CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Hello and welcome to Nature Fix with me,
Claire Hickinbotham. Every month we take you with us as we meet
the people who spend their time outside and join them in a place
that most inspires them.
There is snow on the ground in Worksop in Nottinghamshire as I
set off from Mr Straw's House. The home of an Edwardian family
that is frozen in time and open to visitors.
The house was last lived in by sons William Jr and Walter. The
pair were both keen walkers who loved the great outdoors and
every Sunday they would take a turn through town to get a bit
of fresh air and check on properties they owned including
a grocer's shop on Worksop's Marketplace.
We'll be following in their footsteps today. Looking out for
ghost signs, street names and quirky heritage sites as we set
off hunting hidden High Street history that gives up surprising
secrets of Edwardian life and death.
So we're going to leave the house behind and head off into
town. And I'm joined by Danielle Lander-Brown, who is the Senior
Collections and House Officer at Mr Straw's House, as well as
Diane and Janet as well.
DIANE: When you come out into the town, you're actually
following the footsteps of the Straws and it actually brings
the town to life. And I must admit, when I first got asked to
do the walk, I was quite surprised to think, well, what
would there be out in Worksop? But having done the walk now for
a few years, it's amazing the connection, not just for the
house, but the town itself is really wonderful.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Just a short distance from the house is
Worksop's train station and the station building. Which seems
grand for the size of town it serves.
DIANE: The train station was a really important part of
Worksop. When we go back to when it was first built in 1849, the
actual town itself is starting to grow and expand. When the
train station was built, it was built in a Jacobean style. I
mean, if you look at it today, it's a beautiful station.
And it also was built in Steetly stone, which was locally mined,
which we're told resembled marble, so it would have been
absolutely fantastic. And the reason for that was that because
we're surrounded by Ducal parks and one of the things that the
aristocrats wanted was to actually have the visitors
coming into the town and they wanted a lovely station.
When they came into the town not only did it bring their visitors
but it also bought tourism. We're talking of thousands of
people a day and there was a group called the, I'll only say
it once, Dukeries Post and Proprietors Association or DPPA.
And they actually were like a tourist group.
And what they did was the visitors that came in, they
would actually pick them up and they would take them out on day
trips. They also had keys to these parks, which were all very
exclusive, these Dukes Parks. So they'd go on a day trip, they'd
actually visit the parks with their guides, and then they
would actually probably stay up to eat for lunch. So it was
really quite nice.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: But going back to the station, it's really
quite grand, isn't it? And I think it once had a roof, didn't
it?
DIANE: It did. Beautiful for keeping the rain off, not so
good for keeping the soot falling back down on your
visitors.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Which you don't want if you're in your
finery about to go to the Duke's House.
DIANE: Exactly that.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: We leave the station behind and continue
walking into town, but haven't gone far before we spot a ghost
sign on the side of a building.
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: Actually,
ghost signs you see quite a lot through Worksop. They're
remnants of previous advertising for any shops or industry that
was in the area. And in this instance, there is actually a
ghost sign on top of a ghost sign.
So when the building's being reused or the advertisement's
being changed, it's been overpainted. And then over time,
that's worn. And so what's left is just a sort of ghost, if you
like, of the image. Because you find them a lot in towns and
cities throughout the country.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Danielle, I've just spotted another ghost
sign. Can you work out what it says?
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: So I think looking at it, it says
Bouldry's Ideal Homes begin here. We're now on Gateford Road
and there's always been shops along here and obviously over
the years the shop usages have changed.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: It sounds to me like it might have been a
department store, something like that.
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: If you think at the height of the
town's wealth, with all the Ducal estates, there was a lot
of affluence in the town, a lot of industry in the town, and it
would have been a thriving market town at one point as
well.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Some of the businesses on this road were
customers of the Straws grocery business, but the shop is quite
a way away, and so when Walter delivered here, he'd come in his
car.
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: We've got Walter's driving licence and he
had points on his licence for parking on double yellows and it
was for parking outside these shops here as he'd always parked
here so he didn't see why he shouldn't continue.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So he was delivering groceries to the
clothes shops?
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: Yes, if you imagine a bit similar to
them in their earlier years where they were living above the
shop they were trading from they were delivering to the flats
above these shops.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: And he got a ticket.
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: And he got a ticket.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: I really want to talk about this shop
we're about to see, Waddington's. It's a gentleman's
outfitter. This is a shop that looks like it's been here for a
very long time.
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: So the coats that hang in the hallway
currently in the house were purchased from Waddingtons. If
the Straw brothers were to return now to come shopping at
Waddingtons, they'd know exactly where everything was. The shop
is laid out in the same style. It's got the wood panelling, the
built-in wood unit and the haberdashery counters. So very
recognisable still as the shop that Straws would have used.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: We've not come very far from Waddingtons.
And we're about to head into Bridge Street and this is the
street that's going to take us up to Mr Straw's shop.
