John Darbyshire & Co Ltd, Somercotes
by SLHS on
Tuesday 17 May 2016
The history of John Darbyshire & Co Ltd begins in Ripley. The company was founded prior to 1932, as it appears in Kelly’s Directory for that year listed at Croft House, Derby Road as “explosives merchants”
A report in the Derby Daily Telegraph for 28 August 1934 states: “BIG BANG AT DENBY – 70ft TOWER BLOWN UP TO CLEAR SITE – An old 70-foot lift tower belonging to former Denby Iron & Coal Co, was blown to bits in an explosion which was intentionally staged at Denby today. The tower was formerly used for bringing to the surface ore for the iron works but was raised to the ground to obtain the bricks with which it was composed and to clear the site. The tower was blown up by Mr. John Darbyshire of Messrs John Darbyshire & Co, Ripley, agents for the Explosives & Chemical Products Ltd, London [the explosives factory was at Alfreton]. The explosive used was gelatine dynamite, the second strongest blasting explosive in the world”.
A further report regarding their business was published in the Derby Daily Telegraph dated 21 November 1949 “RIPLEY DEALER IN EXPLOSIVES – The old-established firm of John Darbyshire & Co Ltd, of Croft House, Derby Road , Ripley has been registered as a new company to carry on the business of dealers in explosives etc. states Jordans Register”, (Jordans are a firm which handles incorporation and business registration. The firm probably became a limited company at this point).
A "Compiment Slip" from John Darbyshire & Co., Ltd
Sometime around 1960 the company opened an engineering factory at Somercotes, which seems to have specialised in the design and manufacture of agricultural equipment. This was situated where the Somercotes Surgery currently stands. It is not known why they diversified and opened this factory.
The British Post Office Telephone Directory for 1961 lists the company at Ripley and Somercotes under the description of “explosive engineers” but by 1965 only the Somercotes factory is listed, with a reference to a garage at Ripley. Over the next few years, the focus of John Darbyshire & Co Ltd would relate entirely to their Somercotes business. One of their products was recorded in the DESIGN JOURNAL published in 1969 and refers to a seed-drill machine, used for sowing cereals or other similar crops. Although manufactured by John Darbyshire & Co Ltd., it was marketed by an agricultural equipment distributor in Worcestershire.
A member of the family, Noel Darbyshire, who was a well-known local industrialist, had purchased Carnfield Hall in 1949. The Hall was abandoned in 1960 until John Darbyshire & Co used the premises as a training centre. Carnfield Hall was listed as such in the 1972 Telephone Directory, under the John Darbyshire name, (Carnfield Hall would continue to be owned by Noel Darbyshire until 1987, when it was sold to James Cartland).
The company closed in the mid-1970s and the factory was eventually demolished for redevelopment.