Swadlincote History Trail - South Derbyshire District Council

Swadlincote History Trail: History Notes
Swadlincote – A Potted History
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Swadlincote is recorded as just a small village in the more
important parish of Church Gresley. Now, however, Swadlincote is South Derbyshire’s largest
town. The population at the beginning of the 21 st century was around 30,000 people.
The use of the word ‘town’ is, perhaps, misleading. Swadlincote is made up of three separate
settlements – Swadlincote, Church Gresley and Newhall. These combine with the parishes of
Woodville and Castle Gresley to form a band of development across the southern part of the
District – lying between Burton on Trent in the west and Ashby de la Zouch in the east.
The earliest written reference to the town’s mineral deposits is found in a document dated
1294. This recorded the granting of mineral extraction rights. However, throughout the
Middle Ages, although some coalmining and pottery-making was carried out, the area
remained essentially rural. The real growth of Swadlincote took place after the late 18 th
century with the development of coal and clay extraction on a commercial basis. This was a
result of the demand for coal and clay during the Industrial Revolution.
Throughout the 19 th century, a number of collieries, brickworks and potteries were
established – including Sharpe’s Pottery in 1821. The large variety of clays present in the coal
deposits of the South Derbyshire coalfield enabled a wide range of products to be made,
including salt-glazed sanitary pipes, sanitary ware, bricks, tiles, chimney pots, firebricks and
domestic articles. As this industry grew so did the number of chimneys and kilns. It was
possible to see 60-70 chimneys from almost anywhere in the town.
The growth of coalmining and the clay industry continued until just after the Second World
War. With it came an increase in population and the building of many new houses. Related
industries such as boilermaking and engineering and shopping facilities expanded to serve the
growing population. All this expansion was achieved at considerable cost to the environment.
The town suffered a shortage of stable building land and became scarred by colliery spoil
heaps and clay holes.
Today, the approach is one of trying to balance the need for mineral extraction with the need
to protect the environment and provide amenities for the local community. All of the old
colliery spoil heaps and clay holes have now been landscaped with trees and grass. The last
colliery closed in 1988. As far as clay is concerned, the making of stoneware pipes continues.
The engineering industry also remains important.
Swadlincote now is in the heart of The National Forest. The National Forest is transforming
200 square miles of town and countryside into the largest multi-purpose forest created for
the nation in a thousand years. Planting has extended right into Swadlincote with the
creation of Swadlincote Woodlands Forest Park. The area was formerly used for opencast and
clay manufacture and extraction. The 80 acre site includes a network of forest trails and
footpaths set amongst more than 22,000 trees.
Within a relatively short period of time, Swadlincote has changed. It has evolved from a
community whose development, wealth and way of life were closely related to the mining
and pottery industry to a bright modern town which is now the administrative centre for the
whole of South Derbyshire.
The heritage remains, however, for those who look closely, and we hope you enjoy the brief
introduction provided by this trail!
Education Team, South Derbyshire Environmental Education Project.

These notes
should be
viewed
alongside the
History Trail,
which has
pictures to help
you identify
each building
and directions
around the
town centre
1. Razor like
ceramic.
2. You’ll need
to co-operate
to fill your
house!
3. Legal
establishment
still marked by
brothers who
sold flowers.
4. Wesley’s
method.
Name / use of
building
Apr 04
Sharpe's Pottery
Centre
Now Ward &
Brewin Funeral
Directors,
YMCA furniture
shop. and Auto
Shop.
Timms Solicitors
Wesleyan Chapel
History Notes:
These notes are a compilation of interesting facts and
figures about Swadlincote’s buildings and history.
It is intended to be an introduction rather than a
comprehensive guide, and you can find out more by
visitng Sharpe’s Pottery and the various groups that meet
or work there.
You may know more about some of the buildings
featured: if so please write and let us know (giving
references if possible to back up any facts), so that we
can update the notes to everyone’s benefit!
Sharpe’s was a pottery, built in 1821 by Thomas Sharpe
(died 1838). It was known first for the production of
cheap “yellow ware” and later for the production of
“sanitary ware”, such as toilets and wash basins etc. The
factory exported world-wide.
Edmund Sharpe developed the technology and patented a
successful variation of the flushing WC rim in 1855. The
pottery stopped production in 1967, and fell into
disrepair, before being restored as a visitor centre and
museum. It opened to the public in January 2003.
Go inside and have a look around if you would like to
know more!
This building was built in 1915 by the Burton Co-operative
Society. It stands on the site of the Sharpe’s second
pottery, built in 1832 which was pulled down in 1907.
The rounded corner of the building is built on the circular
foundation line of one of the old bottle kilns.
The Co-op had its own majestic style of building. The
fronts were often very decorative, using big baked clay
blocks called “faience” for the ornamental features.
Behind the fronts, the buildings were usually plain and
factory-like.
The Co-Op has moved to The Delph.
Used to be Davies Brothers Florists. The DB initials are
still there below window.
The site of this building used to be part of the Sharpe’s
Pottery site. Sharpe’s sold it to Davies Bros. in 1921 for
their new florists shop. The initials “DB” can still be seen
at the bottom of the shop front, with an appropriate
floral design on the tiles. It used to be common for shop
owners to build their names into the architecture of a
building. They probably expected to be there for a long
time! Today, shops tend to change hands more quickly.
Methodist or other “Nonconformist” churches were very
important in industrial towns like Swadlincote. They
believed that people should strive to improve themselves
and help each other, and that simply going to church was
not enough. It was a philosophy that appealed to the
workers.

