Matlock Bath on Whit Monday, so the village was once more busy with day trippers. This unique photograph shows an assortment of cabs and waggonettes lined up outside the Fish Pond Hotel (also see the next image). During the tourist season, between Whitsuntide and September, the coaches, cabs and charabancs would take excursionists to Peak District beauty spots such as Haddon Hall, Chatsworth and Dovedale. William Wyvill was the proprietor of the Fish Pond Hotel and the stables at the time^[1]; his name is on the large advertisement painted on the wall of the shop next door. The sign reads:

Fish Pond Hotel Stables
Horses & Carriages for Hire to
Haddon Hall, Chatsworth, Dovedale ...[some words indistinct]
William Wyvill Proprietor
Covered Accommodation for Cycles

By 1905 the large sign advertising the Stables had been repainted^[2]. The gable end of the hotel which was over the entrance way to the rear of the building, next to the sign, was eventually demolished^[3].

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

^[1]Mr. Wyvill appears at the Fishpond in Kelly Directory, 1895 | Kelly's Directory, 1899 | the 1901 census.
He had been in Matlock Bath for some time previously. See: the 1871 census | the 1881 census (at Hodgkinson's Hotel) | the 1891 census.
There are two family memorials at Holy Trinity. See his son's MI (1) | Mr. Wyvill's MI (2).

^[2] The replacement sign can be seen on other postcards. See, for example, both South Parade, Bank Holiday Crowds, 1906 and South Parade, 1910 - the Roads & Boden's Restaurant

^[3] From Ken Smith.