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led to the Moor Close and later to the gasworks across the
railway line to the north. Note the remains of the painted
sign of the former Tip Top bakery at first-floor level of
the chequered building on the corner of Market Place. Moorlands
old people's home, demolished in 2001 and replaced in 2002
by a development of apartments, was itself on the site of
the former Beauvale House farmyard that was still functioning
in 1950. Chapel Yard was on the corner of Newgate Street and
held several poor houses and Mr Downing's slaughterhouse.
Bingham’s first parish workhouse was built in 1769 in
Moor Lane as well as the small lockup.
was once Back Lane. Nº
8 is a late 18th century Georgian farmhouse originally
owned by the Chesterfield Estate and sold only in 1952. The
farmer moved to a newer farm, still called Newgate Farm, on
Nottingham Road to be closer to his fields. The gable end
of its adjacent former barn bears the date 1817. Note the
hinge supports carved from a single piece of stone. There
is a matching door to the rear allowing access from the farmyard
as well as the street. The floor between the doors is of York
stone flags. Its original stables are in the front garden
of No10. Gillotts Close, more infill named for former tenants
of the farm, is on land that belonged to the farm. James Walker
built the late Victorian villas (Nºs12&14). Nº16a
was the last remaining stocking frame house in Bingham, but
the wide upstairs windows were removed in the 1980s. The lower
brickwork of the front half of Number 20 is early 1700s. The
barn has a dated brick (1862) within the vitrified brick diaper
pattern in the gable which supports the dating of the iron
hinges to the mid nineteenth century. The trade directories
record a succession of cottagers in Newgate Street who could
well have lived here, the plot is about the right size for
such an occupation.
James Terrace of semi-detached villas
(Nºs22-32) were built in 1904/5 on the north side on
land leased by the Earl of Carnarvon to James Walker. Frederick
Castledine bought all six when he retired from his grocery
business, and the Earl sold him the freeholds in 1920. On
the South side Nºs9 and 11 were built on green field
plots leased from the Earl of Carnarvon. He sold the freeholds
in 1920. A tailor built Nº9
about 1897 as a residence with a projecting shop front that
did not disappear until the 1960s. It was a drapers and wool
shop from the 1930s. The single storey lean-to may have been
the tailor's workshop; it served as a basket-weaving classroom
in the 1920s. Later it was Bingham's public library until
1974. You can see the patches in the brickwork where the shop
door and window were. Close Acre is a classic example a house
facing south, with small windows on the north side; in 1920
it had a rear door onto the street. It and Rose Cottage are
mid 19C.
is named for the Chapel of St Helen built by Richard de Bingham
in 1301 at the western end of School Lane, which used to be
Mill Lane. A windmill occupied the site of Nºs1&3.
Old maps show the mill as derelict in 1901. The miller (Thomas
Walker in 1832) owned three closes (Mill, Kirkhill and Chapel)
amounting to 10 acres. The 1841 Tithe map shows a second mill
about where Carnarvon Place is now, on what was known as Mill
Close. We think this was operated by Robert Wilson who the
1841 & 1851 censuses show as living in Fair Close. See
the plan at 15 Fairfield
Street. The new Board School was built in 1909, opening
in 1910. On part of Kirkhill Close. Joseph Baldock, Relieving
Officer for the Workhouse, built No9
School Lane on another part of Kirkhill Close in 1920.
Kirkland House |
Kirkland
House stands on Chapel Close. Human remains have been found
in the grounds suggesting it is the site of the chapel cemetery.
In 'Bingham in the Past’ it is reported that the
46 victims of a plague in 1646/7 were buried in a yard at the west
end of the town. The house was built in about 1860 and extended
a few years later to incorporate a bakehouse at which time the corner
room was converted to a shop with the door across the corner. The
faint remains of a painted advertisement can still be seen above
where the shop window was. A photograph of the shop front is in
Victorian Bingham, ed Val Henstock.
Foreshadowing today's developers, James Walker
purchased Kirkland House (No1) and its land in 1908. He sold the
house to the Board of Guardians of the Workhouse, which was already
renting it for a cottage children's home. By 1910 he had built seven
villas, including 'Westholme' (No11)
on the land. |
| Kirkhill's other association with Bingham's
children is the Wesleyan School at the bottom of the hill. Note
the school bell turret. (This had to be removed for safety reasons
in 2002 but it is hoped might be reinstated) Designed by R C Sutton
in the Italianate style and built in 1850, the complex of buildings
here also housed the circuit superintendent and ministers of the
Wesleyan church. They moved to the Banks in the 1880s. The school
became the Board School in 1871. It closed when the new school opened
in School Lane. The schoolmaster, Harry Pilling, became head of
the new school and bought 'Westholme'.
Wesleyan Day School |
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was Pond Street for about 10 years
around 1881 - the pond was near 'Edmunderry' (No2). It reverted
to Fairfield Street after the pond was filled in and commemorates
an annual fair held on Fair Close, on the corner with Newgate
Street. The original name of the street, was Fair Close. The
large plot of allotments bounded by Fairfield Street, west
Newgate Street and by properties on Long Acre and Market Place
was sold by the Earl of Carnarvon in 1920. The houses on this
side of Fairfield Street date from the 1920's onwards.
Yorkshire sliding sash windows suggest the former
cottage attached to the White Lion is late 18C or early 19C, and the pub
itself is of similar age but was refronted later. The Stingo Tap, one
of Bingham's many drinking houses listed in the 1844 directory, preceded
it, probably in the original cottage building.
The west side of Fairfield Street has
a range of interesting buildings from the mid and late 19th
century. Intriguingly Nos 9,11,15,17 all have cart entrances.
Numbers 11 and 15 were built in 1822 but number
15 was rebuilt in 1888. In the 1920s fishmonger Tommy
Cod lived at No15, and directories through the 1800s record
other residents of Fairfield Street who may have needed carts,
including pig jobber, butter huckster (OED: hawker or pedlar)
and carrier, builder and several cottagers who would have
needed the long back gardens attached to these houses. The
true period of the Anchorage is masked by modern timber decoration.
West Side, Fairfield Street
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