Major Barber and Barber Walker & Co

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

#97

 

Wish I could have seen it as it was then! 

[Cliff Ton 10,458]

How it was in the late 1880s.

 

[The Pianoman 1,532]

Cricket pitch is still there!

 

The road right at the bottom with '76' on it is approx. Greenhills Road now. The lane running horizontally above Beauvale Brook is roughly where Coach Drive is now. The lane branching upwards up to Newthorpe Grange has vanished without trace. The estate (that I live on) was built 1959 and extends, I would say, to about where the G is in 'Cricket Ground'. The building at extreme top left is Cocker House (on Cockerhouse Lane). Long since demolished.

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

#103

 

Cocker House was another beautiful building, buried beneath the pit tip! Bl99dy vandals!

[The Pianoman 1,532]

The more I have thought of it, Jill's pictures at #68 are very likely of The Grange. If you approach it from what is now Coach Drive and the lane up to the Grange as shown on CliifTons 1880 map there would definitely be a slight gradient all the way up to it. It would explain why the photographer appears to be on lower ground than the subject. It was a very big rambling house and only a portion of it is visible in those pictures.

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

I think, on balance, the probability is that those photos show The Grange from its front elevation. So many of the photos in the archive are not annotated and researching where they were was a nightmare. Some of the buildings still exist, which makes it easier but those which are no longer standing mean reliance on people who knew them. I've shown those two images at local history presentations many times and no one was able to identify the building. So perhaps, at last, we've solved the mystery!

[The Pianoman 1,532]

Got one!  Newthorpe Grange pictured in 1939. Compare with Jill sparrow's pictures at #69 this picture I think shows the back of it. Note the step in the wall with a little gable at the rear(?) entrance on the left side on this picture. Jill's pictures have the same step in the wall and a little gable on what I believe would be the right hand side in this picture. The chimneys are the same. (to my eye). Beyond the trees, out of sight on the left of the picture is Grange Cottage

 

 

 

[FLY2 10,108]

Whilst totally off my radar, and knowing absolutely nothing about the area, this has proved to be a fascinating topic that has generated a vast amount of interest. Well done folks .

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

#107

 

Well done, Pianoman. Yes, I think we've nailed it. Been bugging me for years those two photos. Smashing place, wasn't it? Such a pity its gone.

[Cliff Ton 10,458]

On 10/11/2016 at 6:36 PM, The Pianoman said:

The building at extreme top left is Cocker House (on Cockerhouse Lane). Long since demolished.

 

This is it, showing its proximity to The Grange.

 

And this is what it looked like. From the 1870s occupied by Thomas Barber; and from 1880s  until 1920s occupied by Alfred Brentnall, cashier to the Barber company. 

 

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

#110

 

That's it, CT. The photo appears in a book I have on D H Lawrence. Beautiful building. Such a shame it was destroyed.

[notty ash 370]

I see lots of railways and collieries on these maps. I assume they too were part of the Barber Walker empire? Is there anything online or in books and records about them, which I believe was quite extensive. Maybe ought to be another topic tho'

[The Pianoman 1,532]

The line running from above Newthorpe Grange on the right of the map, curving staright across the middle of the map was certainly a coal board line. The top of the bridge where it crosses Mansfield Road/Nethergreen has only been removed in recent years. The road is still narrow at that point. That line would have been re-routed in later years left of the bridge as most of what it did was serve the Brinsley Dot Hill!

[The Pianoman 1,532]

Below:- Lamb Close House. Home of the current Lady Barber

 

 

Below:- Lamb Close House today viewed from Narrow Lane. Photo by Terence Standen

 

[tombarber 5]

Hi all. Just logged in and there's a LOT to catch up on!!! When I get a moment I will put names to faces in a few of the earlier photos, and comment on a couple of the other comments too.

 

re Cocker House, my great grandfather Major Barber (about whom this whole thread started!) was born at Cocker House. 

[notty ash 370]

22 hours ago, The Pianoman said:

The line running from above Newthorpe Grange on the right of the map, curving staright across the middle of the map was certainly a coal board line. The top of the bridge where it crosses Mansfield Road/Nethergreen has only been removed in recent years. The road is still narrow at that point. That line would have been re-routed in later years left of the bridge as most of what it did was serve the Brinsley Dot Hill!

 

Yes, looking at old OS maps on the NLS site, the railway network was quite extensive, with small collieries dotted all over the place. I see the lines extended down past Watnall brickworks to just beyond what is now Watnal Bakery and also up towards Brinsley and Selston. The large mound rhs of the main road on the approaches to Underwood from the Moorgreen Reservoir direction was a small colliery too. How much was owned by Barber Walker is not shown of course on the maps. Maybe a new topic is called for.

[The Pianoman 1,532]

I have never gone around looking for it and I really don't know the history of coal mines in the area but I have never heard of any company other that Barber, Walker. Other that the NCB of course. Unfortunately history in this area usually comes up with mention of D H Lawrence and that I am afraid instantly puts me off!

[catfan 14,793]

Percy Eaglesham Barber, brother of Dr Robert David Barber, also born in Eastwood.

 

 

(Jill Sparrow).

 

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

#118

 

 

Thanks are due once again to my good friend Catfan for posting the image of Percy Eaglesham Barber.

 

Samuel John Barber, a chartered surveyor and architect, married Margaret Ann Stenson in 1851. Margaret Stenson hailed from Denby in Derbyshire which is where, early in the 1880s, J W Fryar's brother Mark Fryar became manager of the Denby Drury Lowe Colliery.

 

Samuel and Margaret produced several children, all born in Church Street, Eastwood:  John Stenson Barber, MRCVS, Percy Eaglesham Barber who emigrated to the USA and died in Minnesota in 1940, Reginald Bradshaw Barber, Mary Ann Barber,Susannah Margaret Barber, Frances Eliza Barber and Cassandra Barber who married a local policeman, name of Lumley, and later moved to Leicestershire.

 

The family produced both a doctor and a vet. Somewhere, I have another photo of Percy as a young man.

 

Ruth Barber retained contact with her aunts Susie and Cassie but there is a dearth of photographs from this side of her family, sadly, and since she was less than 2 years old when Dr Robert David Barber died, she had no recollection of him at all.

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

I have been doing a little research  into Dr Robert David Barber's family and discovered that his sister, Cassandra Barber, married Thomas Wilkinson Lumley in 1894 at Eastwood Parish Church. Thomas eventually became the Chief Constable of Leicestershire and was the son of James Rutherford Lumley, who was born in Bengal and served in the Indian Army.

 

By an odd coincidence, there was another James Rutherford Lumley, also an Army Officer on the Indian subcontinent, whose wife gave birth to a daughter in 1946. The daughter is rather well known. Her name is Joanna Lumley! Small world, is it not?

[The Pianoman 1,532]

Isn't there a pub called The Lumley somewhere or other in the Nottingham area?

[FLY2 10,108]

There's a Lumley Arms in Skegness.

[The Pianoman 1,532]

Well......... Nottingham by the Sea then!!   That is probably the one I am thinking of - it's getting late!

[Cliff Ton 10,458]

9 hours ago, The Pianoman said:

Isn't there a pub called The Lumley somewhere or other in the Nottingham area?

 

There was. According to Picture the Past this was the Lumley Castle on Radford Road, Hyson Green, roughly where ASDA is now.

 

[FLY2 10,108]

Looks like you're correct then Malcolm.