Wirksworth: Unique court oversees area's lead mining

Denis Eardley concludes his look at the historic market town of Wirksworth.

THE limestone cottages of The Dale and Green Hill cling to the hillside as if Wirksworth were a little Cornish fishing village with nothing but the sea missing.

In places, it is possible to walk from the garden of one house onto the roof of another below. This is the area where the lead miners used to live, the jumble of small cottages having been built mostly from random stone extracted from nearby quarries.

Nowhere is the lack of planning more apparent than in the area between the remains of Dale Quarry and Middle Peak Quarry, known locally by the intriguing name of Puzzle Gardens.

The cottages are linked by a maze of ginnels or jitties; there is no room for vehicular access and the visitor quickly gets lost with paths seeming to lead off in all directions.

It was on Green Hill, in 1912, that Rolls-Royce used the steep gradient for special stop and restart tests on their cars.

During the following year’s Austrian Alpine trials, these tests paid off handsomely, enhancing considerably the prestige of their world famous car engines.

Many other trials were held on the hill during this period with both solo and sidecar motorbikes attempting to reach the top without stopping.

This was not an easy task as, in those days, the road surface was often rough and deeply rutted, which resulted in plenty of thrills and spills for the interested spectators who liked to join in and give the bikes a good push when they got stuck.

Situated half way up Green Hill is Babington House, an excellent example of the old builders’ rule “Always use local products, if they are available”.

In this instance, the builder only had to go as far as the back garden to quarry the stone he needed to build the house.

The house has been used for a variety of purposes and, at one time, was the Parish Workhouse before becoming the Cottage Hospital in 1868, which it remained for just over 60 years.

The hospital was kept busy with a steady stream of patients from the quarries, where safety precautions were inadequate and workmen often took risks to increase the amount of stone loaded and the size of their wage packet at the end of the week.

Many of the accidents were of an horrific nature such as this one recorded in the Quarry Manager’s Journal in August 1921: “James Else, a quarry man, was working in a limestone quarry when a charge of gelignite exploded prematurely, blowing a ramrod through his neck. Else, it appears, was pinned to the rock but, apparently, the arteries were not injured.

“The ramrod, which was of steel and was 10ft or more in length, passed halfway through Else’s neck and, before he could be taken to hospital, the bar had to be cut through, close to the flesh at the front and back of the neck. Amazingly, Mr Else made a satisfactory recovery.”

At the foot of Green Hill stands Hopkinson’s House, a former lead merchant’s home, built in 1631.

This was one of Wirksworth’s most important houses before decline set in and it stood derelict for many years.

In 1954, the roof collapsed, the walls crumbled and the centre filled with rubble.

Rescue came in 1981 when it was bought by the Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust and was restored to its former glory.

More images of Wirksworth and its surrounds can been seen in Denis’ book, Pocket Images – Around Wirksworth, published by Nonsuch Publishing Limited, priced £5.99 (ISBN: 1-84588-106-0).