glossop to use the post office. Thursday is the busiest day because of the pensioners. The next nearest post office is on Victoria Street,Glossop. The Post Office is considering closing many small sub post offices like this one. Two in the Glossop area were closed in 1984.


Glossop Carnival
Glossop Carnival is held on the first Saturday in July. The procession leaves Hadfield School about 1.30pm and goes down Newshaw Lane, then along the A57 through Glossop and finally up Manor Park Road ending in Old Glossop. There are about 40 floats, 6 troops of dancers and 4 bands, including Glossop Band, Tintwistle Band and the Girls Brigade. Each local village sends their May Queen and individuals can enter in fancy dress. The fancy dress entries and the floats are judged by the Mayor of High Peak. A float is a car or lorry decorated specially for the occasion. This year floats included Alice in Wonderland, Fiddler on the Roof, and Victory in Europe Day. The winning float was the Rocky Horror Show. People throw money onto the floats and this is given to local charities.


Glossop Water Supply
Glossop's main water source is the reservoirs. The reservoirs were built in this area because of the high rainfall of over 1,000 mm per year and the impermeable rock. There are two reservoirs, one called Hurst opened in 1961 and one called Swineshaw opened in 1972. Hurst Reservoir has an area of 13.5 acres and a capacity of 36,500,000 gallons. The depth of the water is 25 feet, and it is 588 feet above sea level.Hurst's treated water output is 1.749 mega-litres per day. Swineshaw Reservoir has an area of 21 acres, and a capacity of 56,300,000 gallons. The depth of the water is 34 feet,and it is 558.6 feet above sea level. It's output is 3.04 mega-litres per day.This area is part of the North West Water Authority.


Industry in Old Glossop
Union Carbide is an industrial plant which is located in Old Glossop . Forty one people are employed,most of these are men.The average age of the workers is roughly fifty years old, but the office staff are much younger. The present plant was opened in 1950 and is one of the most modern in Europe.The workers in the warehouse (the main building) all wear protective clothing. Union Carbide produces briquettes of different kinds. This is the only Union Carbide plant in England to make these. To make the briquettes chromium, silicon and manganese are needed. These raw materials are imported from Zimbabwe and Canada.

These and more can be found on various websites. Many have been collated on the reloaded Doomsday Book on the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-404000-393000/page/1

Complied By Matthew Cox

Will Your Vote Change the Country and Glossop?

Do people realise just how important this vote is?

Personally I don't think there has been any true leader during the latest campaigns. The fights between the leaders have all been seen by us all but why don't they fight like that each and every day in our own and european parliaments? We might of never needed this referendum in the first place.

Why have a referendum? Was there concern about our european status in the first place?

I don't know what the verdict will be but I just hope it gives a boot up the government to show, we the people really do care, hear and work for our country and yes we do have a voice. I hope everyones voice is heard come the result. That would be one of the best things to come of this.

Enough with the politics....

Will it change the Glossop landscape?

Yes. Still holding a very deep breath for the chimney to come down, work should of started this month. I don't think there will be a bypass any time soon... Plans have been in the works for 80 plus years so why would they start now?


Do you think Glossop will change and develop for the better?

The History of the Chimney

Hidden Gems of Glossop

Figureheads of Glossop

Glossop 1912

We are continuing into 1912....

At the heart of some of the world’s most devastating events, shocking incidents and even the greatest achievements, are the people from Glossop in the year of 1912. Over the coming weeks I will reveal a whole host of staggering facts, stories, eyewitness accounts, and sporting achievements that took place over one hundred years ago.

I would like to first turn to one of the oldest parts of the original village of Glossop. The stone shaft that makes up the main frame of the Old Cross has stood the test of time. It thought to have been placed here around 1157 when the parish of Glossop was granted to hold a court, a fair and a market around the stone cross. Over the centuries it became custom to announce the new kings and queens and other important messages from the cross, after all it was the centre of the town. It was not until the early 1800s when the cotton industry began to develop further down the river when plans were put in place to pursue a new town centre. It was when the new complex at Howardtown was built in 1838 when things really began to change. Over the next few years it was clear the offices and court room along with the fast development of the new cotton mills, Howardtown, by far superseded the original part of the town. Glossop was granted a borough in 1866 and people began to regard Howardtown as the centre of Glossop.

In 1910 it was moved to where it stands today

The Old Cross never bore the Celtic stone cap to begin with. 1910 saw the reign of George V which was announced at the cross like the many Monarchs before him. The officials of the Borough of Glossop wanted to place a cap on the stone cross not only to mark the coronation of the king but to symbolise the unity of faiths. The cross was moved from its previous position as it was tight against the house behind, to where it stands today. The Celtic cross was finally placed on top of the ancient cross in 1912.

