Derbyshire Books

BLACK'S 1872 TOURIST'S GUIDE TO DERBYSHIRE

Facsimile of the 1872 Derbyshire edition edited by Llewellynn Jewitt — a name which needs no introduction to local historians in the county. The contents of the book include: a general description of Derbyshire; area; population; position; history; antiquities; eminent men; geology; manufactures; agriculture; railways and canals; map of Buxton; map of Chatsworth and vicinity; plan of Haddon Hall and 25 engravings on wood and steel.

Paperback 210 x 148 mm 351 pages
With engravings, map and period advertisement
Country Books
ISBN 978 1 898941 22 4
Price £8.95

BLATHERWYCKE – hardback
The History of a Northamptonshire Village
Hilary Clare

Blatherwycke is a small village in north Northamptonshire which has remained more or less the same size since Domesday. Once it had three manors, two churches, a school, and a great house. Now it has one church (Holy Trinity), closed for regular use and in the care of the Historic Churches Trust, while Blatherwycke Hall was demolished in 1948 and the school closed in 1952. It has inevitably become a commuter and retirement village. But farming is still the principal industry, and the Hall gardens are being restored, with a new ‘great house’ in prospect.

This book is a survey of its history from the earliest times to the mid-twentieth century. Particular attention has been paid to the families who lived here, not just the squires but also the ‘ordinary’ villagers – who they were, what they did, and how external events affected them. No previous history of the place has been written since that of county historian John Bridges in the eighteenth century, and relatively few records survive, so that piecing Blatherwycke’s past together has been something of a detective puzzle. It is hoped that the resulting picture will be a pleasure to the village’s present inhabitants and to a wider audience interested in the history of middle England.

Please note the price includes £5 for postage and packing.

Paperback 297 x 210mm 434 pages
Country Books
ISBN 978-1-910489-84-0
Price £45.00

BRADWELL: ANCIENT & MODERN
by Seth Evans

At last! A facsimile of this classic Derbyshire title published in 1912, of which originals have been selling for £200 - a copy recently sold on the internet for £600! The facsimile has been enlarged by 15%.

Contents: ancient barrows, the Romans: Barham Gate and Brough Castle, the foresters, clearances, Hazlebadge Hall, miners rebellion, religious movements, Bradwell schools, the parish workhouse, local industries, lead mine tragedies, customs & superstitions, Bradwell families, remarkable characters, tragic deaths, memorable snowstorms, etc Numerous historic photos.

Paperback 245 x 170 mm 150 pages
CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK
Country Books
ISBN 978 1 898941 90 3
Price £9.95

DERBYSHIRE
WHERE WRITERS WALKED
Catherine James

Catherine James was born in Sheffield, and spent part of her childhood on the West Coast of Scotland. Writing, especially poetry, has always been part of her life.
After a career in teaching, she now lives in Derbyshire. It is a county which she has come to treasure, and in which her travels have opened up a wealth of dramatic landscapes, ancient villages and lively towns.
On one such journey, she went to Wirksworth, on a mission for a friend to discover connections between the writer George Eliot and Derbyshire. Here, near the market place, she found the bookshop owned by Richard Barrett. During the search for possible literature, the conversation turned to the many writers who had visited the area. Several of them, too, had referred to the county in their books and letters. So, the idea was born of exploring the references to the places in Derbyshire in the writings of the authors who had visited them.
Since that visit to the book shop in Wirksworth, Catherine’s travels have now taken her to the villages and towns of the Peak District and Derwent Valley. At times, she has stayed in them, to gather impressions and information. Others have been revisited on many occasions, and at different seasons. All have been possible using public transport. The travels and visits have been fascinating, as there has been so much to discover. But it has been the meeting with so many kind and interested people which has given the writer great enjoyment too.
This book, then, is a tribute to the people of Derbyshire as well as to the beautiful county in which they live.

Paperback 245 x 170mm 156 pages
84 colour photos, 18 line illustrations, 12 B&W photos and 2 maps
Country Books
ISBN 978-1-910489-54.3
Price £14.99

DONE TO DEATH IN DERBYSHIRE
SIX HISTORIC TRUE CRIME STORIES
Richard Litchfield

Following the success of his first title for Country Books, Richard Litchfield offers a further six historic crime stories ranging from 1873 – 1910. He has studied and researched murders for over twenty years, and tells these stories in fascinating, unflinching detail.

Matlock’s Chamberpot Murder
The Rev. Julius Benn. 5TH March 1883
A relation of the late Tony Wedgwood Benn MP and the actress Margaret Rutherford

The Derby Tragedy
Lilie Burford and Robery Feron. Derby 13TH April 1889
A murder and a suicide in a train between Derby and Nottingham

‘Where’s The Body?’ The Bradwell Mystery Bradwell 30TH April 1885
John Massey’s wife disappears

Killed for Threepence
John Massey, Dalbury 25TH April 1910
The murder of a farmer

Murder with a Penknife
Albert Robinson, Hadfield, Glossop 2nd October 1880
The murder of Eliza Robinson

The Handley Murder
Elizabeth Hudson, Handley 24TH April 1873
Murdered by her husband

Paperback 234 x 156mm 196 pages
Who would have thought that Wedgwood Benn and the actress Margaret Rutherford were related to a murd
Country Books
ISBN 079-1-910489-76-5
Price £12.99

FROZEN FAIRYTALES
FOR ALL AGES
Evelyn Foster

Fairytales as Dickens said, help and comfort children ( and adults ! ) more than anything. Readers are reassured by Rapunzel finding resources in herself ( her hair ! ) and by someone as small as a child being able to outwit a giant. The happy endings, in particular, give readers hope for their own futures. This collection contains one where the hero is a doctor, and another where a boy and his grandmother triumphantly survive a plague.

