Blue Mountains Cottages

Blue Mountains Cottages

The Blue Mountains were so called  because of the carpets of bluebells that covered the hills in Spring. The region was described as isolated, a quiet backwater.

The 20 or so stone built cottages on Blue Mountains were built at different times from 1820.

The first cottages (now numbers 8 to 14) were built between 1820 and 1840 as workers cottages for those who worked in nearby quarries. Little Eaton had 8 quarries in the early 19th Century.

Blue Mountains families worked at Peckwash Paper Mill

By the middle of the 19th Century the cottages had been bought by the Tempest family and refurbished for workers in the Peckwash Paper Mill.

Several generations of the Tempest Family Trust owned the cottages. Selina Tempest also owned nos. 1-7 Eaton Bank which is probably why the Blue Mountain Cottages start at no.8.  

Families who lived there were almost exclusively workers at the Paper Mill.  The men and boys and some women descended the steep stone steps cut into the hillside to reach the Mill where they worked as mill-hands, machine minders wheelwrights, firemen, paper makers, engineers, stokers etc.

The Mill at Peckwash was powered by several wheels driven by water channelled through a weir and goits from the river. Over the next decades, the mill prospered and was extended. Four more machines were acquired and by the middle of the century, the factory was one of the largest paper making centres in Europe. A siding was built from the Derby to Sheffield railway across the river to the factory. There was an accident on this siding in 1900 when a train carrying limestone left the track and the engine driver and conductor were killed.

Blue Mountain residents

By the 1861 Census  thirteen families were in residence including William Barber (born 1828), the Clerk at the Paper Mill, and his family, and John Barber (born 1808) his father, with another son 19- year- old Joseph in another of the cottages. John and Joseph were Paper Makers.

Edwin Astle (born 1817), a Millwright and engineer lived nearby with his wife and 5 children. Their youngest son William Edwin Astle died aged 9 in 1870. Several generations of the Barber and Astle families remained at Blue Mountains for 30 or 40 years, to be joined by several other families who were to remain in residence from the mid- 1860s to the 2nd World War (1939-1945) and even longer.   Some residents living there today are descendants of these early settlers.

A farmer of 38 acres,  Benjamin Sneap, (born 1802), his wife Mary and daughter Ann  and a live-in carter called Charles Cross, give their address as Blue Mountains on the 1861 Census but they probably didn’t live in the row of cottages.

By 1871, there were 13 families in the cottages and 2 empty cottages.  The above families had been joined by, among others, the Riddle family in residence for 15 years, the Fish family who arrived in 1863 and stayed, together with the next 3 generations for over 100 years. James Adcock and his family arrived at about the same time and he, his family and descendants also stayed for over 100 years.

The Wildmans, Carlisles, Seals, Marshalls and Smiths were, among others who were neighbours. 

2 empty houses were quickly inhabited by the growing families many of whom had very large families. It was still a fairly isolated community. The families inter-married and swapped houses as their families grew. 

At this time most of the cottages were 2-up 2-down with outside toilets.  The central house was much larger  - 3 storeys, usually lived in by the Mill Overseer.  Most had gardens, a henhouse or piggery and other outhouses outside.  Residents kept  goats and other animals, and, in later years homing pigeons.

Over the years many of the cottages were enlarged and modernised.  Gas, electricity and water were installed by  the 1960s  and, eventually, double glazing and central heating.

 By the 1891 Census,  George Adcock and family were at no. 17.  Next door were William and  Edith Moore (see “Caroline” by Colyn Stevens) and at no.18 were Samuel Wassall, his wife Prudence and  their family.

Their daughter Phoebe Eliza  Wassall (born 1860) married William Peter Durose (b.1857) in 1881.  The Durose family were on Blue Mountains until at least 1950. Annie Durose, Phoebe Durose’s daughter-in-law married  George Miles, son of George Miles and Mary Hannah Fish. Descendants of the Miles family still live at Blue Mountains.

By the 1890s the Blue Mountains families were not so isolated.

The Derby Daily Telegraph of 1894 gives an account of a football match between Little Eaton Rovers and Blue Mountains Stars (The Rovers won1 by 6 goals to 1).

And in 1895 Mr and Mrs Astle and their daughter Jane were among the guests at the marriage of Mr Tempest-Harvey of Eaton House and Miss Gertrude Coulson of Derwent House at St Paul’s. All the Blue Mountain employees clubbed together to present the couple with a silver tray.

