Stuart Flint writes:
Hello John
Top Photograph
Shows Main Street just below The Green
The old gate shown in photograph top right led into a field which
Mr Walter Hadfield owned his farm on Vicarage Lane just below The Fields
going out of the village towards Middleton Recreation Ground over Greener
Fields towards Steeplegrange. (The Arkwright family endowed the land to
the Trustees of Middleton Recreation Ground my father one of the original
Trustees). I often helped to take cattle from Vicarage Lane Fields via
Chapel Lane and then on to Main Street up to the fields shown also helping
with Hay Making as I did with my brother and our mates at other farms in
the village ie Willowdene Farm owned by Mr Webster (his wife sister to
Mr Howard the Baker of Middleton his sons having a Bakery at Cromford up
to recent years which Wrights took over. Mr Wright retired, related to
my Uncle Charles Lesley Wright deceased Gents Outfitter Cromford.
Howards baked the best bread and today I still buy bread from a local
baker at Middleton who worked for Howards, baked to Howards recipe..
Just across the road from Hadfields fields just a wall showing was where
Mr Benny Gretton lived his wife a Slack of my wife's family..Mr Gretton
was a Beekeeper and I was often asked to help transport his hives. He
made some of the best honey only surpassed today by honey made by Mr Headon
of Tufa Cottage Via Gellia today
Just below Grettons was Middleton Post office still such today then in my
youth owned by Mr Brian Coles who came to Middleton as an Electrical
Engineer in the 1930s to connect Middleton to the Mains. His colleague
was my Uncle Geoffrey Grace (married Anne Walker my mother's sister). Just
below The Post Office old Photo was Howards Bakery taken over by Mr Thomas
Wigley and below Wigley's Bakery was Jones The Butcher they of my kin via
Flint Killer Spencer Greenhough Axe Slack and Doxey.
Bottom photograph
The houses and shop shown running up Main Street Middleton from bottom of
photograph were known as Alexandria Buildings..My father Harry Sprake Flint
had the shop as a Fancy Goods and Newsagency which afterwards came into
the ownership of Mrs Goodwin who lived in the house below the shop on Main
Street ..Her heirs still live in the village ..My father and his mother
Gwenillian Flint nee Sprake lived above the shop ... Alexandria Building
was split level twixt Main Street and The Alley My Grradmother's house
entrance was from The Alley Dad married Kathleen Walker dau of John and
Annie Walker nee Cauldwell of Manor Fields The Fields from this house
in 1937 he born in 1894
Just above Alexandria Buildings not shown too clearly was Central Stores
just visible which my father leased from the Gregson Family who were the
former Grocers at the shop. Dad sold near enough everything barring the
kitchen sink the shop three storey's high Dad was a Master Grocer but
also had a Drapery Shop at Wirksworth and eventually he converted a house
next to Central Stores as a Drapery outlet.. We also sold Provisions
which came lose this meaning that my brother sister and I on Saturday
mornings spent the time skinning cheeses or unpacking new barrels of Butter
and packs of Lard or boning Bacons. In the Sugar Room we would weight
out 2 lb bags of suger into the blue sugar bags a tedious job or weighing
loose flour into 3lb bags in the Flour room. Once a week the flour was
transported from a Mill at Darley Dale in 56 lb sacks which has to be
winched through the floor via a hand cranked crane..We also sold Boots and
shoes, Patent Medicines, Pots and pans, crockery, china and at
Christmas Toys and Gifts
Dad employed local village people in the shops ie Mr Eric Sheldon of my
kin he reared from youth with my mother in law by my wife's Grandfather
Herbert Evans of Sheldons Yard Duke Street Middleton. Eric went on
after war service to be Transport Manager at Shellards Quarry Griffe
Grange owned by his brother Albert Sheldon..Dad also employed as an
Apprentice Mr Edgar Doxey deceased who was brother of Councillor
William Hubert Doxey J.P. M.B.E. they kin of Mr John Palmer.. Edgar who
in his last years lived next door to my mother at Duke Fields Senior
Citizens bunglaows retired as a Foreman at Masson MIll When he became
ill Mother who on selling the business became an auxilliary nurse at
Wirksworth Maternity Hospital in her 80s looked after him along with the
other residents of the bungalows.. Others who worked for Dad were
Margaret Slack Betty Harrison Herbert Doxey and Daphne Bunting whose
mother was sister to George Else who married my father's sister Millicent
Flint..Daphne worked for Dad from leaving school and when Dad was nearing
his end she came back in the 1960s and stayed until mother sold the
business in the 1970s. Her sister Jean drove the shop van and taught me
to drive. Jean and her husband in the 1980s ran The Whitworth Hotel
Darley Dale serving the best meals in the county. When my daughter
celebrated her 21st birthday we held it at The Whitworth Hotel when Jean
was Landlady Many of her / my cousins were present who lived at Bolsover ..
Above Central Stores a house jutted out into Main Street. This was owned
by Mr Bertram Petts who with his brother John James Petts founded a
Monumental Masonry Works at a workshop just across the road on Chapel Lane
from Highfields The Fields my family home. John J Petts was father of my
Aunt Ada Flint nee Petts who married Dads brother John Samuel Flint
a Steam Engine Driver who lived near Crewe.. Aunt Ada's sister Lillian
married Councillor Norman Harrison who was of my mother's Land and Brookes
family of Steeplegrange and Bolehill. Bertram Petts's Grt Grandson is
now owner of the Monumental business still in the same yard. Across the
road from Central Stores just visible above the Telegraph Posts were The
Barns one time owned by Gregsons where they kept Horses and a Carriage. In
the 2nd W.W. under emergency orders all biscuit tins and the like had to
be saved and so Dad stores all manner of tins etc in the barns. The
upstairs Lofts had been sealed before Dad ever took over the barns and
in the 1960s Mr Arthur Wilson who lived just above Central Stores on
The Pitchings (now for some reason known as Stoney Hill) and myself
broke into the loft and found old saddles and harness and riding gear..
Mr Wilson had one of the Barns and kept ferrets in them.
Just below the Barns on the bottom side of the Telegraph Posts was Belmont
Cottage owned by Mr Tom Walker who had an Engineering Works at Sheffield
I believe.. His more recent kin was a lady who marreied into the Olivers
whose daughter married into the Bennett family of Hosiery Manufacturers
of Wirksworth.. Mr Tom Walker along with my father and another kinsman
William Brace they great friends often attended Queen Park Chesterfield
to watch Derbyshire Cricket Club play ..I have recently found out that
before Belmont Cottage was built a row of thatched roofed cottages stood
on the same site and that one day a tenant at one of them on arriving
home from work down one of the lead mines at Middleton looking forwards
to a meal of Oatcakes found his wife had run out of fat.. In anger he
grabbed hold of a hand full of Tallow used for making candles and threw
this fat into a pan which was already to hot..The pan caught light and
the thatch caught fire burning all the cottages down to the ground...
Between the Barns and Belmont Cottage was Main Street Weslyan Methodist
Church which Mrs Edith Taylor attended, she of my wifes Slack family..
Her cousin lives today below my home at Wirksworth..
Regards Stuart G Flint
