Photographic Archive – The Gallery

This gallery is a small selection of the 5600 images in the Photographic Archive. Catalogues containing a selection of the images with a narrative description of the source, date, and content of each image are available as a DVD (see Merchandising).  

Aerial Views

The aerial views derive principally from photographs taken over the years and which are periodically sold by door to door salesmen. The earliest of these date from the 1950s.  As a consequence few homes in the Village do not have a high level aerial view taken from the side of Elston which includes their house and, in some cases, specially commissioned low level views of their own property. However, for copyright reasons they cannot be reproduced here.  The Archive includes many others taken by private individuals and the series of pictures commissioned for David Cook’s painting for the Heritage Trail leaflet.  

Ardmore House 

The earliest dwelling in the Village is shown in the 1851 census as a bootmakers, but which by 1881 had become a grocers and post office. It was for many years run by Emily Beeston and her cousin Thomas Beeston. Thomas Beeston employed a photographer to take pictures of the Village, in which he always contrived to appear and which can thus be dated to around 1923.  It became known as Smith’s Shop from 1939, when it passed into the tenancy of the Smith family. In 1993 it was sold and was renamed Ardmore House. The house, which dates back to the early 17th century, is one of the most photographed cottages in Low Street, alongside Berkley Cottage and The Forge.  It was fashionable in the 18th century to clad old timber framed houses with bricks when the original timber work began to deteriorate. The bricks were probably made at one of the two brickyards which once existed in the village.

Art Works

During Dave Sankey's visits to the houses of people who were loaning photographs the occasional artwork on a wall prompted the thought that copies of the many paintings and drawings that have been done over the years by Elston artists and others, should be made part of the Photographic Archive. The collection is but a few of those that are around the village and will eventutally be swelled by a more determined trawl when the main work of the Project subsides.   

Carrgate Lane 

Carrgate Lane is an easterly extension to Low Street.  Winston Drive and Darwin Close are off it to the right, and thereafter Carrgate Lane becomes a bridleway leading to Cross Lane.  Regrettably few pictures of this quarter of the village, not built until just after the Second World War, have appeared. A Middle Stone Age flint blade, the oldest find in Elston,  was found off Carrgate Lane, showing it to have been one of the oldest inhabited parts of the village. 

Elston All Saints Church 

All Saints Church is in part a 13th century building on the site of a Saxon church and can boast a list of rectors from 1268.  The original 13th century church had a tower, nave, south aisle and chancel.  Further building and restoration was carried out in the 14th, 15th, and 17th centuries. The tower was rebuilt in the 17th century.  In 1476 John Methley, a lawyer who probably lived where Elston Hall now stands, left money for the south aisle to be lengthened and in 1479, Robert Wright of Elston left money for the building of the south porch.  

William Brown Darwin thoroughly repaired the church in 1837 when the top of the tower was rebuilt to make room for the clock and the massive pinnacles at the corners.  The original five bells were made in 1793, the sixth bell in 1912. Extensive internal alterations were carried out in 1912, including rebuilding the chancel arch in stone, moving the font, and replacing pews which had originally been installed by William Brown Darwin in 1837, with chairs.   

The original Elston rectory stood in the churchyard fronting Top Street. A new rectory, now known as The Old Rectory, was built in 1855 and in the early 1870s the first rectory was demolished. The Old Rectory was itself superseded in that role by a modern house in 1979 on the site of the old coach house.

Church Tower Views 

Views from the church tower derive from five main sources  -- Harold Renyard (1961/2), June Mason (1977), Geoff Peabody (1988), Barbara Hiscocks  (1994), and Dave Sankey (1997).  They therefore illustrate the changes that have taken place in the immediate environs of the church over a period of forty years, showing the greenhouses of Tudor Farm now occupied by the houses of Tudor Oaks, and the appearance of The Green on land formerly occupied by the barns of Rectory Farm.

