Having an interest in all things Cromford, this title caught my eye in a bargain book sale.
This booklet was published by Scarthin Books to coincide with the Celebrating Cromford event in 2005. It contains the childhood recollections of ‘Eddie’ Allsop, who was born in Scarthin House [now the bookshop] just before the end of WW1. Eddie shares his memories of Cromford and Scarthin life, from his early childhood until his departure in September 1939, having been called up for military service.
Whilst there is little connection to Arkwright and cotton spinning, there were a couple of things within the booklet that I thought worthy of sharing.
Firstly, a picture of the Market Place showing the entrance to Scarthin Nick and commercial signs for ‘Outram Currier’ (leatherworker) / Boden’s boot and shoe store / Nicklinson’s chemists.
The accompanying section of the booklet is a descriptive tour of the businesses and other establishments in the area around 1920. This information is complemented by an appendix that lists the businesses in Cromford, from the top of the hill to those down Mill Lane, based upon the recollections of a couple of people born at a similar time to Eddie.
Cross-referencing this information with earlier tithe and census records, and descriptions in Alison Uttley’s ‘Cromford Our Village’, further enhances the view of a thriving community. The appendix lists some 67 businesses operating in the village, supplying groceries, hardware, a multitude of sweet shops, dressmakers, tailors, milliners, butchers and bakers, plus services such as the post office, blacksmith, barber, car repairs and undertaker. Little of which remains today. It is interesting to observe many of the premises carrying out the same trade, some with a range of proprietors, over the nearly 100 years covered by the various sources. Additionally, we can see some families continuing in the same trades across the generations. Of particular note are the Boden and Kidd families. In the time period, initially, the Bodens were grain merchants, bakers and butchers before establishing the prominent boot and shoe shop on the Market Place. The Kidd family were tinsmiths and milliners, who expanded to become grocers operating the Cromford General Stores premises well into the 20th century.
Secondly, the final chapter of the booklet provides an interesting insight into working life at John Smedley & Son at Lea Mill. Straight from school, Eddie was employed as an office errand boy “with a little corner and a little stool to perch on, to be at the beck and call of all and sundry” and learning to respond to “where’s that boy?”. Close to the entrance to the office was “a great clock of polished steel and brass safely ensconced in a glass cabinet, a clock that was to slowly tick away the hours”. Eddie noted how the relatively small offices were actually the base of power of one of the leaders of the knitwear industry, housing the chairman, his son, Mr Nieper and Mr Ollerenshaw.
There was an office door through which men and girls hurried, as if their presence in the office was a crime. When Eddie was eventually transferred to the Factory Office, he found beyond that door “a noisy, smelly, steamy world of clanking, roaring, hissing machinery”. The way to the factory was “through what must have been the oldest building of a mill astride a tributary of the River Derwent”, which on its way down the valley served the lead smelting site before reaching the dam pool that once powered the mill. The business was now a comparatively large enterprise, in which numerous processes to turn raw wool into yarn and garments “took place in rooms at all levels, seemingly built higgledy-piggledy on a steeply sloping site”.
In the Mule Room, girls and men tended machines, part of which rolled outwards, twisting yarn to be taken up on canes as the machine retreated. The machinists walked back and forth following the machine. Through a nearby door, “the great floor, black with old oil, seemed to spread forever”, crowded with rows and rows of hissing and clanking knitting machines, producing fully fashioned hosiery and garment pieces for vests and pants, twelve at a time. Ribs, collars and cuffs were knitted separately, and girls skilfully linked them to body pieces. Whilst work in the mill was hard, long hours and Saturday morning attendance were the norm, the workforce carried out their duties cheerfully. Many of the girls were collected by bus from Alfreton, Clay Cross and Tibshelf, whilst others walked miles, in all weathers, from Middleton and Bonsall.
Anyone who has recently been on a tour of the site might think very little has changed over the subsequent 100 years!