Wonders of the Peak

Buxton Museum & Art Gallery

Stories & Memories

Orient Lodge

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At one time there was a rather grand house in Green Fairfield.

Orient Lodge stood on Hardybarn Lane, a long single track running from Waterswallows Road.

Built in 1896 for Samuel Swann Brittain and his Arabic wife Emma there are accounts of the grand house of Orient Lodge employing dairy staff, farm workers and servants.

The Brittains landscaped their estate from open farmland with formal gardens, mature trees from Ashwood Dale and overseas. There are tales of an orangery filled with exotic fruit trees, beautifully built stables for a stud farm and shippons with luxuriously tiled interiors.

However quarrying began at nearby Tunstead in 1929 and gradually expanded, moving closer to Orient Lodge.

By the mid 1930’s a family called Bingham owned the estate and had already sold part of the land to I.C.I.

Robert Bingham kept the house on until he died in 1977 before its inevitable sale to I.C.I.

All that remains now is an overgrown tree lined driveway leading to a great cliff edge to the huge Tunstead quarry.

Read more about the Brittains and the Binghams at Orient Lodge on our Buxton Museum and Art Gallery blog:

Orient Lodge

 

Dear Harry

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During an event in nearby Hollinsclough a local resident showed us this letter, dated November 11th 1918. The name of the writer is unknown. It records the local reaction to the end of the First World war.

Letter kindly lent for photography by James Arthur Slack. Buxton Museum and Art Gallery – CC BY-NC.

Read on for a transcription:

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Hollinsclough At War – James Henry Slack

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During the First World War many locals were called up to serve in the armed forces. One such man was James Henry Slack who lived nearby at Nab End Farm. James enlisted in Buxton on the 22nd January 1916 aged 20 years old.

James ‘ descendants still have some of his archive relating to his military service, including these notes issuing him with his British War Medal Riband.

Riband letter kindly lent for photography by James Arthur Slack. Buxton Museum and Art Gallery – CC BY-NC.
Riband letter kindly lent for photography by James Arthur Slack. Buxton Museum and Art Gallery – CC BY-NC.

Interestingly, James signed up the day after the The Military Service Act was passed – which introduced conscription. However, this wasn’t put in practical effect until 2nd March 1916. The act was extended to married men on 25th May 1916.

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Castleton Garland Costumes

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The Garland being hoisted up to St Edmund’s Church Tower

Each year on 29th May the Garland King, mounted on horseback and wearing the Garland, leads the traditional Castleton Garland procession around the Village, stopping at St Edmund’s Church, close to where you are standing. This is an important stage of the ceremony when the Garland, a large bell shaped frame covered in flowers and greenery, is removed from the King’s shoulders and hoisted to the top of the Church tower.

Thomas Hall, Garland King

This is a photo of Garland King, Thomas Hall, taken sometime before 1913, showing him wearing the first Stuart-style costume, which was adopted in 1897.  The King’s blue Stuart jacket can be seen in Castleton Museum, together with an older costume, a red coachman’s jacket worn inside out with ribbons & rosettes attached.

Pre 1897 coachman’s jacket (left) & earliest Stuart style jacket (right)

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The Empress Cinema

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This Spot, now the Shoulder of Mutton pub, was once home to the Empress Cinema. The cinema was purpose built in 1925 and modernised in 1938 with an extended auditorium and an Art Deco facade by the noted cinema architect Joseph Gomersall of Drury & Gomersall, Manchester, to maintain its attraction and support from the public.

dersb-57467-small
Empress Cinema, c.1935, JR Board Collection. DERSB : 57467.

The cinema was ran by Mr. Eldred Fletcher. acting as the projectionist and general manager. while his wife Eva was in charge of the front of house. In the early days of the cinema a lady was employed to accompany the silent films on a piano. For a short time she was joined by a violinist, but he complained that she ate while playing and scratched her back.

Programmes were changed three times a week with performances at 6:45pm and 9:00pm. Shows started with local adverts including Walkers Ice Cream – sold in the cinema from 3¼inch glass slides. This would be followed by “Gaumont British News” and two or three short films including Disney cartoons, The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy, finally followed by the main feature film.

During the war and immediately after the business flourished. There were queues right up the road, and children from the Children’s Home and everyone from the Workhouse (later The Elms) has free seats.

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