Cromford - Derbyshire

(A) Willersley Castle (Christian Guild Holidays on map)

Brian Gardner was born in 1942 at Willersley Castle in Cromford. Due to the war, mothers at the Clapton Mother's Home were sent there for safety away from the London blitz. This photo, gleaned from the internet, shows mothers at the hospital being bused to the train station at the start of their journey. Unfortunately Peggy, Brian's mum, is not in this photo, but it does illustrate what it must have been like for her.
A picture postcard of Willersley Castle purchased in 1979 whilst we were on holiday staying in Matlock Bath.
Whilst on holiday in Matlock Bath (1979), we saw the castle from the hills above. Brian points out the castle. Imagine how the mothers from Clapton in war-torn London felt about this place. Peggy as a 19 year old girl expecting her first baby, has to leave her husband Percy to face the blitz whilst she is taken to the safety of rural Derbyshire to give birth in this stately pile.
No mobile phones, not even a landline phone - the news was sent by telegram. (What technology sent the handwritten reply?)

"Baby boy arrived Friday both well Love = Peggy"	"Congratulations Darling Im Glad its a Boy - Percy"

Willersley Castle is not a castle but is a late 18th century country mansion built for the industrialist Sir Richard Arkwright. The estate was bought in 1927 by a group of Methodist businessmen, and in 1928 it opened as a Methodist Guild holiday centre. Between 1940 and 1946, i.e. during World War II, it served as a maternity hospital run by the Salvation Army, having moved out of East London. Today it operates as a Christian Guild Hotel.
In 1991, Brian and mum Peggy visited the house. The plaque mentions the 4000 London babies born there during the war.

(B) Route to Buxton via Matlock and Bakewell

Route to the Buxton area, Peak Dale the home of the Stamford family and Earl Sterndale.
View Buxton Map

Cromford is best known for its connection with Sir Richard Arkwright and his cotton spinning mills. Cromford village has been protected by a conservation order as much remains unaltered from Arkwright's time. Notes and map from "Arkwright of Cromford" by John N. Merrill