Melbourne - town was home to two great Victorians

Fascinating town teaming with history

A late 18th century view of the town

Denis Eardley calls in on the lovely market town of Melbourne.

SET among pleasant rolling countryside in South Derbyshire is the fascinating little town of Melbourne. It has a wealth of historic buildings, a famous country house with formal gardens, one of the finest Norman churches in the country and a lovely 20-acre pool where you can feed the ducks or just rest and admire the scenery.

Market gardening is an important feature of the area, with its good loamy soil and relatively frost-free slopes. Melbourne became a centre for the supply of fruit and vegetables several centuries ago. Increased competition has reduced its importance but there is still plenty of evidence of its existence in the area.

The town, or as some call it village as it only has a parish council, has a wide variety of small industries. It is well stocked with shops that meet the needs of local people and visitors alike and there is a wide selection of places to eat and drink.

A prominent landmark is Melbourne Hall with its fine furniture and paintings. It was the country residence of Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s first Prime Minister, who also gave his name to a small settlement on the River Yarra-Yarra, which is now Australia’s second city.

The design of the hall gardens was undertaken by William III’s gardeners, London and Wise, who have succeeded in a comparatively small area in creating deceptively spacious gardens. Focal points are Robert Bakewell’s great wrought-iron arbour, known as the Birdcage, and an elaborate monument by John Nost, which illustrates the Four Seasons.

The yew tunnel is reputedly the longest in Europe.

It comes as something of a surprise to most visitors to find one of the largest Norman churches in England in such a small town. The parish church of St Michael’s with St Mary goes back to 1133, when Henry I gave the royal manor of Melbourne to the first Bishop of Carlisle.

At that time, the Cumbrian settlement of Carlisle was on the edge of the heathen North and the bishop needed somewhere to retreat when the Scots overran the area. The roof was raised and the windows enlarged in the 19th century, the old roof marks being clearly visible from the south-east. In the north aisle hang the flags of Melbourne and Australia.

Opposite the great west door of the church is what is believed to have been a tithe barn, to which a brick built upper storey has been added. Beyond that is Dark Entry, a narrow passageway once used by priests on their way to and from the church to the chantry.

Across the road from the church, in the estate buildings of Melbourne Hall, is a craft centre and tea rooms.

There was once a substantial castle in the town, but it fell into disrepair in the 17th century and enterprising local builders were not slow to take advantage of such a good supply of stone. All that now remains above ground is a wall made up of infillings of the castle wall, the facing stones having been removed.

On private land at Castle Farm, following excavation work, some of the former castle rooms have been revealed.

As well as Lord Melbourne, the town can boast another son of international standing. In a small cottage, in Quick Close, in 1808, Thomas Cook was born. Cook has since been acclaimed as the father of the modern-day package holiday.

At the age of 28, he moved to Leicester to work for the Baptist church. His first organised trip was to transport, by rail, passengers from Leicester to Loughborough and back again. The 570 passengers attended a temperance rally at a cost of one shilling each.

The outing was so successful that the railway company asked him to organise other excursions. He went into business on a full-time basis and that business still bears his name today. The cottage where he was born has been demolished, but the almshouses he built in Melbourne remain as his memorial.

Castle Square was the site of the medieval market place where, on the north side, stands the White Swan with the inn sign clasping the corner of the building. At the bottom of Potter Street, the principal street in medieval times, is a large thatched cottage which was sub-divided into seven homes in 1824, but is now restored to one.

Further up the street, The Athenaeum and Mechanic’s Institute had its foundation stone laid in 1853 by Lord Palmerston, another of Queen Victoria’s Prime Ministers, whose wife, Emily Mary Lamb, inherited Melbourne Hall.

To the north of the recently refurbished Market Place is Blanch Croft where former framework knitters’ cottages can be seen with their long low windows.

In High Street is a well preserved cruck beam cottage and, in Penn Lane, look out for the distinctive cast iron windows of the former National School.

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