We were delighted when we were contacted a few weeks ago by a gentleman who had some new items to add to the archive of the Miller Mundy family of Shipley Hall, Heanor. They belonged to his grandmother, Gladys Nicholls (1904-1986), who was cook-housekeeper to the Miller Mundys in the early 1960s. By this time the family lived in Hampshire, as Shipley Hall was sold in 1922 and demolished in 1943.
Mrs Nichols had preserved two family albums full of photographs of the Miller Mundy family at leisure. This is particularly exciting as the Miller Mundy archive (reference D517) contains hardly any photographs of the family. Now we have an abundance of photographs which we can start to match to the names we find in the archive – though this will require a bit of detective work, as the names of people aren’t always given.
Most of the photographs are of holidays, but as a contrast, here is a charming set of photographs of an attempt to get a very stubborn donkey to pull a gig, much to the amusement of the chauffeur and other men (grooms perhaps).
After July 1914 we see that the visits to relatives and friends (many in stately homes) are interrupted by a few photographs that show that war has broken out – the page below shows soldiers parading in Heanor. The images above, of two young ladies doing some gymnastics on a gate (with their petticoats modestly tied at the knee) seems a strange juxtaposition, but probably shows how lightly a war that would be ‘over by Christmas’ was taken at the time.
In addition to the photograph albums, there is a travel journal of a cruise taken by E.M. Mundy in 1901. This would have been Alfred Edward Miller Mundy, who at the time was the ‘squire’ at Shipley Hall. He sailed with his family, sometimes joined by other relatives and friends, from Southampton via France to Italy, where as well as visiting Pompeii and Pisa, they forayed over to Egypt.
Edward Miller Mundy sometimes added photographs to his journal entries, too:
The items have all now been added to the collection and you can see the full descriptions of their contents on their catalogue entries – photograph albums: D517/F/PHO/1 and D517/F/PHO/2 and travel journal: D517/F/AEMM/1/1.
We’re incredibly grateful to Mrs Nicholls and her family for looking after these albums and ultimately donating them to the Record Office – thereby helping to bring the Miller Mundys to life through these wonderful photographs!
Derbyshire Record Office 
Brilliant. We love Shipley Park and Derbyshire County Council do a great job keeping it well tended with immense regard for nature. It has become a great asset to our region. It’s interesting that we’ll soon have faces for the privileged family who built the paupers walk and suffragette wall and planted the magnificent trees we can all enjoy now.