1930s: A year of tragedy and war worries

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Anton Rippon reviews the year 1938 when Europe was on a war footing.

The year 1938 saw Derby undergoing great changes. The Central Improvement Plan was well under way and each month seemed to see further development and redevelopment throughout the town and out into the county, from new refuse and communication provisions, to a new home for the borough council.

But the optimism generated by such improvements was punctuated by tragedy and mourning – the deaths of 79 miners at Markham and the loss of the greatly-loved 9th Duke of Devonshire – and was entirely overshadowed by the frightening spectre of another world war.

The 9th Duke of Devonshire

As the political situation in Europe worsened, and the threat of war seemed ever closer, national and local authorities were stepping up their efforts to prepare the country for the expected conflict ahead. The Air Ministry was already preparing for the worst and Derby Borough Council had agreed to sell the Ministry some 55 acres of land on the “Riverlands”, for the establishment of a £100,000 barrage balloon depot to defend against aerial attack.

This would provide buildings for the inflated balloons, a training ground, workshops and dwellings for the men working at the depot.

In April, Derby marked “Protection Week” – a drive to make townspeople aware of the new air-raid precautions that were to be implemented in case of war.

Some 26,000 leaflets were distributed and films encouraging new recruits to the civil defence authority were shown. More than 100,000 homes received a booklet entitled The Protection of Your Home Against Air-raids.

As part of the national preparations, on August 7 an area of the Midlands stretching more than 100 miles, and including Derby, was subject to an experimental blackout for two hours between 1am and 3am. This was to allow home defence exercises by the RAF.

When Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich clutching his piece of paper – the agreement he had made with Hitler – many genuinely believed that war had been averted.

In accordance with this new optimism, loudspeaker vans toured Derby stating that the distribution of gas masks would be immediately halted.

In the county, masks already delivered to towns and villages would be handed out, but the consignments for other parishes were to be held in storage for the time being.

War preparedness, however, was not entirely abandoned and, throughout Derbyshire, the digging of trenches for air-raid protection continued unabated.

In October, it was announced that, should evacuation from the larger cities prove necessary, 90,386 evacuees could be accommodated throughout Derbyshire, each with their own room. If two out of every five evacuees shared a room, this could be expanded to 204,145 displaced people.

In combination, it was judged that the counties of Derbyshire, Lancashire and Cheshire could provide emergency accommodation for 611,400 people from Liverpool, Bootle and Manchester.

While the war now seemed less of a threat, troublesome weather conditions brought chaos to Derbyshire.

After a dry beginning to the year – one of the driest on record – with barely five inches of rain in the first four months, heavy rains struck in early summer.

On July 1, a severe thunderstorm hit Derby and 1.5 inches of rain, accompanied by snow and hail, fell to earth in less than two hours.

In August, 12 cows were killed by lightning while sheltering from a thunderstorm under an elm tree at Isley Walton.

Amy Johnson, the famous aviatrix, enjoyed better conditions for her visit to the headquarters of the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club at Great Hucklow, where she piloted a glider over the village at an altitude of 2,000 feet.

Some of the biggest names in showbusiness also visited the county. Gracie Fields, already a world famous film and stage star, appeared in a concert at Derby’s Grand Theatre on February 13 and, on April 10, the actor and singer Paul Robeson appeared at the nearby Central Hall.

The same venue also played host to a visit by pianist Rubinstein. “Going to the pictures,” continued as a favourite pastime as evidenced by the opening of three new cinemas – the Majestic and the Gloria in Chaddesden, and the Regal in East Street.

In August, the county itself was destined for cinematic stardom as location filming commenced for the film version of James Hilton’s famous book Goodbye Mr Chips. Repton School played the part of Brookfields School and some 200 pupils remained at the school to appear as extras in the film.

In the meantime, Derby was boldly transforming itself into a modern, 20th-century town. On February 4, the Princess Royal opened the new King George V Memorial Ward at the Children’s Hospital on North Street.

The extension, which cost £5,000, provided 21 new beds and an operating theatre.

On June 30, Lord Herbert Scott, chairman of the directors of Rolls-Royce, opened the new £12,000 pavilion on the works’ sports ground.

The same day, the corporation’s new refuse disposal plant in Stores Road, capable of handling 80 to 100 tons of waste per eight-hour day, went on-line.

In mid July, 100,000 tons of limestone was blasted from the face of Caldon Low quarries, near Ashbourne. Lord Stamp, president of the LMS Railway Company, who pressed a button in his office at Euston Station, triggered the explosion.

The stone was to be used in the foundations of new station buildings there.

On July 22, Leslie Burgin, Minister of Transport, witnessed by 150 guests brought in by train from London, officially opened the new £50,000 Railway School of Transport on London Road.

Elsewhere in Derby, Sir Walter Wormersley, MP and Assistant Postmaster General, officially opened the town’s new automatic telephone exchange in Colyear Street. It had taken two years to build and the actual switchover had taken place almost three weeks earlier.

The new exchange could deal with 10,000 subscribers from Derby alone.

Building on the new Council House beside the Derwent had, at last, begun. It was part of the Central Improvement Plan that had been underway for some years.

The new building was to house some 465 council employees, previously accommodated in 24 separate buildings, and provide a formal meeting chamber for councillors, presently meeting at the Guildhall.

In April, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire had opened Chesterfield’s new Town Hall.

September 8 saw the reopening of the newly refurbished Victorian Market Hall. The following day, Homelands School for Girls, the replacement for Central School for Girls, opened its classrooms on Village Street for the first time.

Designed by the borough architect, C H Aslin, it cost nearly £46,000 and its staff would be responsible for the secondary education of some 490 pupils.

Homelands’ sister school, Parkfield Cedars, had celebrated its 21st birthday in March.

Road building was another key area of improvement to town life. Traffic surveys showed that daily traffic in the town had risen by 4,000 vehicles in only three years, with St Peter’s Street and Derwent Street the busiest.

On September 28, a new stretch of Derby’s ring road was opened. This linked Alvaston and Chaddesden between London and Nottingham roads. The appropriately named Traffic Street in Derby was opened. Widening and reconstruction had cost £62,266, and Sir Harry Twyford, Lord Mayor of London, who was also in the county to attend the foundation stone laying of a new nurses’ home at Belper, performed the official ceremony.

On May 6, the 9th Duke of Devonshire, Victor Cavendish, died. A former Governor-General of Canada, he was Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire and had suffered a stroke some years earlier from which he had never recovered.

His last official appearance had been at a children’s party at Chatsworth in January. His son, the Marquess of Hartington, succeeded to the Dukedom on his 43rd birthday.

The new Duke had served as MP for West Derbyshire and was succeeded in this role, following a by-election, by his brother-in-law. The new Duke’s sons, William and Andrew, continued their studies at Cambridge.

While the county mourned the Duke’s passing, the large loss of life at Markham Colliery on May 10 cast a huge shadow of grief over the north of the county.

Some 79 men lost their lives, and another 40 were injured, following an explosion at around 5.30am, just half an hour before the end of the night shift.

Most died from carbon monoxide poisoning, others from severe burns and injuries. A charitable fund raised more than £40,000 for the widows and their 72 children.

Less than 11 hours after the Markham explosion, a smaller incident on the surface of Mill Close Lead Mine, at Darley Dale, resulted in the deaths of three men.

As 1938 drew to a close, the threat of war again loomed large. On December 9, the Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, made a timely visit to Rolls-Royce, very aware of the important role the Derby works would have should the nation have to take up arms once more.

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