Twenty of us met up at the public car park next to Sainsbury’s for what has become an annual fixture in our walks programme. John gave us a tour of the old part of Dronfield, starting on High Street, moving down to Chesterfield Road via Soaper Lane and then on to Mill Lane. The route back took us along Lea Road, Quoit Green and the Lea Brook Valley.
Our leader, John Ellis is a mine of information about old Dronfield and we learnt about the eleven pubs, just in this part of Dronfield, that have closed over the years due to factors such as road widening, competition and a change in social behaviour. We passed the former site of Dronfield’s cinema which closed in the early 1960s and the old police station on Quoit Green which still has a blue light outside.
For me personally it invoked memories of my childhood of the days when Lucas Works top and bottom yards and Butler’s foundry were thriving in the town. Many things have changed over the years but there are still plenty of old buildings that give an insight into Dronfield’s past.
Many thanks to John for taking us on this trip down memory lane.