This is a very fine street, Bridge Street, isn't it?
DIANE: It's the main trading street and it goes back to Saxon
times so there's always been traders on this road.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: But it's wide isn't it and it's got a
presence about it and Diane we've got these really rather
impressive...
DIANE: Yeah they're lovely aren't they? ...
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: buildings which you if you kept your view
at eye level, you'd never see it.
DIANE: You should always look up in a town or a village because
these buildings were going now more towards the sort of Saxon
times. You've got your 18th century, 19th century buildings.
The beauty is really at the back of some of these buildings
because they go right back and you get little visions of the
old buildings.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: The backs wouldn't have changed as much as
the facades, would they?
As we head further up Bridge Street, Diane points out a
street sign that gives away another bit of Worksop's hidden
past.
DIANE: Castle Street, because we had a castle in Worksop.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: You had a castle in Worksop? What happened
to the castle?
DIANE: It was a Mote and Bailey one, wasn't it? And it
disappeared because it was wooden, basically. And we still
have the mound at the top. If you go to the top of the street,
it's actually there. So it's quite interesting.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So we're just nearly now at Mr Straw's
old shop. We're going to bring Janet in.
JANET: You can see reminders of the fact that this was a Saxon
town.
Now back in Saxon times you were taxed on the width of your
frontage so that's why you can see these very narrow tall
buildings. Because there's always a way to avoid tax,
there's got to be some way to avoid it.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So they're narrow, you pay less tax, but
presumably they go all the way back.
JANET: A very long way.
We are now standing more or less on the site of Winks, the
butchers, and we are opposite, looking at what is now a cafe,
and that was the site of Straw's the grocers. And there is a blue
plaque that tells us that.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Winks the butcher's is an important part
of the Straw family's story. The butcher's daughter is Florence
and she married the grocer opposite, Mr Straw Senior, the
father of our family, who'd moved to Worksop to work in the
grocery trade.
JANET: The brothers, Benjamin and William, bought this in 1886
having borrowed money from...
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: This is Mr Straw Snr.
JANET: That's right, and his brother Benjamin, having
borrowed £500 from their parents. It proved to be very
successful so that in 1896 William Senior was able to buy
out his brother and in that year he was able to marry Florence,
who was the daughter of Winks the butchers.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: This is the beginning of a business, it's
the beginning of a family, it's the beginning of William Senior
becoming a really quite wealthy man and buying up quite a lot of
Worksop.
JANET: Absolutely, so if we look to the left of what is now the
cafe, as far as the archway William Snr bought all of that
so he owned the archway and what we have in between the archway
and the shop used to be a pub called The White Hart
unfortunately William Snr wasn't able to get the license renewed
and so as it is today it became commercial and residential
property.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: That's a huge great building isn't it,
three stories tall, but it's a big three stories isn't it and
there's one two three four five windows across yeah That's an
immense amount of real estate, isn't it?
JANET: That's right, exactly. And as I say, he owned the
archway as well.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: And the cottages are down the back, and
he owned those as well.
JANET: That's right. And bought some land from the Duke Of
Newcastle up towards Clumber Park, which became allotments,
and it was known as the Gentleman's Gardens. And William
Snr described it as his little piece of paradise.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: And do they still exist, the Gentleman's
Gardens?
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: The area of land still exists. It's now a
housing estate called William Straw Gardens.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Is it?
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: That was put in much later. It's that
real connection in the town they were living in. There were many
people like this that were really influential, important
people in the area they lived. And sometimes those connections
can be lost. So it's really nice here that you still have those
connections. And it's nice to be able to do walks through the
town in this way that really does follow in the footsteps of
the family.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: And where we're stood Janet you said was
the site of the butcher's shop.
JANET: That's right.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: We're not very far away if there was
somebody now sat in the window of that coffee shop we would be
able to see the twinkle in their eyes wouldn't we? So I've got
images of William and Florence flirting across the road.
JANET: Me too. I always like to think that I mean obviously I'm
making this up, we don't know this for a fact, but I do like
the thought that they met over a string of sausages or a tin of
tea or something like that. It does seem quite romantic that
they could watch each other across the street.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Yeah, you could imagine them casting a
smile or waving and the romance develops into what we know now
as the Straw family.
JANET: Yes. So the boys were brought up here and obviously
there were three boys, the youngest being David, who was
born in 1901. Sadly, he died in 1903.
Now at the turn of the century we know that there were several
outbreaks of dysentery in the town which was caused by
pollution to the water source, and we know from his death
certificate that that was the cause of David's death, and just
as we go around the corner we're going to see a water fountain
that the water company provided in order to give clean water to
the town at that time.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: We're coming around the corner of
the...
JANET: Corn Exchange.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: The Corn Exchange, so the Town Hall and
Magistrate's Court, and here's the water fountain.