The Old Cross in Old Glossop

Olympic Games 2016 - Throwback Football Heroes 1912

Throwback Football Heroes 1912

The country is making final preparations for one of the greatest sporting events, the Olympic Games.  As the last adjustments are being made in Brazil, however, preparations around the country are taking place in order to select the British Olympic Team.

One hundred and four years ago the Olympic Games in 1912 were to be held in Stockholm and in April that year the British Team were to be selected. At that time the sportsmen who were selected were mostly amateur and unpaid, never the less they were the very best of their field.

Glossop has always been highly active in sport over the years and 1912 was no different. April 8^th saw Glossop FC (formally Glossop North End) grab a vital point against Grimsby Town as Glossop battled against relegation in the Second Division.

Towards the end of the season, two men attend a match at North Road to observe the team. It is believed they were “tipped off” maybe by a current or ex player of Glossop that the team had obtained some “legend” players. Olympic records show that one of the men was Terry Graham, a man who worked for the British Olympic team as a sort of scout.  No one knows for sure but it is likely that the “tip off” came from Samuel Hill-Wood himself as he still owned the club although he was no longer manager. He was in London most of the time, as he was standing for MP for the High Peak.

By the end of the season Glossop FC just managed to scrape out of the relegation zone by goal difference. Immediately after the season had finish the British Olympic Football Team was announced and on the team sheet were players from Glossop Football Club.  Stockholm 1912 saw many great achievements let’s hope Team GB can do the same this year.

 By Matthew Cox

To Be Continued…

Glossop Connections - Charles Calvert, Raisley Calvert & William Wordsworth

Glossop Famous Connections
The Calvert Family - A Celebrated Artist. Charles Calvert Junior.

In my last post I had mentioned that Charles's first son, was Frederick Baltimore Calvert but it is in fact it was his second. I have managed to trace that Charles had in fact eight children. His first child was also born at Glossop Hall and was named after his father on 23rd September 1785. Records show that Charles Calvert Junior was taught at the hall itself in Glossop, Derbyshire. He became an apprentice to his father within the family cotton business. He seems to become a very successful cotton merchant until, however, he abandoned cotton for art and became a landscape painter.

His influences for this drastic change of mind came from his uncle, Raisley Calvert who was a renowned sculptor. Raisley Calvert, was in fact, the Steward to the Duke of Norfolk, and looked after his estates at Greystoke. Raisley not only had a great career but great connections as he was a close friend and admirer of William Wordsworth. They were at Cambridge University together where they became very good friends, this is their story...

William & Raisley 

William Wordsworth

William was sent to school at Hawkshead where he made friends with a boy from Cockermouth called William Wordsworth. The two boys were the same age and from similar backgrounds. Wordsworth’s father was an agent for Sir John Lowther, the Earl of Lonsdale. When they left school Wordsworth went to Cambridge, travelled abroad and lived for a while in London while William joine
d the Duke of Norfolk’s Regiment (then known as the 12th Regiment of Foot) of the Militia. In 1791 William’s father died, and he and Raisley inherited a sizeable fortune.

In July 1793 William Calvert invited Wordsworth to accompany him on a tour of the West Country, all expenses paid. Wordsworth wanted to become a poet but had no job and no income. He eagerly accepted William’s offer and the two young men set off. They spent about a month on the Isle of Wight where they watched the English fleet preparing for the war with France. They then headed west, but near Salisbury their horse dragged the carriage in which they were travelling into a ditch and it broke into pieces. The two men decided to separate. William took the horse and rode home to Keswick while Wordsworth set off on foot and walked across Salisbury Plain. He travelled through very bad weather, rested at Stonehenge and had some visions: an experience which led to the writing of his poem ‘Salisbury Plain’. Later that year he visited William and his brother Raisley at their family farm at Windy Brow on the slopes of Latrigg near Keswick. 

In early April of the following year William invited Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, to stay at Windy Brow. Wordsworth and Dorothy were delighted. They had been separated since childhood. After the death of their mother in 1778 Dorothy had been sent away to live with relatives. They had met up again in Halifax for six weeks but now they looked forward to a holiday together. They travelled by coach to Kendal then walked the eighteen miles to Grasmere and a further fifteen miles to Keswick. William Calvert was away with his regiment but Wordsworth and Dorothy stayed with his tenants at the Windy Brow farmhouse (Right). Dorothy loved staying at Windy Brow. She wrote to her friend, Jane Pollard, saying how delighted she was with the situation of the house.

