A Walk around Repton with members of the Repton Village History Group
|
This building used to be a farmhouse and barn, where cattle would have been brought in from the fields at night for milking. Nearby is a road called The Pastures. Agriculture was a main industry in Repton at one time, along with basket weaving using willows from the osier beds along the banks of Repton Brook. Baskets were made for packing bottles of beer and pale ale which were exported from Burton to the Baltic ports and India
|
This building was once the Repton School Sanatorium
|
Pat Smith points out the buildings around Goodall's Garage, which include an old cruck house (below) the beams of which are still in the roof, and The Bulls Head pub (below). There were once more pubs in Repton than today, The New Inn, now a residential building; The Shakespeare, which has been demolished; The Bulls Head, currently closed; The Boot Inn, The Mount Pleasant and The Red Lion. Years ago the landlords of The Shakespeare also ran a meat trade from the premises, being a publican was not usually the only jobPat Smith points out the buildings around Goodall's Garage, which include an old cruck house (below) the beams of which are still in the roof, and The Bulls Head pub (below). There were once more pubs in Repton than today, The New Inn, now a residential building; The Shakespeare, which has been demolished; The Bulls Head, currently closed; The Boot Inn, The Mount Pleasant and The Red Lion. Years ago the landlords of The Shakespeare also ran a meat trade from the premises, being a publican was not usually the only job
|
|
|
|
The Bulls Head used to be a posting inn; it was alleged to be haunted. Like many buildings in the village there were stables at the side of the inn. At one time there were busy farms, barns and stables in the very centre of the village which would have posed a considerable fire risk. Repton School, who also had many vulnerable buildings, were the suppliers of fire brigade equipment and horses would have been rounded up to pull the fire ‘engine’. There were also hand pushed carts, with ladders, buckets and hoses and local village men provided the man power to fight the fires. One man is known to have kept an outside bell under his window so he could be woken at any time to deal with a fire! |
On High Street we see a garage which was known as Goodall’s Garage for many years. The site was once the garden and orchard of the local doctor. There was a small surgery, where people had to wait outside until the doctor called them
|
The Square, the second main landmark of the village.
At this mini crossroads High Street becomes Main Street and leads to Hartshorne and The National Forest. We meet Well Lane and Pinfold Lane, the latter being where stray cattle would have been kept in a pen fold.
It is the point where, years ago, the village split in two and villagers from bottom Repton would have provided domestic services and other labour to the residents of top Repton. We are told that, at one time, villagers from ‘top’ Repton could not understand what the residents of nearby Wood End were saying and needed an interpreter to communicate!
Children from both ends of the village attended the same school, although attendance depended on the farming season. Children from farming families would not attend school when crops needed harvesting, potatoes picking or osiers needed to be stripped for basket weaving
|
Alan Thompson remembers that even as recently as the 1950s during the potato harvest children would ‘skip’ school and be taken by farm cart to pick potatoes in the fields. School might have even closed for a week at a time to allow for this and it was an accepted part of village life
|
The Square was a place where villages would socialise and children played games, such as rounders, in the street.
To celebrate the end of World War II a dance was held and records played over a loud speaker in a relatively traffic free, floodlit Square
|
|
|
In Main Street we see: The Old Forge. The last blacksmith at the forge was Aubrey Wain, in the 1970s
|
Number 8 Main Street, was the home of Dr. Gus Auden, and a house where the poet W. H. Auden once stayed
|
The Grange was built 1703, built by the former Lord Mayor of London, Joseph Holbrook
|
|
St. Wystan’s Church, the Crypt and Repton Priory with Colin Kitching |
|
|
|
icon 
