Welcome
(Last updated on 25 April 2024)
News (for general introduction, see below)
Only one more indoor meeting to go for the current season -
If anyone would like to explain just how (or why) you would dig a tunnel from Heanor Church to Codnor Castle (there’s rather a deep valley between them!), then please feel free to message us.
We have just published our programme for next season, which starts in September. There are a few VERY local topics, such as Heanor Cemetery, Shipley, the Market Place and William Gregg V.C., along with a look at the local impact of the major 1893 miners’ strike. We hope that the other topics will prove equally interesting.
As always, our meetings are free to attend -
Our monthly newsletters have changed a lot over the years. If you haven’t yet seen them the Newsletters 50th page, we have added downloadable copies of our first newsletter, in January 1970, and our 410th newsletter, from January 2020. Have a look at see what you think.
Email newsletters: If you enjoy these digital newsletters, why not subscribe to future
editions? The cost is only £6.00 a year, which means that you get nine editions,
monthly from September to May -
© Except where otherwise stated, the contents of this website are copyright of the
Heanor and District Local History Society. If you want to use anything you find here,
please ask -
Where items have not been prepared by the Society itself, we would like to thank the owners of copyright of the images and items used on this site for granting us the necessary permissions for their use. In some cases, despite our best efforts we have not always been able to locate the copyright holders. If you believe that any rights that are yours have inadvertently been infringed, we would ask you to contact us and to accept our apologies.
The Society is a registered charity. We are non-
Please let us know of any subjects you would like to see us cover on the website
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Over the next couple of months, the website will be having a major revamp -
We are also pleased to be working with Derbyshire County Council in developing a
new display of local history topics in the town -
We have also been helping Amber Valley with a number of topics lately, and you will perhaps see these come to fruition soon.
Heanor (in case you are just browsing and don't actually know) is a market town in Derbyshire, England, very close to the border with Nottinghamshire. Not a major tourist area, but we are here to celebrate our history and heritage, which is as strong as anyone's!
In September 2006, research was published into the "most English" places in the country,
based primarily on the analysis of names in the most recent census, which split the
country's population into 200 ethnic groups. Heanor was declared the second-
We hope you will find our site both interesting and informative. We aim for the site
to undergo regular changes -
The Society's interests extend well beyond this immediate area, and covers all the old Heanor Urban District Council area (including Langley Mill, Loscoe and Codnor), along with Shipley and Smalley.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
A coal wharf on the Cromford Canal at Langley Mill, dealing with coal brought down for transportation from Eastwood and Brinsley. Beggarlee was in operation until after the end of the Second World War.
Beggarlee Wharf
Coal and transport are two vital themes to the history of the area -
Finding old photographs (and by “old” we mean anything before 2000!) taken on side
streets is never easy -
Jessop Street, Codnor
This photo, taken in the early 20th century, shows Jessop Street at Codnor, along with the Jessop Arms public house.
Did you know that the town’s fire station has been in four different locations over
the years?
We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who has a photo of the fire
station when it was at what is now the Wilmot Street Community Centre.
Here is a crew lined up for inspection on the Town Ground (date not known).
Heanor’s Fire Service
One of the biggest employers in Heanor, Morley’s was originally established in Sneinton,
Nottingham around 1797 -
I & R Morley
We would like to hear from anyone who can tell us of their time working at Morley’s.
Heanor is no longer the shopping hub that it once was, and side street shops are almost all now gone.
But the shops of our past continue to hold a fascination for all, and we are always keen to receive copies of photographs taken of them.
Heanor’s Shops -
Here is a shot of Perrin’s Bakery, at the top of Market Street, taken in 1928.
Lying at the extreme edge of the History Society’s area, between Codnor Castle and Ironville, the pond in Foxholes Plantation has a rather eerie feel about it, even in the best of weather. A good walk in the summer though.
Foxholes Pond
The History Society covers all the area around Heanor, including Smalley, Shipley, Langley Mill, Loscoe and Codnor.
A theme park at Shipley, built on the site of the former Woodside Colliery, ran from 1987 to 2007.
The American Adventure
Even really recent history plays a part in the activities of the Society -
Vic Hallams was a timber construction company, founded at Marlpool at the end of the First World War, before moving to Langley Mill after the Second World War.
Vic Hallams Ltd
In an area such as ours, much of the emphasis is on the now lost industrial history of the 19th and 20th centuries.