The Paper Mill closes

In 1890, the decision was taken to convert the mill from water powered to steam powered. A tall chimney was built on the site and steam turbines installed.

In 1906, Charles Catt from The Outwoods, a large house nearby, successfully sued the company on the grounds of smoke pollution. At the same time, there were objections from neighbours about flooding caused by the weir in the river; and there was increasing competition from cheap imported paper from Germany.

The owners of the Paper Mills and the cottages, Tempest and Son, were in trouble by the turn of the century and in 1906 the company ceased its papermaking business resulting in loss of employment for many of the inhabitants of Blue Mountains. 

Many left, but many of the long- established families stayed on as retired Paper Mill workers or salesmen, travellers, farm workers, quarrymen, scavenger, cleaners etc.

1930s

In 1933 the names of families occupying the cottages were;- JONES, SEAL, MILES, NICHOLSON, SAUNDERS, LEE, FISH, DUROSE, NEWHAM, ADCOCK, SLATER, FOX, WELLINGS, DUROSE, LEE, MORLEY.

By the start of the 2nd World War in 1939, the Blue Mountain Cottages which, until then were amongst the properties owned by the Tempest Trust were beginning to be sold off.

In the 1920s and 30s average rents for the Cottages were 4/6d a week. Prospective renters had to apply to Tempest-Harvey at Eaton Bank.

By 1948 the remaining Trustees sold the rest of the cottages and the quarry and allotments to George Arthur Hall

1960s: attempt to demolish the cottages

In the 1960s there was an attempt to have the cottages demolished. In 1965 a 3 months demolition order on the Blue Mountains cottages was described as “scandalous” at the Parish Council Meeting. The homes were described as “picturesque” in the same year by the Derby Daily Telegraph. 

The fate of the houses was said to be “hanging in the balance”, and the Council was asked to “think again”. On the 5th November the Derby Daily Telegraph reported “ Duffield cottages:  Only 2 or 3 people at the Blue Mountains Cottages wished to move house.  5 others had lived 30-59 years there and don’t want to be uprooted now.”

By December of that year the newspaper was reporting that the cottages had been saved from the clearance order. One reason given for the proposed demolition had been because a hill at the rear was blocking out the light.  By 1968 the only solution was the removal of a 10ft high wall and part of the hill - a tricky operation involving two mechanical diggers. The residents clubbed together to pay for this work. (20 years earlier, in 1947 boys aged 12-18 from the Boys’ Brigade had climbed with ropes up the 30ft rock face at Blue Mountains under the former Commando Sergeant).

At about the same time (1967-8) the residents and others wanted the Blue Mountains steps to be cleaned up and made safe but nobody seemed to know who owned the steps.

1970s onwards: Cottages gradually increase in value

By 1973 the rental for 15, Blue Mountains was £62. 92 per year. and for no. 18 was £49. 92 p.a.

Nos.15-17 were described as “a terrace of 3 workers cottages, 3 storeys tall.  1st storey has 3 tall windows.  2nd storey has 2 windows altered to break the eaves”.

As the cottages were sold off the average price rose from £260 in 1925, to £4,700 in 1973,( for no. 22 with 2 bedrooms and outside w.c. 

In 1969 Philip and Jean Strelley–Jones bought no.14 for £3,200. The cottage had 2 bedrooms, lounge, kitchen area, downstairs bathroom.  The rear garden had recently been bulldozed.  There was a large wall and boarding between no.14 and 15.  Over the next few years additions and extensions and an external front porch were added to this and many of the other cottages. Jean Strelley-Jones is still in residence (2024).

In 1985 another of the cottages was sold for  £31,500  and another for £35,000 in 1987 (by this time centrally heated). For example, an advertisement in the Derby Daily Telegraph read: For Sale: “ Blue Mountains, Rigga Lane, is the exotic address for a 1st Class home,  1 bedroom, stone cottage, central heating, double glazing.  £36,000.

Today, Blue Mountains Cottages are one of the most picturesque and valued parts of the village. The cottages are worth well in excess of £300,000 and are described by estate agents as “charming stone-built cottages enjoying views across the Derwent Valley occupying a tranquil setting nestling into the hillside of the very sought after Eaton Bank”

Article researched and written by Ruth and Philip Hunter
We are grateful to several residents of Blue Mountains for their help in compiling this article. Please send any comments or corrections to info@lelhs.org.uk