She described, in glowing terms, the view from her window which looked out over the River Greta, Keswick town and Derwent water. She described how cheaply she and her brother could live, with milk for breakfast and supper and mainly potatoes for dinner. There was a terrace path on the slopes of Latrigg, above the house, where Dorothy enjoyed walking and admiring the view of the vale of Keswick . They spent a month at Windy Brow and it was during this time that Dorothy first started to copy out Wordsworth’s poems: a job which she would continue to do for the rest of her active life. 

Later in 1794 Wordsworth returned to Windy Brow to find that William’s brother, Raisley, was very ill with consumption. William was with his regiment in Tynemouth, Northumberland. Wordsworth suggested that he might accompany Raisley on a visit to Portugal to improve his health if William would cover the costs. At the same time Raisley decided to write a will. He left everything to his brother except for a £600 legacy (later increased to £900) to Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote to William asking for money for the trip to Portugal. William responded immediately and offered to pay all costs. Wordsworth and Raisley set off but they only got as far as Penrith and had to turn back the next day because Raisley was worse. Wordsworth stayed to nurse Raisley at Windy Brow but Raisley died in January 1795. Raisley’s legacy was a valuable asset for Wordsworth at this time.

There are records to show the visited family and went to a "hunting lodge" which is strong evidence that they visited Glossop at this time. During the early periods of Glossop Hall it was used as a holiday home and a hunting lodge. it is just wonderful to think that this great man made his presents in Glossop itself.

This friendship was so strong that William Wordsworth visited Raisley on his deathbed and personally cared for him right up until his death in 1794. Unknown to William, Raisley had left him a legacy of nine hundred pounds, a small fortune of the day, as a mark of gratitude. William never forgot this as he wrote later:

 Manchester and Liverpool Railway in 1825 by Charles Calvert

"Calvert! It must not be unheard by them
Who may respect my name, that I to thee
Owed many years of early liberty.
This care was thine when sickness did condemn
Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem."

Charles Calvert Junior became a great landscape painter and teacher of art. One of his most famous paintings was of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway in 1825. He was one of the founders of the Manchester Royal Institution now the Manchester City Art Gallery. He gained the Heywood gold medal for a landscape in oil, and the Heywood silver medal for a landscape in watercolour. He loved to spend his spare time in the Lake District. When he died he was buried at Bowness-on-Windermere.

Compiled By Matthew Cox

In Addition:

William Wordsworth died in 1850. A few years later the Greta Bank estate was sold to Mr Anthony Spedding. The house at Greta Bank was substantially rebuilt and has now been converted into apartments known as ‘Brundholme Country Houses’. Calvert’s Bridge has given its name to the nearby ‘Keswick Bridge’ Timeshare Lodges. In 1978 John Fryer Spedding set up the Calvert Trust to provide outdoor adventure activities for people with disabilities. The name was chosen in memory of Wordsworth’s benefactor, Raisley Calvert, ‘to represent friendship, support and the desire to help somebody to fulfill their potential’. The Windy Brow Farm where Wordsworth nursed Raisley is now owned by the Trust. Calvert was an interesting character. He had some influence on the Lake Poets, he took a keen interest in agricultural development and he was a kind and generous friend to those around him.

More Information & Sources

Calvert, Charles (1785–1852), landscape painter, born at Glossop Hall, Derbyshire, on 23 September 1785, was the eldest son of Charles Calvert (1754–1797), land agent, and his wife, Elizabeth Holliday (1751/2–1842). His father was agent of the duke of Norfolk's estate in Derbyshire and an amateur artist. Charles Calvert senior died on 13 June 1797 and was buried in St Mary's churchyard, Manchester. Calvert began business as a cotton merchant in Manchester, having been apprenticed to the cotton trade, but abandoned commerce for art and became a landscape painter. He was instrumental in the foundation of the Manchester Royal Institution (which later became Manchester City Art Gallery) and gained the Heywood gold medal (awarded to local artists) for a landscape in oil, and the Heywood silver medal for a landscape in watercolour. The Manchester Courier reported in 1828 that, of local artists, Calvert's paintings were the most consistently sold. He was not well known outside his region, however, and exhibited only two works in London, one of which, at the British Institution in 1825, was entitled Near Rustom, Cheshire.

Calvert devoted much of his time to teaching, and spent the remainder painting in the Lake District. Although confined to his bed in later years, he continued to paint landscapes from memory. He died at Bowness, Westmorland, on 26 February 1852, and was buried there. Examples of his work are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Manchester City Galleries.

Charles Calvert's brothers included , actor and lecturer on elocution, , surgeon, Henry Calvert (1785–c.1869), sporting and animal painter, and Michael Pease Calvert, painter. He was father-in-law to the portrait painter .

