The 1955 Christmas card for the Matlock quarrying company of Derbyshire Stone Ltd., was published for them by Photochrom. It was sent out by John Hadfield, the managing director. This card is owned by the Canadian branch of the Bridge family, part of their collection of family pictures from Matlock, but it is unclear why they were sent it. The outer cover is shown above and various pictures of the inside are below.

What is amusing is that 41 years beforehand some newspapers, who must have been short of a story, put it about that High Tor was unsafe and that it had to come down!^[1]. In November 1913 The Times published a short article clarifying the "scarcely correct" story, which had come about because a large crag was thought be a potential danger to the railway line as it was said to be partially separated from the main part of the cliff. The Midland Railway Company had approached F. C. Arkwright, the then owner of High Tor, as well as the High Tor Recreation Grounds Company who leased the grounds. Although Arkwright placed no difficulty to the work being done a letter from the HTRGC asked for terms that the MRC "could not entertain"! As they were doing the asking they were hardly in a position to be quite so high handed. And there the matter rested!^[2]. The predecessors of Derbyshire Stone could have had a field day if the demolition story had been true.

Inside the card



Inside the card.
Derbyshire Stone's Christmas message



Inside the card.
Derbyshire Stone chose this picture of High Tor.

References (coloured links are to transcripts or more information elsewhere on this web site):

^[1] "Sheffield Evening Telegraph", 28 May 1914. Mentioned by the Matlock Improvements Association. Charles White had mentioned the story at the beginning of the year. See: Matlock Bath: South Parade, the Summer of 1914.

^[2] "The Times", Monday 3 Nov 1913 pg. 6;. The High Tor, Matlock. With thanks to Colin Goodwyn for recommending the article.