A Walk around West Street, Swadlincote, with Graham Nutt and Clyde Dissington
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The audio clips were recorded by Dave Kitto in July 2005. To listen to them you will need Windows Media Player 9 or 10, or similar software such as Winamp or Real Player. Audio clips are accompanied by the  icon
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The top of Belmont Street.
The Nag's Head pub was in High Street and next door was the old Burton Mail Office. Opposite the Nag's Head is Belmont Street formerly called Station Street and some premises there were: The Gas Works, Tofts shop and a stable the site of which is now occupied by the present Burton Mail Office.
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Looking from Belmont Street, towards Sabine’s works, which made pipe machines for the local pipe industries, and the white building, Brook house, built by Thomas Sabine. Sabine’s was also turned over to the war effort to produce munitions – just across the road from the gas works! One of the Sabines was credited for inventing the socketing pipe machine, previous to this the pipes had been made cylindrical and the sockets stuck on. Thomas Sabine was also the local constable.
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View from Bank Passage (Rink Passage) over looking what was a major brick yard.
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What became Woodward’s Pipe Yard started out as John Hunt’s brick yard in 1790. It is likely that most of the early buildings in Swadlincote were built with bricks from John Hunt’s brickyard. Mr Woodward was Hunt’s foreman, and he took over the works after Hunt died. In the 1850s South Derbyshire was a leading area for production of drainage pipes and Woodward’s one of the leading makers of sanitary pipes in the country.
In the early 1900s Woodward’s was taken over by Thomas Wragg and Sons, who had been operating across the road. Later on Wragg's was demolished and they moved all the operations over to Woodward’s – which closed in 2005 when Morrisons bought the site to build a new supermarket.
At one time there were hundreds of beehive kilns in the area and the last surviving kiln was on the Wragg’s site. It will be lost in the development, but the chimney will stay. Story has it that when the chimney was completed the steeplejack took a bicycle up and rode it round the top! |
Site of the Alexandra Rink Dance Hall
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Back at The Magic Attic Archives, the group pore over maps of the route.
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The site of The Alexandra Rink Dance Hall which started in 1909 as a roller skating rink. Lots of well known dance bands appeared there, it was a place that everybody loved. Ernie Hall, “The Law of the Floor”, ran The Rink for a long time and brought many acts in |
Our thanks to Clyde Dissington and Graham Nutt of The Magic Attic, who led the “Walk Around West Street”. The full recording of this event will soon be available in National Forest libraries, for more information please contact the team |
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