In the Dictionary of National Biography Raisley Calvert (bap. 1773, d. 1795), friend and benefactor of William Wordsworth, is incorrectly described as Charles Calvert's younger brother. Raisley Calvert was baptized on 16 September 1773, the younger son of Raisley Calvert senior (1728/9–1791), steward of the duke of Norfolk's estate at Greystoke Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland. His elder brother was William Calvert (1771–1829), who was at school with Wordsworth at Hawkshead, Lancashire, where he later became schoolmaster. On the death of his father, William Calvert became a man of independent means, inheriting, with other property, the estate of Bowness on the east shore of Bassenthwaite, near Keswick. Raisley Calvert inherited from his father several farms near Keswick, the income from which was held in trust until he attained his majority in 1794. He was admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, on 14 February 1793, where he became friends with Wordsworth, but left soon afterwards with a resolve to educate himself by travel on the continent. Though described in the Dictionary of National Biography as a sculptor, no evidence has come to light of any works sculpted by Raisley Calvert. On falling ill with consumption, he returned to the Lake District, where he died at Penrith after 7 January 1795, when Dorothy Wordsworth mentioned that he was ‘barely alive’ (Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, 139). He was buried on 12 January. In his will, signed on 23 October 1794, Raisley Calvert left £900 to Wordsworth. The poet subsequently wrote a sonnet, ‘To the Memory of Raisley Calvert’, and later mentioned him in lines 349–67 of the thirteenth book of The Prelude:

A Youth (he bore

The name of Calvert.

(lines 349–50)

Sources  

W. E. A. Axon, rev. L. R. Houliston, Art Journal, 14 (1852), 150 · S. Urbans, GM, 2nd ser., 37 (1852), 630 · T. Fawcett, The rise of English provincial art: artist, patron and institution outside London, 1800–1830 (1974) · G. Meissner, ed., Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, [new edn, 34 vols.] (Leipzig and Munich, 1983–) · M. Hall, The artists of Cumbria (1979) · D. Child, Painters in the northern counties of England and Wales (1994) · Bryan, Painters (1903–5) · Redgrave, Artists · Mallalieu,Watercolour artists · M. H. Grant, A chronological history of the old English landscape painters, rev. edn, 8 vols. (1957–61) · IGI · H. M. Cundall, A history of British water colour painting (1908), 193 · The letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. E. De Selincourt, 2nd edn, rev. C. L. Shaver, M. Moorman, and A. G. Hill, 8 vols. (1967–93), vol. 2, pp. 81, 97, 126n., 139–40 · W. Wordsworth, Poems, in two volumes, and other poems, 1800–1807, ed. J. Curtis (1983), 151–2

The Glossop Connection - The Calvert Family

The Calvert Family

Charles Calvert the elder was born into a busy cotton family in 1754. Charles lived on Oldham Street in Manchester close to his father’s business.  At around the age of 25 at social gathering of lords and ladies he crossed paths with the Duke of Norfolk and became good friends. The Duke of Norfolk offered his help, when Charles had to sell his father’s factory, to come and be a personal steward to the Duke at Glossop Hall. Charles stayed at his family home in Manchester during the winter and served at Glossop Hall during the summer.

Glossop Hall where Charles Calvert served the Duke of Norfolk  

In 1793 Charles became a father to his son Frederick Baltimore Calvert who was born in Glossop Hall. There is very little known about Frederick’s mother apart from she also served at the Hall. Frederick was to become one of the greatest English actors. He was taught locally in Glossop before he entered Manchester Grammar School on 12 January 1804. Then he went to the Roman Catholic St. Edmund's College, in Hertfordshire, with a view to receiving Holy Orders.

However, he took to the stage, and in the course of his career alternated leading parts with the elder Edmund Kean who was regarded, in his time as the greatest Shakespearean actor. In 1829 he became elocutionary lecturer of King's College, University of Aberdeen and gave lectures on oratory, poetry, and other literary subjects in the large towns up and down the country. He later traveled to the US with Edmund Kean, featuring in Shakespeare and branching off to give lectures on the English poets.

In 1846 he was appointed master of English language and literature at the Edinburgh Academy. Some years after, he became lecturer on elocution to the Free Church colleges of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

He went on to be married, in 1818 to Miss Percy of Whitby, with whom he had a large family. His youngest son, Michael Talbot Calvert, made a reputation as a tragic actor, under the stage name of Henry Talbot. He died at his home, 2 West Newington, Edinburgh on 21 April 1877.

A boy who was born here in Glossop grew not only into one of the greatest actors of all time but a man of great literary and language refinement, a master of British history.

by Matthew Cox