"SLALEY, a small hamlet, half a mile S. from Bonsall, is principally occupied by miners, each of whom occupy a few acres of land^[1]".

Here are three family photographs of Slaley, taken just under eighty years after the above description of the hamlet was published. Above is Black Tor Road (although Slaley Lane is written on the back), taken from Hillside Cottage in 1935.The gateway to Slaley Hall can be seen on the right.

Below is a photograph of Plum Tree Cottage, owned by my grandmother Daisy E. Smithies for a while. It was taken at approximately the same time as the picture of the lane. The cottage furthest from the camera was Rose Tree Cottage, where Mr and Mrs Spencer lived with their family. The Spencers can be found living at the cottage in the 1939 register^[2].

The third photograph (below) is of Hillside Cottage, which is quite close to the centre of the hamlet. Both Plum Tree and Hillside cottages were built of natural limestone and have dressed stone mullioned windows.

The picture of Hillside Cottage was taken in early April 1933; at that time the property was owned by Hilda Margaretta May Walker, my great aunt, who had grown up in Bonsall. She owned the property until she died in 1945 and family members were frequent visitors. Many of Hilda's siblings were born in Bonsall, including her brother Richard Arnold Walker, who died at Gallipoli. Despite a request from his mother, the vicar of the time would not include Arnold's name on Bonsall's war memorial. It is an omission to this day.

Hilda and one of her sisters can be seen sorting out the garden. The garden walls were built using the dry stone method, which is widely used in the area.

Bonsall in Kelly's 1891 Directory

Pigot's 1828-9 Directory

Pigot's 1831 Directory

Pigot's Directory, 1842

Our Genealogy

References:

^[1] Information from Francis White's Directory of Derbyshire, 1858 transcribed by Neil Wilson.

^[2] The 1939 Register is published on Find My Past. My late mother once gave me a list of names of several/most of the Spencer children that she remembered from that time, which agrees with the Register names.