| Administrative History | The date of establishment of the Ripley/Hartshay spelter works is not known: it does not appear on Sanderson's map of 1835 but by the time of the 1841 census, a John Cleaver (c1791-1868) was in resident in Ripley, described as a spelter maker. Cleaver's principal business was the manufacture of cement at a site in Sittingbourne, Kent. During the 1840s at Hartshay he was involved in a number of apparently short-term partnerships with various Birmingham metal dealers: John, Henry and Theophilus Merry; John Barwell, and William Lucas Merry. There was also a partnership with Melville Attwood, agent for the spelter works at Tindale near Carlisle. By 1850 John Cleaver was no longer at Hartshay, when he faced insolvency proceedings at Maidstone County Court. At some point the works became the responsibility of Edward Anthony Attwood (c1823-1858), formerly of Tindale. After Edward Anthony Attwood's death in 1858 his widow Annie Attwood remained at Hartshay House and it can be presumed that work continued at the spelter works: the 1861 census records at least one local resident as a labourer at the works and a spelter maker named Joseph Thompson was a 'visitor' at Annie Attwood's house. It is not evident what happened to the works after Annie Attwood's death in 1864. In the early 1870s the works appear to have been held under a partnership of two Boundy brothers. In 1875 Charles Boundy (1845-1895), a metal broker, brought his young family to Hartshay from Birmingham (two of his children are buried at Pentrich). His period at the spelter works, now operating as the Ripley Smelter Company, was not successful and he soon faced bankruptcy proceedings. The working equipment of the establishment was offered for sale in 1877 and the only remaining evidence of the works by the time of the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey 25" to 1 mile map (revised 1898, published 1900) is an 'old shaft'.
When the site was assessed as part of the Monument Protection Programme in the 1990s it was found to be of national importance.
The documents variously refer to the Hartshay Spelter Works, Heage Spelter Works and, most commonly, Ripley Spelter Works. |
| Custodial History | These records were transferred to Derbyshire Record Office from Ipswich Record Office in March 2014, having been donated to them in 1985. |