An early photograph of the southern part of Matlock Bath, taken
from the Heights of Abraham. The eye is almost immediately
struck by the criss-cross of paths that extended from the
obelisk and the main road down to the Ferry House by the
river. The riverside area had not yet been developed into
the Derwent Gardens, which places this image firmly in
the nineteenth century.
The Old Bath Hotel, described by Ebenezer Rhodes as
a spacious building and the village's principal hotel in
the 1820s[1],
had been replaced by the Royal Hotel. Although construction
for the new hotel began in 1866 it was not completed until
1878[2].
I believe this picture was taken somewhere between the initial
construction and completion as the landscaping of the hotel's
grounds had not been done and the driveway and grounds show
no sign of life!
There was little development on Clifton Road, too;
the only property that had been built was Clifton House.
The land where Portland House, originally called Wint House,
was to be built was still a field.
The major building that is missing from the panorama, however,
is the old Pavilion, the Royal Pavilion (later the Palais
Royal) on the hillside above the Royal Hotel, although we
can see the land where it was eventually built. This Pavilion
was opened in 1884. In the woodland to the right of the Royal
Hotel we can see a small group of houses that were known
at Stonnis. These properties also appear on the 1848 tithe
map[3].
Following the formation of the Matlock Bath Pavilion &
Gardens Company in 1882 Mr. Anthony Boden sold his Stonnis
cottages to the company and the houses were demolished[4].
At
the top of the hill, where the land flattens, are some of
the dwellings and farm buildings in Upper Wood. Next to
them is a field that was known as Gent Close[3],
but in the twentieth century it became both the sports field
for Matlock Bath School and Matlock Bath's Cricket Club's
ground.
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