Alton
Alton maps (2 available)
Map of Derbyshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Derbyshire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Alton books (7 available)
- 3 photos on Alton appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Alton
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Alton and Derbyshire
Alton memories
Read and share memories of Alton and Derbyshire inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Derbyshire below.
Derbyshire memories
Where the Tittertons started
The Titterton family started in this area.
A memory of Alstonefield contributed by Gwenn Selvaggio
evacuation
At the beginning of the war I was evacuated to Leek. I was only there until the Christmas but I remember going to school in a building called the Nicholson Institute and I stayed with some lovely people called Wagstaffe near Balls End Park. They had a shop where they sold and repaired watches. I remember that we used to go for walks on Sunday afternoons to Rudyard Lake.
Audrey Frost
A memory of Leek contributed by First name Last name
st lukes and milner girls
I was born in Leek and went to St lukes school and then onto Milner girls in Springfield road. Did anyone else out there go to either of these schools.
A memory of Leek contributed by First name Last name
Holiday in Rolleston
My mother was taken from Tamworth to Rolleston by her Grannie (nee Maria Pegg) for a holiday in a cottage. My mother remembers that the man in the cottage was a brewery worker. He used to bring black stuff like sweets for them to eat. Mum would have been 7 or 8 as she wrote a letter to her mum. We don't know who this man was but could have been a brother.
A memory of Rolleston-On-Dove contributed by Ann Ball
Extracts From Alton & Derbyshire books
In 1831 John, Earl of Shrewsbury, made this house his permanent home. In the late 1860s the then Earl hired John Mason Cook, son of pioneer travel agent, Thomas Cook, to promote the gardens at Alton Towers. Cook’s first excursion to Alton resulted in a staggering 10,000 visitors in one day.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Photographic Memories".
In 1831 John, Earl of Shrewsbury, made this
house his permanent home. In the late 1860s the
then Earl hired John Mason Cook, son of pioneer
travel agent,Thomas Cook, to promote the gardens
at Alton Towers. Cook’s first excursion to Alton
resulted in a staggering 10,000 visitors in one day.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Pocket Album".
The estate was sold in 1924 to a private company, who opened it to the public. During the Second World War it was used as an officer training unit, but when peace came it was allowed to stand empty and neglected for about six years, leaving much of the building a ruin. Today Alton is one of the country’s leading tourist attractions.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Photographic Memories".
Cheshire and their Welsh allies were in armed revolt, and still were
so when Edward died at Farndon in AD924.
During Ethelred the Unready’s reign, Cheshire, Staffordshire and
Shropshire became what was in effect an independent land, ruled by
the Earls of Mercia, free from royal control. Apart from an attempt
by Edmund Ironside to restore the royal writ, the three counties
enjoyed their autonomous status until the eve of the Norman Conquest.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Pocket Album".
Gazing up the street
past Wilks Teenage
Fashions (left) with
the Elkes Cafe above,
we can see Barclays
Bank. This was built
in 1921 on the site of
Huggins & Chambers,
an ironmonger’s. The
ironmonger’s sold
Witchem’s firelighters
among other products
- these must have
contributed to the
conflagration when
the building was
burned to the ground
in 1920.
An extract from from"Uttoxeter Living Memories".