Elston Hall

Little is recorded about Elston Hall and even less of the manor house, Garvis Place, that stood on the site.  It is forever associated with the Darwin family [see The Darwins and Elston Hall]. The central section was faced with stone and much altered from its original Elizabethan design shortly after the death of Robert Darwin in 1754. Further alterations were carried out in the original Tudor style by William Brown Darwin in 1837. Vacated by the Darwins in 1934, the Hall was then rented by Sidney Shepard, the founder of Bairnswear Ltd and MP for Newark.  He died in November 1953.  In 1955 the Hall was acquired by Michael Philips, a former headmaster of a preparatory school, and was converted to a Roman Catholic School.  The right and left wings were added in the 1960s as student accommodation. In 1970, when an article appeared in the Newark Advertiser, Philips had taken up writing books after the school had closed and was said to be planning to turn the Hall into flats, preserving the older, central portion for himself and his wife. In 1976 the Hall was sold to a developer and turned into 10 dwellings.

Elston Towers

Middleton House or Elston Towers is situated where Lodge Lane joins the Fosse Way, and is now known as Eden Hall Spa. It was built by Robert Middleton in 1872/5.  Middleton was born near Thirsk in Yorkshire in 1814 and died at Elston on 2nd June 1885.  The house was built from stone salvaged from the old Trent Bridge at Newark and its furniture included tables from the Tuileries Palace originally used by Napoleon III.  It was constructed in the Tudor / Gothic style at a cost of nearly £30,000 (£2,600,000 at 2006 values) and contained a Baptist chapel in the centre, complete with organ and baptistery.  There was a tower in the courtyard with 10 bells and a clock which chimed the quarters. A clockwork mechanism operated the bells, which played popular tunes, and was still in working order in 1925.  The clock was removed altogether in the 1960s following a fire. The conservatory at the south end once held 2000 plants and was accidentally destroyed in 1942 together with the clock when a Lancaster bomber exploded on Syerston airfield.  The conservatory was rebuilt in 2005.  

The house has had many varied uses over the years starting as a private house, and being at various times since, a chicken farm, the offices of a water softening firm, of the British Sugar Corporation, of a Rolls Royce motor agents, kennels, an electronics and communications research centre, a maggot breeding factory, the Coeur de Lion restaurant, and now Eden Hall health spa. But overall, it has been unoccupied for longer periods than it was in use.

A larger selection of photographs and an interactive panorama can be found at Heritage Trail / Elston Towers.

Events 

This catalogue isn’t nearly as large as it ought to be, as the proportion of photographs of events has been small, and it is remarkable that pictures of the celebrations on VE Day and VJ day and the Queen’s Coronation have not appeared.  The reason for this is, in part, that film wasn’t available during the War, but that doesn’t explain the paucity of photographs of other events since. Even now many enthusiastic and imaginative people have gone to a great deal of trouble to arrange celebrations and fund raising events and transformed the Village Hall for the occasion, but no-one seems to think to take a few photographs to record the event itself and all the work that has been put into decorations.  Fortunately a number of cine films and videos have come to light which include a day of celebrations of the Silver Jubilee in 1977 and the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.

Groups

This catalogue includes Sunday schools, scout troops, religious groups, outings, the art group, cricket and skittle teams, in fact any band of people with common aims and interests even if brought together only for that day.  Some groups are completely unidentified so far but have been included in the catalogue in the hope that some day someone will be able to say who they were, if not individually then collectively. I’d welcome any information from anyone who borrows the catalogue or buys a DVD and who could name individuals or date any of the pictures, even if only approximately to a decade.

The Little Scutchel

Two footpaths connect Low Street with Top Street and are known locally as The Big Scutchel and The Little Scutchel.  The word “scutchel” originally meant a fork or a branching, but in this context it is thought to mean “short cut”.  The Little Scutchel runs north to south from just opposite The Poplars in Low Street and divides after a hundred yards, one branch continuing through to Paddocks Close and the other turning off right to emerge at the corner of the Village Hall Field, where there is a small cut-through left to the bottom end of The Green.  Aside from Villa Cottage most houses in the Little Scutchel were built in the in the early 1960s.

