This postcard was sent by James Walton, junior, of Warney Mill to his sister Elizabeth who was away from home. Part of his message asks her what she thinks of the photo, perhaps suggesting the card was fairly newly published.

The 10 roomed rectory, almost opposite the graveyard of St. Helen's on Church Road, was the home of Rev. Robert Wheeler Whittington., M.A. and his family in 1911^[1]. Before arriving in Darley Dale Rev. Whittington, who was an Oxford graduate, was the curate at Long Eaton where he had been since 1892^[2]. He took over the living from Rev. Canon Frederic Atkinson M. A. on 1st October, 1905 when Rev. Atkinson retired^[3]. Rev. Atkinson had also been a vicar at Long Eaton before being appointed as Rector of St. Helen's in 1881. He had taken his M.A. at Cambridge in 1855^[2]. In 1919 Rev. Whittington exchanged the Darley Dale living with Rev. R. Griffiths of West Farley near Maidstone, having served his Derbyshire parishioners for 14 years ^[4].

The present Rectory is a modern house, elsewhere in Darley Dale.

References:

^[1] 1911 census (see FindMyPast). Rev. Whittington was born in Bloomsbury in 1867 and was living at the Rectory with his wife Margaret, their two daughters, a governess and two servants in 1911.
^[2] Clergy List, 1896.
^[3] "Derby Daily Telegraph", 8 September 1905. Frederic Atkinson, who was born in Leeds in 1831, moved to Derby. He was still there in 1911 and died in Derby, aged 84, in 1915.
^[4] "Derby Daily Telegraph", 31 December 1919.