Welcome back to our Twitter review. Here are the highlights for August 2022.
Our Archive of the Week series kicked off with a quinquennial inspection reports on Edale Parish Church.
Did you know that Church of England church buildings have to be professionally checked every five years? Of course, that’s how they get their name.
We also featured the Swanwick Writers School, possibly the longest running residential writing school in the world.
We highlighted a couple of plans in the archive collections:
A plan from 1874 of a house and land belonging to Abraham Woodiwiss Esq. in Hazelwood. In 1854 he took the contract to erect the Evesham Bridge across the Severn and he was Mayor of Derby between 1880-1882.
Did you know that 800 years after the original, a new “Domesday” survey was carried out and that the maps and schedules can be seen in our search room?
We must have been on a roll. We also re-tweeted the tale of the Gough map from Bodleian Libraries, which is helping provide evidence for a fabled Welsh Atlantis! What an amazing story.
Fuelled by a sense of adventure, we then featured the Dyche family of Borrowash as an Archive of the Week, or more specifically their photo album. They had some great holidays in the 1930s:
They look like a fun bunch!
We tied this in with History Begins at Home’s August theme of Lazy Days. Using the same them, we also asked:
What are your memories of Summer camping? Many of you may be aware that the Peak District is the perfect spot!
Explore Your Archives were promoting the theme of Animals:
This picture of a zoo reminded us …
… of a photo of Shirebrook children in the 1960s on a school visit to Pan’s Gardens, a small zoo in Ashover.
The 8th of August was International Cat Day, so we tweeted a photo of a cat in charge of the bar at the Stanton Works Institute at Hallam Fields in 1945.
Still on the theme of animals, if you’re still searching for that elusive copy of ‘Fly-Fishing’ by J. R. Hartley, how about ‘An Amateur Angler’ instead?
In 1884, Edward Marston spent three weeks in Dovedale learning how to fish, and this book contains his daily thoughts. However, it does show that fly-fishing wasn’t all relaxation and sunny days:
“I have been soaked and sodden, torn and scratched, stung by nettles, pursued by wasps, bitten by venomous insects, my fingers lacerated, and coat and trousers torn by my own hooks!”
Our Local Studies Book of the Week carried on the zoological theme with ‘The History of Dovedale Sheep dog trials’.
Beginning in 1891 as a display with Welsh mountain sheep behind the Izaak Walton Hotel at Thorpe, it transformed into a popular annual event held in a beautiful Peakland valley.
Meanwhile Derbyshire Libraries celebrated South Asian Heritage Month, by tweeting about some fantastic recommendations for diversifying your reading, all found in the catalogue.
Back with the Local Studies Book of the Week, we found ‘Walking Class Heroes’.
This book by Roly Smith, with a foreword by Stuart Maconie, examines the pioneering right to roam campaigners who fought for access routes through our peakland …
If the indoors is more your thing, how about some exhibitions which you can visit in person?
The Story of Connected Life, Through Rock, Earth and Community, at the National Stone Centre really resonates with us …
The exhibition is on until 11th September 2022 at The National Stone Centre.
Alternatively, why not join Professor Paul Elliott from the University of Derby for a short walk around Derby City Centre? You will learn all about the Derby Philosophers and their contribution to the Enlightenment movement. This free event is on Friday 16th September at 16:30.
The Derby Philosophical Society was founded by Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and some of his medical prescription notebooks form one of our 50 Treasures.
Professor Elliott’s walk forms part of the DVMWHS
Georgian Derbyshire Festival, which runs from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 September.
Individual events can be booked online through the above link.
And Finally
Derbyshire Record Office 