Lodge Lane

Lodge Lane runs from the junction of Pinfold Lane with Top Street and is a continuation of Top Street down to the A46.  It was believed that Lodge Lane was the main drive to Elston Hall but it appears that the main entrance used to be at what is now the back of the Hall and that the original drive went southwards towards Syerston. There are only two houses in the village itself which are in Lodge Lane plus the Lodge House at the junction with the A46 opposite Eden Hall, from which the road takes its name.  Mayfield Cottage next to Elston Hall was demolished in 2007 and replaced with a two storey house.

Low Street

Low Street, which has previously been Bottom Street, Nether Street, and Main Street, runs from the junction with Toad Lane and Carrgate Lane on the east to the junction with Pinfold Lane and Elston Lane on the west.  It used to be part of East Stoke in what was known as Chapel Parish until 1872.  Many of the houses and cottages were built in the 18th century and some in Low Street have date stones.  Tudor Farm House has “1710” on one gable and a stone rose on the other, and Elm Cottage has “FF 1724”, Berkley Cottage has “RBH 1720” on it and Ivy House has “TDS 1729”.  The central chimney stack of the row of four cottages called Baileys, Cob, Willow, and Rhizome Cottages bears the date 1839.  The earliest dwelling in the village is Ardmore House, which dates back to the early 17th century. There was also a fish and chip shop in Low Street in a wooden building at the bottom of the Big Scutchel till about 1960 where The Limes now stands ; the proprietor was Eliza Codd. 

The original Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, built in 1815, was near the corner of Pinfold Lane and Elston Lane and was later made into a dwelling, before demolition, probably in the 1960s.  Holydene now stands on the site. In 1839 an Independent Primitive Methodist Chapel was built in Low Street, now The White House, and was closed when the present Methodist Chapel was built in 1871. The date stone of the 1815 chapel was placed in front of the present building.

Mill Road

Mill Road (formerly Mill Lane, and previously, Kilvington Street before the mill was built) begins at the junction of Toad Lane and Top Street and becomes Brecks Lane just outside the village, leading to Shelton, Sibthorpe and Long Bennington.  Older buildings begin with Cobbler’s Cottage on the right just past the junction with Top Street.  At the bend in the road where the entrance to the Orchards is now, stood Tudor Cottage, formerly “The Blue Bell Inn”, which was pulled down in the early 1960s as unfit for human habitation. On the opposite side of the road stands Rose Cottage, built in 1815. Just this side of the mill on the right hand side where The Pantiles now stands, was a cottage at right angles to the road known only as Gash’s Cottage after the owner. There used to be a brick pit where Dellary now stands.

Miscellaneous

The miscellaneous catalogue is quite short and mainly consists of photographs of Gash’s buses.

The Old Chapel

The Old Chapel is situated in a field to the north of Elston and on the very edge of East Stoke parish.  It is believed that it once formed part of, and is all that now remains of, the mediaeval leper Hospital of St Leonard’s, which was rebuilt in 1577, this being the date inscribed over the outside of the East chancel window and inside the chancel.  Another window in the chancel is 14th century and there are similar ones in the nave.  The Old Chapel still contains traces of 18th century texts on its inside walls and part of an 18th century Royal Arms.  About 1820 box pews were installed. The chapel was in regular use until 1895.  By about 1960 it was becoming derelict and subject to vandalism but in 1977 the Churches Conservation Trust carried out emergency repairs. In 1978 the building and the land within the surrounding railings was placed in the hands of the Trust, after which a series of further repair work was undertaken.

Old Chapel Lane

Old Chapel Lane, as the name implies, is the route to the Old Chapel, but this is a recent name. Towards the bottom of the lane on the right hand side, till 1973, stood a bakery owned by the Doncaster family.  It was therefore formerly known as Doncaster’s Lane until 1872.  The bakery was demolished and replaced by a cottage called The Old Bakery, the name of which was changed by the subsequent owner to Meadow View in 2005.  At the head of the lane where it joins Low Street is The Poplars, the farmhouse to Poplars Farm.

People

At the time that the Domesday Book was compiled (1086) there were 21 families living in Elston, comprising 70 to 80 people including children.  By 1641 this had risen to 50 families.  In 1743 the population was 265 and rose to a peak of 580 by 1851. Thereafter there was a steady decline to a low point of 316 in 1901, after which the population rose again steadily to 650 by December 2006.  

