Derbyshire Countryside

As promised, I have a post for you from yesterday's ride into the winter landscape of Derbyshire.

The House of Confinement was built in the gardens of the Rector's home because Alfreton had doubled in size in a short time. Some of the people proved to be less than neighbourly and needed a spell in the lock-up (usually overnight).

This is the information board that stands to the side of the building.

The little door isn't large enough to walk through upright and I can only imagine that this was because a) they were really tiny people back then or (more plausible) b) they wanted the prisoner to have to bend over to get in - either to make it difficult to retaliate, or to humiliate them.

Very Harry Potter ;)

The bars on the windows are starting to show their age now.

The building was registered at a Grade II listed building in 1963.

---

Further down the street, on the opposite side of the road, the Watchorn Church stands as a magnificent historical memorial to its founder, Richard Watchorn. Wiki

Richard Watchorn was born in Alfreton and became a coal miner (as so many of his neighbours did). Richard emigrated to America and also worked at Ellis Island in Canada.

He became a Union leader, described, thus:

"One of the pioneers in the fight against sweatshops and abuses of child labor in Pennsylvania factories."

In 1909 he became assistant to the president and treasurer of the United Oil Company of California. He resigned from that post and then set up his own company: Watchorn Oil and Gas Company in Oklahoma.

It was the wealth he amassed that gave him the opportunity to send money 'back home to the village of Alfreton for the Watchorn Church.

Richard Watchorn also had the Abraham Lincoln Library built just a few hundred feet from the church.

Source

---

The 'taster' I gave that you can always see traces of history - or rather, can see absences of history is because of this phenomena.

They are the stumps of the railings that used to be there.

In the war, there was a shortage of metal and an appeal went out - the 'Scrap Metal Drive' and towns, villages, even private homes had the metal cut from their fences and sent in for the cause.

In the film Dawn Treader (Narnia), I saw a scene of the very thing happening right at the beginning of the film.

---

Then we went on into the Derbyshire hills, up to Crich Stand - a war memorial now, it has a lot of history to it.

This is the view from the top of the stand.

As you can see, there's a glorious view from the top and it was a beautiful day (if cold) and I'll write another post about the history of Crich Stand tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.