The Methodist Chapel is the oldest-established religious
building in Swadlincote. It was originally built in 1816,
enlarged later, and rebuilt in 1863. Methodist chapels
are often called “Wesleyan” chapels after the brothers
John (1703-1791) and Charles (1707-1788) Wesley, who
led Methodism in its early days.
5. Place of
modern
imperial flicks.
6. A place that
helps you see
the nearby
bear.
7. Upmarket,
Choice
8. Where the
nobles kept
their salt?
9. Timeless like
a jewel.
New Empire
Arcade
Grimley & Glynn
(Opticians)
Select
(Clothes shop)
Formerly Lloyd’s
Bank
Was CPL coal
shop,
Now Noble Tiles
Dinnis
(Jeweller/Clock
repair)
The original “Empire”, a cinema and theatre, opened on
Boxing Day 1912. Not everyone approved of it. One
protester said that the Devil had got his way now that
there was a picture house so close to a chapel.
The Empire was rebuilt and enlarged around 1930. Its site
was originally part of the Sharpe’s Pottery premises. It
was also used as a theatre for Gilbert & Sullivan
‘Operettas’ etc
The clue is a play on words!
Grimley and Glynn Opticians, and all the shops attached
on the south side of the Delph, were built in the 1960s. A
handsome Victorian pub called the Nag’s Head was pulled
down to make way for them.
The fashion in the 1960s was for plain buildings built of
modern materials, often with flat roofs. They were
meant to be cheerful, and their deliberate contrast with
older buildings was intended to point towards a brighter,
modern future. However, they often lack the elegance
and longevity of the older designs.
The Optician’s is next to The Bear Pub.
Look at the brickwork and the baked clay blocks on this
building. You will see all sorts of “special” shapes in
them. Some are like pieces in a jigsaw, that fit together
to make a whole arch or a pattern. Others are specially
shaped, to make elaborate horizontal bands across the
building. The Victorians liked to experiment with
decoration, sometimes even on ordinary houses, and a lot
of these “special” bricks were made in and around
Swadlincote.
When the bank closed in 2000, the building was
threatened with demolition due to safety fears.
This shop was part of ‘Salts brothers’ business –they had
several shops on the High Street, selling a range of goods.
Salts had an ingenious system for moving money around
their shops called the Lamson and Paragon Catapult.
For many years the shop was then used as the Coal Shop,
finally closing in 2002/3. One of the last reminders of the
coal industry in S Derbyshire.
This is one of the best period shop fronts in Swadlincote,
built in the early 1900s. Note, for instance, the curved
glass which is very expensive to replace.
The Dinnis Family have owned the shop for 3 generations,
moving here from their previous premises (also in High

10. What you
get from
valuable sheep?
11. Where the
son of Morris
lives, but where
pipes were once
made.
12. Where Art
Harvey plied his
many trades.
13. Find the
curtain mill
where
motorbikes used
to park.
14. Can you see
the beer for the
trees?
15. Get your
cards here, but
don’t get toffee
stuck to them!
Woolworths
Hepworths
(Pipe works)
A new
supermarket and
various other
buildings/ shops
are planned for
this site…
Motorbike shop
on Hill St
-formerly
Parran’s solicitors
John Mills
(Curtains etc)
Foresters Arms
(Pub)
Thornton’s
St) early in the twentieth century. There have only been
2 clocks in that time!
The firm started out in Swadlincote in 1889 as a jeweller
/ pawnbroker.
Woolworths was founded in the UK in 1909, as part of a
global expansion plan from it’s base in USA. The first
shop in the UK was in Liverpool.
Before Swadlincote was famous for making toilets and
sewage pipes, it was already well-known for making heat
resistant “fire-bricks” and cheap earthenware for
kitchens and dairies. The tall chimney, built around 1910,
was the main factory chimney of Wragg’s pipeworks,
taken over by Hepworths in 1978. The chimney served
the boilers and some of the kilns.
The factory was started as a firebrick works in 1790 by a
farmer called John Hunt. It was taken over in the 1840s
by James Woodward and under the Woodwards ownership
the works were greatly enlarged and rebuilt. Sewage
pipes made by Woodwards and other local firms were
exported all over the world. Cairo, Rio de Janeiro and
Mexico City all stand on Swadlincote sewage pipes!
Most of the old buildings on the Woodwards site were
pulled down when the factory was modernised in the
1960s and ‘70s. In the 1980s, there was an application to
pull down the chimney, but it was saved after a Public
Enquiry concluded that it was an important landscape
feature, representing the industrial heritage of the area.
The landscape around this chimney has changed beyond
recognition!
The land was sold to Morrison’s in 2002, with the
condition that the chimney and the building adjoining it
would be preserved in the new development.
Has ‘Arthur Harvey’ sign on side giving his many trades
such as plumber etc.
Was a solicitor’s until 2000… a business which ended up
in court.
This used to be motorcycle shop called Parkes.
The building is viewed as one of the gateways to the
town centre. Again – note the style of the windows.
Apparently, in 1931, the landlord of this pub was H. Bark!
Interesting glass in windows upstairs.
This used to be a hardware/ wool shop called
Wroughtons.