JANET: That's right.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So this was put in to...
JANET: Provide clean water.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Clean water for the town. And does it still?
JANET: No.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: No. Would you want to?
JANET: No. I'm not sure I would have wanted to, you know, at the
time even.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Janet, we've had a good stomp, and
you've brought me to Worksop Priory.
Which is a very grand building.
JANET: So this is actually the Priory Gatehouse which was a
much later addition built in the 14th century and as you can see
it is quite badly damaged.
Originally the road ran under the gatehouse and so what they
decided to do was to move the road to the left of the
gatehouse which is where it is now and at the same time they
moved the market cross to this location as well.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: We've come around the side away from what
was quite a busy junction and there's a church in the back
garden.
JANET: This is the Priory Church built in 1103 and for the Straw
family a really important church because this is where they
worshipped, this is where William Snr and Florence were
married in 1896 and this is also the final resting place for the
whole family.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Can we see the graves?
JANET: We can.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So William Snr and Florence married here.
JANET: They did.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Would this have been quite an occasion in
the town?
JANET: Their marriage was reported in the local paper.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Was it?
JANET: It was.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: With a photo?
JANET: Yes, with a photo and a list of the gifts that they
received.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So Florence and William Snr marrying was
almost the marriage of two entrepreneurial enterprises in
the town.
JANET: Yes, this new... Middle class with, you know, wealth
that they had earned themselves rather than inheriting.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: We crunch our way through a decent depth
of snow as we head further past the church to the far boundary
of the churchyard.
JANET: The Straws chose a very secluded spot for their final
resting place.
I feel that they led a very public life in, you know,
running a shop, always there for people, and their home life was
private, and I think they wanted their final resting place to be
private too.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: We're a good, oh, looking back at the
church now. Gosh, that's a really large church, isn't it?
JANET: It is.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Is that like a 60s extension on the
back?
JANET: Yeah, I believe it's 70s. And then when you look at the
land around us, which is also all part of the Priory
originally.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Yeah, it's a lot of...
JANET: Very substantial.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So here they are, right in the back
corner.
JANET: That's right. There's something almost Egyptian, would
you say, about the look of these?
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Well, the shape.
JANET: Exactly.
And if you think back to the 1930s, we've got... Tutankhamun
and Howard Carter and all of that it was something that was
very influential and I think you know we can see that when we
look at these stones.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So in the house we've got the Egyptian
carpet on the stair which was Florence's influence...
JANET: That's right. ...
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: and of course the discovery of the tomb
was just a year before they moved into the house I think
wasn't it so that influence has stayed with them.
There are two graves here but all four of the family are here.
JANET: So what we have is on the left, we have William Snr,
Florence, and you can see...
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Oh, David.
JANET: David is mentioned at this end.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: And so the other one is for the two...
JANET: Two brothers. Two brothers, William Jnr and
Walter.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Shall we leave them behind and let them
rest in peace?
JANET: I think so.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: There's one final stop, opposite the Priory
Church, a park called The Canch.
Janet, we're nearly at The Canch.
JANET: It's a modern park now for children to play in, but
within the park we have the remnants of the Priory Mill.
So after being the mill, these became workshops, including for
the manufacture of Windsor chairs. And we have a Windsor
chair in William Jnr's bedroom, which was given to Florence by
her grandmother and it's a child's rocking chair.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: How is a Windsor chair different from
other chairs?
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: So they tend to have the bowed back and
they have arms, solid wood seat.
You can normally tell by subtle style changes the areas in which
they've been made so there is such a thing as a sort of
workshop Windsor chair and it just means it's workshop made.
It might just be the number of spindles or something like that
that will signify where the chairs come from.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: So it could be that there's little bits of
Worksop all over the country.
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: Exactly.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: It's a really nice thought to end on,
isn't it?
JANET: It really is, yes. Because I think that, you know,
Worksop has got a lot more to offer than people maybe realise.
And I think that seeing something like that gives you
that impression.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: And it's just knowing where to look,
where to find it. But it's not hidden as such, is it? It's
there.
JANET: It isn't at all. It's not hidden. I think it's just that
when we're going about our everyday life, we are sometimes
just too busy to notice all these things.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: This is your town, this is Worksop and
you're obviously very proud of it but this sort of history is
available in any town, isn't it?
DANIELLE LANDER-BROWN: I think it's important if you're
somewhere you live maybe somewhere that you think you're
familiar with it's always worth having that look around.
That extra second look to take those moments, to just take in
the scenery around you wherever you are.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Thanks for listening to this episode of
Nature Fix. If you're interested to hear more about the
intriguing story of the Straw family, head over to our history
channel, Back When, and look for the episode, The Home Where Time
Stood Still, Mr Straw's House.
It's a fascinating insight into the life they lived, and how the
house came to be frozen in time. Looking forward to seeing you
next month as we head outside again for another Nature Fix.
Thank you.