The Warney estate was bought by Herbert Hardy in two stages.
Having bought Warney House in the
early 1950s he transformed the land surrounding it
into a caravan park - "Cara-Hols" of Two Dales.
This was to be his first enterprise on the site. Mr. Hardy
had at one time sold ladies stockings, initially from a suitcase
and then from his hosiery shop on Bakewell Road in Matlock
next to what was then the market and bus station.
He advertised his caravan park as being suitable "For
lighthearted and Carefree Holiday-making". "You
will thrill to the living comfort of Cara-Hols Mobile
Homes. They're completely furnished and ready to live in,
featuring dividing partitions to each Caravan, and every
requirement except Linen. Parking available for Patrons bringing
their own Caravan"[1].
The top postcard shows that quite a few changes had taken
place since the Walton family had owned the property (see the
photographs on the previous page). For example, the climbing
plant covering the front and side of Warney House had
been removed and so had several large trees. Some of the farm
buildings, plus the greenhouse / vinery, had been demolished.
Other buildings had been either added to or converted to provide
facilities for the visitors, such as the Recreation Centre
shown below.
Cara-Hols existed as a company until April 1981, when two
notices published in the "London
Gazette" announced
that the Company was dissolved[2].
The third postcard in the series (below) looks across the
Derwent valley towards Birchover and Stanton Lees. The embankment
was part of the Manchester to London railway line and on
the far side, close to the top of the picture, is the River
Derwent which is marked by a line of trees. The building
with the long low roof line next to the railway embankment
was the Victoria Saw Mill.
Warney Mill, a stone built corn mill, is also close to the
railway line - further down the road, past Warney House and
the caravan park. When the estate was sold in 1950 the mill,
which was then used as a Flour and Feeding Stuffs Mill, had
both a Mill Dam and a water wheel[3].
Following the Marchant Brooks sale it had been bought by E.
& S. Johnson who were already established at Ladygrove
Mills in Two Dales[4].
Warney Flour Mills Limited was a working mill for a number
of years until the company was liquidated in 1973[5].
Herbert Hardy eventually bought the mill building and set up
DFS (Direct Furnishing Supplies) on the site, pioneering
Sunday trading as we know it today. When he started up DFS,
the number and type of goods that could be bought on Sundays
was very limited and did not include furniture. He thought
of an ingenious way of getting round the law by allowing
people to buy, say, a pound of carrots and then giving them
a sofa or three piece suite as well. However, the price of
the carrots bought on a Sunday matched the price of the furniture
that was sold during the week. He was fined by the magistrates
in 1971 but he continued to trade on Sundays.
Advertisement from the Matlock Mercury, 7 Jul 1951.
This advert, probably rather saucy for the early 1950s, was
always at the very top of
the paper's front page. |