It’s notable too that many fairytale heroines have to spend time in lockdown – in towers!

The book also, of course, aims to give pleasure to all those children who love the Frozen films!

Heroes and heroines of myth and fairytale are unselfish. They are willing to make sacrifices for the sake of the community. These stories feel especially apt today.

So it’s great if both adults and children can enjoy them, as part of our common international heritage, and be inspired by their pleasure and its purpose. If we do, we may finally create a world in which we can all live more happily ever after ...!

The writer has lectured on myth and fairytale at the Royal Festival Hall, helped plan women of the world festivals at the Southbank Centre, and given myth and legend workshops at the British Museum.

Illustrations and Decorations by Arthur Rackham

Paperback 198 x 129mm 60 pages
She has also played an amazing amount of good fairies and Fairy Godmothers!
Country Books
ISBN 978-11-910489-75-
Price £7.99

MATLOCK’S BLOODIEST MURDER
THE MYSTERY OF BALMORAL HOUSE
Richard Litchfield

The Matlock Mystery, as it was called, is perhaps Matlock’s bloodiest, and most intriguing murder. An old woman, savagely killed in a remote house one dark, snowy night in 1891 on the moors above Matlock, no seeming motive, no clues. It was the sensation of the day, both locally and nationally, and the story has never been told fully before.

Richard Litchfield, who has studied and researched the murder for over twenty years, now tells the story in fascinating, unflinching detail, and points the finger squarely at the person responsible. It is a remarkable account of a very strange murder which deserves to be better known in the annals of true crime.

Paperback 234 x 156mm 80 pages
An unsolved murder from the 19th century
Country Books
ISBN 978-1-910489-73-4
Price £7.50

NEW MILLS WESLEYANISM
This is a facsimile of the first edition of 1912
by Seth Evans

At the request of the Centenary Committee, this little book has been written with a view of rescuing from oblivion a great deal ofinformation respecting New Mills Wesleyanism.The Wesleyans of New Mills have a splendid history and a good heritage, for they were the pioneers of religious work in this neighbourhood, and the three Chapels belonging to the present body, and those belonging to the other denominations of Protestant Nonconformists are monuments of the zeal and self-denying labour of the Methodists for the last 170 years. It has proved a work of pleasure to respond to the invitation of the Committee, and if the issue and circulation of these records in book form have the effect of stimulating the present generation to a renewal of the good work of their forefathers, no one will be more delighted than the author. Seth Evans 1912.

Contents:The great 18th century revival • John Wesley at Bongs • The first Chapel and the earliest standard bearers • John Wesley's visits to New Mills • Preachers in the Old Chapel • Building the New Chapel Early Local Preachers and Ministers • The Cemetery • The ChoirThe Sunday School • The Cause at Newtown

Paperback 112 pages
2005 Country Books
ISBN 978 1 960789 00 8
Price £7.50

THE BATH AT WAR
A Derbyshire Community and The Great War
by Charles Beresford

The author's thorough research of local contemporary sources and the scouring of archive material across the UK, Canada and other parts of the world have resulted in a comprehensive and vivid account of the Great War through the eyes of both the fighting men and the non-combatants of one Derbyshire community as it answered the call of King and Country.

Hardback 297 x 210 mm 528 pages
Country Books/Ashridge Press
ISBN 978 1 901214 91 8
Price £20.00

THINK ONLY THIS OF ME
Chris McKiernan

It is 2014 and the world turns its attention to the events of The Great War which began 100 years earlier.
Ben Siddall, a TV programme maker, is researching World War I diaries and uncovers in one of them a mystery surrounding the death of the poet Rupert Brooke in 1915. Brooke, ‘the handsomest man in England’, hero and legend, friend of Asquith and Churchill, supposedly died of septicaemia following an insect bite whilst on board ship bound for the Dardanelles. This diary suggests something much more sinister may have occurred.His search for the truth takes Ben across Europe as he battles with an ancient and secretive organization and culminates at the centenary commemoration of Brooke`s death on the Greek island of Skyros.

Paperback 198 x 129mm 244 pages
A brilliant thriller concerning the mysterious death of Rupert Brooke
Country Books
ISBN 978-1-910489-29-1
Price £8.99

WORMHILL
THE HISTORY OF A HIGH PEAK VILLAGE
Christopher Drewry

The Peak District village of Wormhill has been home to Christopher Drewry throughout his life. He was born there and attended the village school which has long since closed. In adult life he collected a mass of information about the parish and the local area and his recent retirement has given him the time and opportunity to conduct deeper and more sustained historical research as well as enabling him to consolidate the results of all his inquiries. The outcome is a fascinating volume of local history which will be of great interest to those who are familiar or in any way connected with the Peak District but will also be instructive to the more general reader keen to track the evolution of a typical village right in the heart of England.

Paperback 208 pages
Black and white photographs, maps and 16 colour plates

ISBN 978 1 901214 82 6
Price £14.99