16. Used to be
the financial
centre of the
land.
17. Where Stan
hoped to get a
beer but got
clothes for
Libby
18. Home of
travelling
parrot?
19. Place of
animals, but in
the past they
wouldn’t have
wanted to come
here!
20. Home of
saintly charity
21. Moving
centre of trade.
Open but not
open.
22. Look for
where the
avenger held
court.
23. Catch a
train to
Granville to
quench your
thirst.
HSBC
(Hong Kong &
Shanghai Banking
Corporation)
Libbys
(Clothes)
Lunn Poly
(Travel)
‘Poly’ or Polly, is
a nickname for a
parrot
Pet Shop
St Giles Hospice
Shop
Indoor Market
This covered
market is open to
public but not to
the rain!
Town Hall
(Market Hall)
Sir Nigel Gresley
(Pub)
This was the Midland Bank
HSBC took over Midland Bank group in 1999
You will notice that many of the buildings on the High
Street use anti-pigeon tactics –but this one is the most
dramatic. Do you think it works?
This used to be Stanhope Arms Pub, and looks like it may
have been an upmarket watering hole in its day!
‘Stanhope’ was the surname of the landowning family
that used to live at Bretby Hall.
Thomas Cook, the famous Travel Agent founder who
started out in NWLeics (inc Bath Yard, next to Conkers!),
and was born in Melbourne.
It was ‘Robert & Birch’ Butcher’s Shop, so animals
wouldn’t like it then!
This building is less than 100 yrs old, although it is built
in the much older Tudor style. You can distinguish ‘mock’
from real tudor partly by the size / height of floors and
the shape, cut and ‘finish’ of the timbers and glass used.
Genuine Tudor buildings have uneven glass panes, and a
rough, uneven size and finish on the timbers as they were
cut by ‘adze’ rather than machine. Room height was
generally much lower in Tudor buildings.
It used to be a Pharmacy called Scraggs.
Look at the bracket high on the wall where the old
chemist sign used to hang.
There used to be large flasks of coloured fluid in window.
The Market moved from The Delph to this covered hall.
In 2000, some of the market traders moved back outside
to The Delph.
This building cost £1,179 to build. A ‘Petty crimes’ court
was held every Tuesday under the clock.
The Clock “Time the Avenger”, cost the princely sum of
£44.
This pub was “The Granville Arms”, Wetherspoons
changed the name when they refurbished the pub in
2001.
The Granville’s were local landowners till 1872
Sir Nigel Gresley was a railway engineer, famous for
designing locomotion engines including ‘The Mallard’ &
‘The Flying Scotsman’.

24. Linked
buildings start
with their own
Club?
25. Garden of
two princesses
and one grand
house.
Shoemart /
Derbys Building
Society row of
shops.
Grove Gardens
This row of shops on Market Street marks the site of some
of Swadlincote’s oldest houses, demolished long ago.
More recently this was the site of Swadlincote’s open
market, before the present row of shops was built in 1987
Princess Anne opened the Grove Hall (behind this
garden), which is part of the Leisure Centre, in 1981.
Diana, Princess of Wales, visited in 1991. The Grove
Gardens mark the site of a “clay hearth” where the
Sharpe family used to store their clay, leaving it to
weather down in the open air prior to use.
“The Grove” was a large Georgian farmhouse where the
Sharpe family lived since the 1820s or earlier,
conveniently near their potteries. It was demolished in
1972. All that is left is an old barn (now part of the
Snooker Centre) and part of the garden wall, with trees
behind it.
These History notes have been compiled from information kindly provided by:
Philip Heath, Heritage Officer, South Derbyshire District Council
Monica Hudson, South Derbyshire Writer’s Group
Beryl Storer, local resident
Other Sources:
South Derbyshire Official Guide, published by The British Publishing Company, 1997
James Woodward Limited, Swadlincote – A Study of the “Anchor Works” 1790 –1978, published
and printed by South Derbyshire District Council, 2003
Swadlincote Townscape Audit, published and printed by South Derbyshire District Council,
2001
If you can add to the notes, or if you would like to comment on the trail, please write to the
Environmental Education Project, Unit 1a, Rosliston Forestry Centre, Burton Rd, Swadlincote
Derbyshire DE12 8JX.
Please note: we intend to update the trail once a year.
The Town Trails have been created by South
Derbyshire Environmental Education Project,
which is based at Rosliston Forestry Centre.
Environmental Education is supported by: