Working For The Ministry

A Memory of South Wingfield.

I started working for the ministry (ancient monuments) in 1969 at South Wingfield Manor. At the time it was owned by two brothers, Sam and Bill Critchlow, who ran a dairy farm situated at the side of the manor, in fact if I remember correctly Sam and his wife, his son and daughter used to live in part of the manor. I was employed for about six years at the manor, mainly scaffolding and restoring the stonework. Some of my fondest memories are of the old chap from the village with whom I used to work, who went by the name of Clem Taylor. Very often after finishing work on a Friday myself and Clem would head for one of the local hostelries, usually the White Hart or the Horse and Jockey if my memory serves me well. Although the age difference between us was some 44 years (I was 19, and Clem 63)I always use to say he was 63 going on 20, he always had a zest for life and could always drink me under the table. Sometimes in the White Hart we would domino for an hour then spend 2 hours listening to Clem's tales about when he was in farm service (he was a brilliant storyteller).
Back to the manor, a lot of my early time was spent restoring the great barn which actually backed onto the dairy farm. Later we scaffolded out the tower and started renovating it. From the top of the tower we used to look out toward Crich or turn round and look into the valley where the River Amber ran and of course the main railway line, also from here you could see South Wingfield cricket
field. I will finish now but would like to mention a few names from that era in case they happen to visit this site -Ron and Roger Deakin, Roy and Mel, Richard, Charlie and of course young Sam who probably owns the manor by now.