Riddings

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Riddings
Church Mews and Spire, Riddings.
Riddings shown within Derbyshire
OS grid reference	SK424523
District	Amber Valley
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ALFRETON
Postcode district	DE55
Dialling code	01773
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
European Parliament	East Midlands
List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire

Coordinates: 53°04′01″N 1°22′05″W / 53.067, -1.368

Riddings is a village in Derbyshire, England. It is located 2 miles south of Alfreton. The name derives from Ryddynges, a clearing or riding in a wood.

The surrounding area had traditional industries of coal and ironstone mining, which remained small in scale until the opening of a branch from the Cromford Canal in 1793 gave impetus to the construction of iron furnaces. In 1800 Derby ironfounders Thomas Saxelby, James Oakes and Forrester opened the Riddings Iron Works. By 1806 Thos. Saxelby & Co. had become the largest producers of pig iron in Derbyshire.

Oakes became sole owner of the Iron Works in 1818 with the purchase of Forrester's shares (Saxelbye having sold up in 1808). Throughout the 19th century Oakes and his family expanded their industrial holdings to include several local collieries. In 1888 they established the Riddings and District Gas Company in partnership with the Butterley Company. Byproducts of gas production were used to produce tar, sulphuric acid and other chemicals; local supplies of clay were fired to make bricks and pipes.

The Oakes family contributed extensively to the fabric of the village. In addition to their family home of Riddings House these contributions included the parish church of St James (1833) and the National School of 1845. Riddings House is now (2008) a residential home for the elderly, the surrounding park is now public, and the associated Model Farm has been converted to housing.

The village has 2 public houses, the Moulders Arms and the Seven Stars. The latter was built in 1702 on the site of a chapel of ease dedicated to St Mary Magdalen.

James Oakes also built two tower windmills, named James and Sarah (after his wife Sarah Haddon). These were built in a yard (grid reference SK424531) on Greenhills Lane in 1870 ^[1]or 1877, possibly on the site of a postmill advertised for sale in 1829. James was a brick tower 67 feet high of 7 storeys, 36 feet 6 inches diameter at the base, driven by six double-bladed patent sails and with eight-bladed fantails. Sarah appears to have had only 6 storeys. There were 2 open galleries on both mills, above the second floor and below the cap. The windshafts were of iron, 13 inches diameter. Other internal equipment has not been recorded.

Because the mills were close together one of the towers would 'rob the wind' (or obstruct the airflow to the sails) of the other. Consequentially before 1890 the Sarah mill had its sails removed and the milling machinery powered by a vertical-boilered stationery steam engine. It is possible that Sarah never had the sails fitted. The mills were used for grinding grain from the Oakes' estates, both for flour and for animal feed. In 1918 the sails of the James mill were removed and the steam plant replaced by a 24 h.p. oil engine which powered both mills. The mills stopped work c. 1927.

The floors of James were removed some time after 1927 and the mill used by the Granwood company[1], manufacturers of composition block flooring, to store sawdust^[2].

Ownership of the mills passed to the National Coal Board in 1947. In 1948 the N.C.B. sold the mills and some surrounding land to Deosan Ltd., who had a nearby chemical factory. Both mills were used by Deosan as storage space. In the winter of 1949 Deosan contracted an Alfreton scrap dealer to remove most of the metal from the mills, including the windshafts, in preparation for the installation of working plant. From Sarah 30 tons of scrap were removed; from James (after erecting scaffolding inside the tower) 7 tons. The floors of James were re-instated and it was used for storage; Sarah had chemical plant installed.

In 1959 the Diversey Corporation of Chicago bought Deosan^[3], and the mills passed into the ownership of their subsidiary Diversey (U.K.) Ltd. In the early morning of Tuesday 29th January 1963 a fire started in Sarah, gutting the mill and destroying nearby storage sheds. The two mills were demolished soon afterwards[2].

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