There are no comments up to now.
| Sharing histories about Wirksworth |
|
EASTERN Shore Sun (ESS) received some interesting feedback following our story late last year on the refurbishment of Wirksworth House in Bellerive. We were contacted by Phil Richards of Wirksworth in Derbyshire in the UK who stumbled across the article when he ‘Googled’ Wirksworth looking for more information about his own region. Phil Richards lives in the small market town of Wirksworth, which is in Derbyshire.  Phil Richards – interested in the history of Wirksworth. “Those of us who live here were pretty sure it was unique and now we find we have a link in Tasmania,” Phil said in his email correspondence to our paper. “I wonder if you or anyone there can shed any light on the connection. I have tried doing some internet digging and it seems there may be a connection with a member of the Gell family, who were an important family here in the 16th to 19th centuries and Google shows a few names born in Derbyshire who ended up in Tasmania.”  Wirksworth’s Hope and Anchor Tavern part of the town’s central marketplace area. ESS, through the Clarence City Council managed to find some reference to Wirksworth in Dr Allison Alexander’s history of Clarence book. Dr Alexander reported that Charles Featherstone was one of the more unusual inhabitants of Clarence. Dr Alexander wrote: “Born in Hobart in 1852 the son of a publican, he became a lawyer and member of parliament. He moved to Bellerive and in 1888 built himself a huge Italianate sandstone mansion, Wirksworth designed by Robert Huckson. It had two storeys, gas lighting and a special machine where the gas was made, hot and cold water in the bathroom (a great luxury at the time), seven bedrooms, servants’ staircase, enormous water tanks and an innovative sewerage system. The locals named it ‘Featherstone’s Folly’. Featherstone was generally admired: he led the movement for progress in Bellerive forming the Improvement Association and gaining the Town Board and becoming its first president. Then came disgrace. In 1893, a warrant was issued for Featherstone’s arrest for embezzlement after his business partner unwillingly gave evidence to the police. There are various stories of his escape that he rode to Launceston in a hearse and caught a boat to the mainland. … that he escaped to America and or that he died in a shipwreck. ” Phil Richards said that he believed a number of our readers would be interested in the story about Wirksworth in the UK. “We certainly plan to give your Wirksworth some coverage in Community Fayre our quarterly community newspaper.” Phil who works as a librarian at the local secondary school, sent a photograph of himself and the local marketplace in Wirksworth which coincidentally boasts a tavern called the Hope and Anchor! He was delighted to hear that we have a Hope and Anchor hotel in Hobart. He also sent an edition of Community Fayre If you are interested, you can read more about Wirksworth on its website www.wirksworth.net If you have any more information about our Wirksworth, let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will pass it on to Mr Richards.
» No Comments
» Post Comment
|