So much for numbers ; but what of the people themselves?  Elston is a friendly village where newcomers are quickly assimilated. There is no “Them and Us” – no distinction between those who are born and bred in the village and those who have come here more recently. All are made welcome and, if you are willing to get involved in village activities, there is no warmer welcome to be found anywhere.  Partly this is possibly due to Elston’s compact nature – a square of four main streets – where you cannot avoid bumping into people whenever you set foot outside your door. We are not strung out along a main road as many villages are, effectively separating the people at the opposite ends. And we are spared the through traffic, by and large, so that conversations on the street are actually possible.  It is a quiet and tranquil place.  But mostly it is the nature of the residents themselves, who are friendly, sociable, and welcoming.  

This part of the Archive is by far the largest and contains pictures of people at work and at leisure, in solemn poses in the photographer’s studio or at ease having a drink in The Chequers. These are the people who have given Elston its character, attended its gatherings and events and who have thus made it the friendly place it is.  This catalogue has served as a rich source of images of those who are no longer with us and whose contribution to the life of the village is celebrated by their inclusion in this Project.  This is a small selection of nearly 500 images of people in the Archive. See the section on the Darwins earlier in the website.

Pinfold Lane

Pinfold Lane takes its name from “penfold” or “pinfold”, an enclosure for keeping stray cattle or horses until their owners could collect them. The wooden gate and a high hawthorn hedge in front of No 13 are the only remains of the former enclosure. The owner paid a fine to the pinder for rounding them up and keeping them till they were claimed. The last pinder, William Dixon, lived in Hollydene in Elston Lane and died aged 88 in 1920. 

Elston All Saints School

A school was endowed in Elston as early as 1614 by the will of a former rector, Laurence Pendleton, but was not actually founded until 1653. Prior to this the schoolmaster taught in the nave of Elston Church. Robert Waring Darwin built a schoolhouse in 1801, which he partly rebuilt in 1812.  The school house and the master’s house were situated on the left of Elston Lane on the way to East Stoke, where Sharah House now stands.  In 1861 what is now a schoolhouse was built at the Top Street end of The Big Scutchel. In 1872 an infant room was added. Such was the standard that in 1900 it received a commendation by an Inspector as a model village school.  Work on the present All Saints Church of England and Methodist School began on the Village Hall Field behind the Church in 1973 and the children moved into the new building on 4th February the following year.  The schoolhouse was later converted to a residence and is now known as The Old School House.

The Seasons

This comprises a series of images of snowdrifts and blooming gardens supplemented by the results of periodic tours of the Village during 2007.  The result is a portrait of Elston through the changing seasons of emergent spring, blossoming summer, the russet and gold of autumn, to white winter. The views in the Archive are mainly those which can be seen by anyone walking round the village either from, or close to, the road and showing off the natural and cultivated beauty of the gardens, hedgerows, fields and woodland.

The Orchard

The Orchard is a small estate of six houses built in 1995 and 1996 on land which was formerly part of the grounds of Sunnyside.  The construction of the houses was recorded by Cliff Marshall and his family who occupy three of the new houses.  They recorded stage by stage the building of two of the houses and the progress of the whole estate to completion, including some aerial views. Earlier pictures were taken by members of the Renyard family who owned Sunnyside prior to the Marshalls, including images of the ancient Tudor Cottage, pulled down in the early 1960s.  

The Paddocks

The Paddocks was built by Able Homes in 1982 on part of Firs Farm.  A second phase, called Paddocks Close, was built in 1987 by Langley Homes following the demolition of the main farm complex of cow sheds, storage buildings, and open sided barns. The farmhouse remained standing and was renamed The Firs. The corrugated iron roofed cow sheds and open-sided barns were removed and most of the associated brick-built sheds and barns were recreated as dwelling houses in much the same general style as the buildings they replaced. The sheds alongside Top Street were rebuilt as The Stables, the barn next door to it became Firs Barn, and the dairy on Toad Lane became The Old Dairy.

The Spinney

The Spinney was built in three phases in 1969 (Nos 1-13,2-8), 1970 (Nos 7,9,11) and  1972 (the remainder).  Few pictures have surfaced of what the Spinney was like before it was built when the land was part of Marsh Farm.  Pictures taken from a back garden at the northern end of Pinfold Lane show an open view across to the church and The Old Rectory.

