Heanor & District Local History

March 2010
(Move to the next section for a general introduction to the site.)

The Society's next meeting will be on Tuesday 9 March. In a change to our published programme, the speaker will be Ruth Gordon, the Local Studies Development Librarian of Derbyshire County Council, who will present a talk called "Grabbing the Headlines". Ruth will be looking at Derbyshire's local newspaper publishing industry over the last 250 years, and comparing the news of the day then and now. Everyone is welcome to come along for the evening - 7.30pm start. We also have another late change to the programme in May - see the full 2009/10 Programme for full details of the revised list of meetings.

The most recent new page on the site is on the subject of the craft workshops at the short-lived Britannia Park - and many thanks to Clive Quinn for sending his memories and photos. Also, due to its continued popularity, there is another photograph of the C9 bus crash at the Eastwood and Langley Mill Railway Station in 1969, thanks to Glyn Pickworth. And if you haven't yet seen the previous new page, have a look at Stainsby House for a view, and potted history, of two houses! There are also three new photos showing the building of the Langley Mill Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses taken in March 1985.

The Heritage Corner at the Heanor Antique Centre has just been updated with new display panels - so, if you have never visited, or if you came along any time before Christmas, you are bound to find something new and interesting. The Heritage Corner is open whenever the Antiques Centre is open (daily, 10.30am - 4.30pm). We are grateful to Jane Richards for allowing us this display. For more information about the Heritage Corner, follow the link. And for details of the Heanor Antiques Centre, go to their website.

Our newest publication was released in July. The Heanor and District Omnibus Company is a 30 page booklet explaining the company's short-lived existence (1934-1938) before it was taken over by names which became far more well-known (Trent, Midland General and Barton). Just £2.50, the booklet can be purchased at any of our meetings, via this website, or at the usual stockists.

Our Publications Group is working on a number of different projects at present, with timescales which vary from a few months to several years. We know that not all of them will come to fruition, but we are equally willing to listen to anyone who has a project of their own and who is looking for someone to publish it. (As long as it is to do with the history of Heanor!!!!)

We are currently working with the Shipley Park Visitor Centre to gather recordings of reminiscences of Shipley, whether the mines or the Hall. When this project comes to fruition, the recordings will be available to buy.

The Society's eighth publication, 'Follow the Master': A History of Heanor Grammar School, 1893 - 1976, was published in 2007. The book details the 83 years of the life of the town's most prestigious school, but, unlike some school histories, it is not aimed solely at reawakening the memories of those who attended. The book is a warts and all study of the school, from its earliest days as a District Technical School, through to its closure under the comprehensive system. Orders will normally be processed within three days of payment, Credit/debit card orders can be made via PayPal - follow the link above.

And our major publication of 2004, A Portrait of Heanor, is also still available, but this is a book which is not likely to be reprinted once it is sold out. Local History books often rise in value once they are out of print (there is a paperback book on Codnor and Loscoe which has been seen advertised on Amazon at £97.25!), so you can expect to pay a lot more in the future if you want a copy.

In the five years that this site has been on the world wide web, nearly 200,000 visits have been made, with a total of over 400,000 page-views. Not bad for a site covering a small market town in Derbyshire! A large number of emails are received each month - some are dealt with very quickly, others need a bit of time to think about! But please get in touch if there is anything that you feel you can add.

Welcome

... to the pages of the
Heanor and District Local History Society.

Heanor (in case you are just browsing and don't actually know) is a market town in Derbyshire, England, very close to the border with Nottinghamshire. Not a major tourist area, but we are here to celebrate our history and heritage, which is as strong as anyone's!

We hope you will find our site both interesting and informative. This site is under constant change - most pages stay the same, but almost every month there are new additions, and eventually some items will also disappear.

Please keep coming back to see what changes we have made. If you've not visited for a while, have a look at the What's New page, where we keep a running log of changes made to the site.

The British Library have included this website in a national archive of "selected key UK websites - ensuring that invaluable scholarly, cultural and scientific resources remain available for future generations." There are currently only some 600 websites in their archive, so we are rather honoured at being asked!

In September 2006, research was published into the "most English" places in the country, based primarily on the analysis of names in the most recent census, which split the country's population into 200 ethnic groups. Heanor was declared the second-most English town in the country, after nearby Ripley, with almost 90% of the population being English in origin. Third came Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, and Boston in Lincolnshire came fourth. Whatever your views on what this means, at least it got the town's name mentioned!