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

Olive and Partington Paper Mills, Glossop

The Hidden Gems of Glossop and the High Peak

A brief look at Olive & Partington Paper Mills, Glossop

Glossop was once famous for producing endless miles of cotton products but it is often overlooked that the town produced some of the finest paper in the world. Its produce was used by some of the world leading brands and companies.

The Turnlee Mill stood on Charlestown Road, Glossop. It was bought by Edward Partington and his business partner William Olive around 1874 from Thomas Hamer Ibbotson. Edward Partington brought his flourishing business from Manchester to Glossop only to develop further. The paper mills at Glossop gradually incorporated several other smaller mills such as Tip Mill and Burymewick Mill in order to try and develop the modern method of paper manufacturing using the sulphite process.

The sulphur was brought by the railway to the goods yard in large barrels along with the vast quantities of logs. These were then loaded, by hand, onto the horse pulled flatbeds and trailers which were replaced later in 1917 by the famous fleet of Tiger tractors. Some locals still remember the huge steam tractors hauling many tons of logs and sulphur from the Railway Station up Victoria Street onto Charlestown Road, towards the Turnlee Mills.

One of the 'Tiger' Tractors (No.3) still remains today having been fully renovated by a group of enthusiasts and currently lives in New Mills and visits many national steam events throughout the year 

Guinness, Cadbury's & Women Magazine are just a few from the extensive list of companies that used the paper produced in Glossop. The mill provided over 1,000 jobs and offered “All the year round vacancies”- a slogan of the bygone era.

Disaster struck on 25^th June 1943 as one of the spherical boiling pans, weighing six tons and spanning twelve feet in diameter, exploded killing four men. There were numerous other injuries including burns from the boiling sulphur solution.  The steam Tiger traction engines were used to clear the debris. The appalling stench of the sulphur gases were reported all over the town.

Very little exists of the Olive and Partington Paper manufacturers at Turnlee Mills as many of the buildings have been demolished. You can still see some of the grand architecture such as the main gate stones and walls that still survive.

Today on the site, there are are a few small businesses flourishing from the ashes of what was one of Glossop’s greatest assets. The rest has recently been demolished to make way for a new housing estate but one corner of the original building has been saved and been converted into apartments. It is yet another gem of Glossop Dale that should never be forgotten.

Matthew Cox

Glossop Tours on Twitter

History of Glossop's Paths & Roads - Grab Alley

History of Glossop's Paths & Roads 

Part One - Grab Alley

There are many alleys and hidden roads in Glossop that people forget about these days, unless you are a Glossopian.  You will find that many of these alleys are public footpaths and can prove a great asset in order to get you from A to B in a very short amount of time.

One notorious Glossop alley is barely visible today yet many people use it without realising it. There is very little left of the original walkway which has now been replaced with a pedestrian crossing on the car park of Tesco in Glossop. The original walkway ran the full course of the new crossings today from the river on High Street West up towards the supermarket entrance.

The original path connected the lower part of High Street West, up towards North Road for easy access from the Wrens Nest Mills. It also connected with paths to Glossop, Whitfield & Simmondley used mostly by employees to and from home. The pathway was continuously used down the years as it became a handy access to the football at North Road and cricket matches which were played there. It was also a great link between The Hanging Gate Pub (now demolished) and the new Glossop North End football ground on Surrey Street when they moved in 1955.

This walkway was nicked named “Grab Alley” as young ladies who used this footpath were at risk of being “grabbed” by the young men of the town. It was also known for pickpockets to work this part of town.  The path was enclosed by a high wall either side that was topped with triangular capping stones. The original iron bridge matched the height of the wall but was badly damaged by the Whit Monday floods in 1944.  The house which stood next to the footpath, collapsed due to the damage by the flood.  The woman who lived in the house went to look at the damage from the bridge but it gave way into the water and she was swept away by the strong current. Her body was found in the River Etherow at Compstall the following day.


Today the same walkway is used by hundreds of people everyday as it is part of the Tesco Stores part of the pedestrian crossings but to many locals it will always be known as Grab Alley.

By Matthew Cox 

www.glossoptours.co.uk

Day Trip to Glossop? - Glossop Advertiser 1912

Day Trip to Glossop For a Sixpence

The summer is now not to far away, however, day trippers continuously pour into our town throughout the year. Things have not changed for well over a century because last summer I found a column in the Glossop Advertiser back in 1912, by a local columnist expressing his feelings about day trippers who came from Manchester to Glossop for a sixpence.  

"The summer season is now in full swing, that especially as regards the running into Glossop of cheap excursion trains on Sundays is concerned, a note of warning should be thrown out to certain visitors of both sexes who come into this pleasant Derbyshire town. Let it be clearly understood that there is not the slightest desire to put forth any argument against the introduction into Glossop of trippers. But we echo the public feeling that those cheap excursionists should behave themselves and that failing to do so the law should step in and administer a lesson not readily forgotten. It seems to have occurred to the minds of say Mancunian visitors that they are at liberty to turn Glossop into a bear garden and we are bound to say that the local justices have not as a rule made ‘the punishment fit the crime’.


It is true that, as the greatest of England’s poets says, “The quality of mercy is not strained”. That is the rule, but to most rules there are exceptions and we are inclined to believe that with regard to Sunday delinquents brought before the Glossop Police Court the merciful quality has distinctly been strained. There is a considerable proportion of these sixpenny trippers that can fairly and honestly be designated a nuisance. If people wish to escape on the Sunday from Manchester or elsewhere to healthful Glossop we admire their decision, but having arrived in the town, having availed themselves of the privilege of cheap access thereto, having left a smoke-begrimed city for the delights which Nature affords, the least they can do is to conduct themselves with propriety. But many of them do not, and they should be taught to recognise the force of the law.

Damaging grass lands, breaking trees, card playing, footballing in the public streets, and so on, are items of objectionable amusement that have been practised by a certain class of visiting hooligans, whose absence would be far preferable to their company. We want to see established by the magistracy the preservation of Glossop’s good name, and therefore we hope that stringent penalties will be in future imposed upon all offenders. Readers who revert to the report in other columns of this issue of the ‘Advertiser’ of the proceedings in the Glossop Police Court will see that the local Justices have made up their minds to stand no further nonsense. Their decision is quite right and proper, and we commend them for having arrived at it. The police have done, and are doing, their level best to stamp out the illegal and unwarrantable doings of the class of persons to whom we have so pointedly alluded. It has been pretty well accepted as a truism that there is a black sheep in every flock. Biblical instruction shows the vast difference and distinction between the sheep and the goats. In Glossop the sheep from Manchester are always sure of a cordial welcome, the goats – well, may either stay at home, or be sure either of being substantially fined or relegated to one of His Majesty’s hotels, which are usually designated by another expression."


Have things changed?

Complied by Matthew Cox