Toad Lane

Toad Lane runs roughly north-south, connecting Top Street with Low Street.  The name is a contraction of “The Old Lane.”  Few pictures of Toad Lane exist which do not include The Chequers. The reason is that for much of its life Toad Lane has been flanked by a farm on the west and by a brick works on the right. No images of the brickyard have yet come to light and only one old picture of Toad Lane without The Chequers has so far appeared, though individual houses have been photographed. Oakwood Cottage next to The Chequers was a shop until the end of the Second World War and May Cottage was a shop for a very short time. It is regrettable that hardly any pictures of Central Drive, Carrgate Lane, Winston Drive, and Darwin Close have appeared.

Top Street

Top Street contains several historic buildings including The Old Rectory, All Saints Church, The Old Ale House, and a Tudor dovecote behind it. Several farms, all once part of the Darwin estate, also used to abut Top Street and their names are preserved in the houses and cottages.  From west to east they are Hall Farm (later known as Merrin’s Farm and now evidenced by The Old Church Barn, The Granaries, The Haywain, and the former farmhouse still known as Hall Farm ) ; Rectory Farm (of which only the farmhouse remains at the corner of The Green), Lineham House Farm (still a working farm) on the south side at the eastern end, and Firs Farm opposite (now evidenced by Firs Barn and The Stables at the junction with Toad Lane). The Old Post Office was a general store and post office until 1999.

Tudor Oaks

Tudor Oaks occupies the site of the former Tudor Farm, which extended from Low Street to the dyke bordering the Village Hall Field. Tudor Farm had been a mushroom farm and the greenhouses where they were grown can be seen in several of the photographs taken by the Lievesley family when they bought the farm in 1981.  A small estate of executive houses was built in 1999/2000 by Prowtings, who had originally intended to call the estate Elston Grange. The name appeared on the side of the old Tudor Farm House until someone pointed out that Elston Grange already existed down the Shelton Road so the name was then changed toTudor Oaks. A large pond close to the dyke, which used to function as a holding tank in heavy rainfalls, was filled in, resulting in a high water table for subsequent residents and contributing to flooding problems where the water from the dyke debouches into a narrow culvert under Old Chapel Lane. The building of the new estate was documented by Margret Grundmann, who had a ringside seat from her bedroom window opposite, and comprehensively by Brenda Castle, some of whose land was used and who photographed the heavy traffic from her top floor windows at The Forge.

Village Hall Field

The Village Hall Field serves as the village green and is bordered by All Saints Church, the grounds of All Saints Primary School, Tudor Oaks, and The Green. A footpath called The Big Scutchel runs alongside the school connecting Top Street with Low Street. Another at right angles to it runs west to east and connects The Spinney with The Little Scutchel and thence to The Paddocks and Paddocks Close. The Old School House, now a private residence, was built here in 1856 and remained in use till the new school was built in 1974. The Village Hall was built in 1959 and in 2005 a portable building was lifted into position next to it and houses Elston Village Shop. The field was used for grazing cattle and sheep and was once gated at both ends. It also provided an area for children to play games and the former swings were replaced with an adventure play area in 2001. 

Women’s Institute

During the 1940s and 1950s several Elston ladies attended the East Stoke WI, either by bus or on foot.  Following the opening of the Village Hall in 1959 a survey was undertaken to measure support for an Elston branch. There was a very positive response from Elston and a great deal of support from the members of East Stoke WI. On 24th January 1962 a meeting was held in the Village Hall with County Organisers attending. The inaugural meeting of Elston WI was held on Thursday 6 February 1962 and Mrs Dallywater, the matron of the Boys’ School at Elston Hall, was elected its first President.  It was decided to hold meetings on the second Wednesday of each month  – a formula which continues to the present day.       

Despite the passing of 47 years the ethos of the WI remains the same – non political and non religious with emphasis on social interaction.  The branch remains under the umbrella of County House in Newark, and is part of the national organisation of WIs. In 2008 Elston WI has a growing membership of over forty women.