Derbyshire Hospitality

A guide to the history of Derbyshire's hospitality and its archives. Derbyshire, including but not limited to the Peak District, has been a popular tourist destination for at least 2000 years. Our local studies library has lots of published tourist guides and histories from the 18th century to the present day. This guide outlines the …

Bevin Boys in the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire Coal Field

During the Second World War, the coal industry faced an employment crisis in spite of coal being an in-demand fuel at the time. Despite mining being a reserved occupation, which exempted those working in it from military service, this only applied to men aged 30 or over. Many men took advantage of this and went …

William Rawson: The Brave Son of a Ripley Miner

I recently came across the Rawson Family of Nuttall’s Park and Wright Avenue of Ripley whilst writing a short biography of William Samuel Rawson, who lived in Ripley all his life. This William worked at Ripley Colliery from 1940, but had previously been employed at nearby Britain Colliery, both of which were owned by the …

The Bolsover Spitfires: 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain

You may think that crowdfunding is a relatively new thing but actually it isn’t. During both the World Wars, war bonds, or the National Savings Movement as it was known during the Second World War, were often used to raise money by advertising directly to the public. However, Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Aircraft Production, …

Building History – Next Steps

A guide to other detailed records and tips for specific types of building. If you are new to researching the history of a building try our getting started guide first.  There are also more complex records available for discovering the history of property and land, including: Estate records: including rentals and terriers which can be …

Bomb nearly takes out the Blue Bell Inn at Melbourne

A post from Bernadette currently on a work placement at the Record Office As part of my work placement at the Record Office, I currently working on a transcript of information gathered from the Derbyshire County Council Air Raid Precaution’s Register of Occurrence’s (Ref: D4710/1).On the first page of the register I came across the occurrence at …