Sutton in Ashfield, Pentrich and South Wingfield Revolution

Start: The Old Ashfield, Sutton in Ashfield, Corner of Sutton Rd and A38

(S/E) Walk North down Sutton Road (A), this becomes Kirkby Road towards Sutton. Over a mini island to a larger traffic island.

(1) Turn left (North-West) onto Spring Road which becomes West End at a block of flats next to the ‘Staff of Life’ pub, an area previously known as Smedleys End. After the ‘Staff of Life’, turn left to Church Street. The former main road in the town. Immediately on your right is St Mary’s Gardens.

Turn down the road to the left of the Coop garage, Alfreton Road. Take 1st right into Douglas Road. You are now in old Sutton Wood-house (B).

(2) Cross the road and turn right. Walk down Lammas Road alongside the cemetery on your left, St Mary’s Gardens (C) are across the road on your right. The church of St Mary Magdalene (D) is at the top of the first street next to the cemetery (E).

Return to Lammas Road, continuing to the right past Lammas School. See the old Pinfold after the Leisure Centre. At the traffic island, keep right through the bus station towards the Library.

(3) Turn left on Low Street (F), after 10 yards turn right at Nottingham BS then into Criers Yard, *go up the steps. Going through Criers Yard brings you out on Parliament Street, at the side of the school.

*If you are unable to use steps as you exit Idlewells onto Low Street go straight on towards the school and turn left in front of the school buildings to go into Parliament St.

(4) Turn left along Parliament Street (G). At the end of the school buildings is a turning to the right, between a garage at the corner and the end of the school sports hall. It is a dead end, so you will have to return the same way.

Carry on to Forest Street with the Woolpack pub on the corner then turn left. Turn left again through Portland Square (H) and back onto Low Street. Carry on along Low Street till you reach the former market place with Costa Coffee on the corner.

From Costa, turn left up the hill. Follow the road round to the right. take the pathway on your left leading past the Sutton Community Academy car park, then the United Reformed Church (I) on High Pavement.

(5) Turn right onto High Pavement. Cross the road opposite the United Reform Church, turn down The Twitchell. On the left you come to Reform Street (J). Continue on to Union Street. Retrace your steps to High Pavement. Turn left down High Pavement and return to Kirkby Road and the Old Ashfield. (S/E)

Care needed when crossing roads. Urban walk, mainly on pavements.
Car Park: On street parking
Start: The Old Ashfield, Sutton in Ashfield, Corner of Sutton Rd and A38
Easily accessible from the A38. OS ref. Explorer 270-491 577

More information at Pentrich and South Wingfield Revolution group here.

Sutton in Ashfield was the home of the family of Jeremiah Brandreth, a leader of the Pentrich Revolution. The town continued to be a centre of agitation for reform.

(A) In 1817 this area was mainly used by stocking frame knitters, working frames in their homes. On the site of the ‘Staff of Life’ was a windmill and bakery, built in the 1760's.

(B) Driven by discontent at pay cuts and payment in goods (truck) there was much support for Luddites in Sutton. Thomas Betts’ warehouse in Sutton Woodhouse was attacked by a large armed crowd in November 1811, damaging 37 frames. Jeremiah Brandreth, a stocking frame knitter, was identified as being in at least one Luddite attack in November 1811, in Bulwell, where an attacker was shot dead. Six Sutton men were transported for life for Luddite attacks in January 1814.

(C) The gardens were constructed on a former quarry for magnesium limestone used in the building of Hardwick Hall and the Houses of Parliament.

(D) The main part of the Church dates from 12th and 13th centuries. The earliest churchwarden (1573) was Christopher Brandreth. Jeremiah Brandreth was married here to Ann Bridget on 29th September 1811. Ann and their three children were also baptised here, one of them Mary, after her father had been executed in Derby.

(E) On the right is the site of the 1600 Manor House and of an inn used by packhorse men in the 18th century. Ahead is the White Swan, site of an older ale house where Christopher Brandreth, as church warden, went in search of absentees from church in 1578, enter the Idlewells Precinct where there are toilets and a cafe. Here were Club Street and Brandreth's Croft, named after this historic family, both were demolished and redeveloped in the 1960's to build Idlewells. Walk straight through to the exit at Low Street.

(F) The street is named after the Town Crier, whose bell is now used in Sutton Library.

(G) This street was Bedlam Court, later known as Lord's Street. Here Jeremiah Brandreth and his family lived. In 1816 trade had collapsed with 1,700 persons claiming Parish Relief in Sutton while only 220 houses could contribute to the poor rates. Many were ‘removed’, including the Brandreths, who went to Nottingham. Ann Brandreth returned here with her children, to live with her parents, after Jeremiah was arrested. She walked 20 miles to Derby to visit her husband before his execution although 6 months pregnant. She remarried and lived in the town until 1825.

(H) Portland Square, formerly Swine Green, was the site of demonstrations in support of universal suffrage, with hundred here in 1842 to hear Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor call for votes for all men. Costa Coffee is on the site of the former Denman's Head Hotel, named after Lord Chief Justice Thomas Denman, who had made his name by his defence of luddites and then of Brandreth at his trial in Derby in October 1817.

(I) The United Reformed Church of 1906 replaced the Congregational Church on King Street, the oldest non-conformist congregation in Sutton, established in 1651.

(J) Reform Street was named to commemorate the First Reform Act 1832, a small but significant step towards extending the franchise. Chartist leader Joseph Bryon lived on Union Street, also the site of the Royal Foresters public house. In the 1840s, it was kept by James Turner, whose older brothers took part in the Pentrich Revolution, one brother William was executed in Derby in 1817 with Brandreth and Isaac Ludlam. Turner, an advocate of reform, hosted Chartist meetings at the pub in 1843.