Interviewed by Hazel Mors, Thursday 20th February 2014
Olive started her trip down memory lane with her recollections of the infants school she attended. This was situated on Sleetmoor Lane (on a site opposite the Salvation Army Citadel). She recalled that they had to make their own cap and aprons in white cotton to go on a week’s cookery course at the Wesleyan Chapel on Coupland Place.
The Old Rifle Volunteer:
Olive was married at the Church of St. Thomas, Somercotes, on Boxing Day 1942. Their wedding reception was held at the Rifle Volunteer, an inn on Birchwood Lane (this would be demolished in later years and replaced with a 1960s public house of the same name, now also demolished and redeveloped). She recalled that they had to walk through the public area to the back of the inn where the reception took place. Somercotes was a traditional mining village, and it was not necessarily acceptable even in 1942 for women to be seen in the public bars. At this time, the original old stables were still part of the outbuildings. Olive remembered that they also held a “Health & Strength Club” at the Rifle Volunteer. All the men wore white trousers and a white singlet with a blue sash. One of Olive’s relatives was the weight lifting champion of the Midlands.
The Premier and Empire Cinemas:
The Premier Electric Theatre and Empire Cinema were the places to relax at that time. Olive recalled that Percy Dennis owned the Empire Cinema and his parents were the licenees of the Devonshire Arms public house. Her cousin was a projectionist at the Premier.
Birchwood Lane (on the right hand side):
Olive recalled her memories of Birchwood Lane, a street she knew well. Walking down Birchwood Lane with the Devonshire Arms on the right, there was a row of terraced houses. There was a hairdresser’s, owned by Nancy Parkin, then a sweet shop, Mrs Hudson’s greengrocery and a drapers shop. Mrs Bullock owned a Fish & Chip shop (as at 2014 this was a Chinese takeaway!). After this was the New Inn (since demolished and redeveloped for housing). A little further down was the original Rifle Volunteer with its stables and outbuildings. A man named Mr. Baits owned a shop next to the inn (from where Olive recalled that she purchased “Tiger Nuts”). This shop stood approximately where the entrance is now to the housing estate. At the rear of all of these premises were open fields and woodland. Past the shop owned by Mr Baits were six cottages. In the first lived the White family, in the second the Shaw family and Olive’s family lived in the third, where Olive herself was born.in 1923. After the six cottages was Queen Street. On the corner of Birchwood Lane and Queen Street was an Off-Licence, ran by a Mrs. Dexter. Olive remembered that her parents lived on Queen Street, so presumably they moved from Birchwood Lane, but Olive was raised mainly by her grandparents.
Birchwood Lane (on the left hand side):
From the Devonshire going down Birchwood Lane on the left hand side:
There was originally one large field stretching down the left side of Birchwood Lane up to the area across from the old Rifle Volunteer. The first building was a shop, then a row of four cottages which were named “Dobbs Row”. These were situated at a point across from the entrance to Queen Street. Olive can still remember the stand pipe for water at the end of the row, which serviced all of the houses. Fields stretched beyond this point until Pennytown and the allotments were reached.
Birchwood Lane Chapel:
The chapel on Birchwood Lane ran a small school (there is a section on this website for the Chapel). The boys were taught in the vestry and the girls in the choir stalls. The choirmaster was a Mr. Wilgoose. Olive remembers that they had a Maypole there and during the Mayday celebrations the girls would hold the ropes and dance around the pole in the traditional manner. She also remembered walking to the Jessop Monument at Codnor Park some miles away for similar celebrations.
Pennytown:
At Pennytown there was a farmhouse and a row of cottages. Alice, the postwoman lived in one of the cottages, as did a Mrs Powis, who taught class 1B and 2B at Somercotes School. Mrs Powis was the daughter of Kitty Powis, who helped to run the Sunday School at the Mission Church near Muckram. Some of Olive’s relatives also lived in the Pennytown cottages and she recalled that the fan and engine house for Shady Colliery backed onto the bottom of Pennytown (this would have been at the shaft of an older mine, either the “Victoria” of “Balguy”, which was used as a ventilation shaft). She also recalled that there was a “hostelry” by Shady Colliery.
In the fields after Pennytown, near the plantation, there was a Mission Church (referred to earlier) that was attached to the Church of St Thomas. It was made of corrugated iron, painted with red oxide paint, and was called the “Mittie” it had the appropriate Alter, chairs and a rector, to have Sunday services for the people of Pennytown and Muckram. It also ran a Sunday school.
(The Mission Church is also recalled in a book “Farewell to a Muckran Lad” by Les Burt. In it he also described the chapel as the “Mittie”, which was made from corrugated iron, painted with red oxide. He also confirms that the church, used also for wedding and funerals, was dismantled in late 1940 and used as a colliery canteen. In 1941 it was dismantled again and was sold to John Bakewell at Leabrooks, a business man, who ran a bakery and garden nursery, Some 30 years after, it being used as a car garage on Leamoor Avenue. The Mission finally ended its days as a workmen’s hut used by builders).
Muckram:
Olive remembered Muckram, on the left hand side of Birchwood Lane, before the long bend, next to the railway line.
Somercotes Local History Society would like to thank Mrs. Olice Brailsford for sharing her memories. At the time she was interviewed in February 2014, Olive was 91 years old.