50 St John Street

▪ Grade II listed building (re)built in 1857

▪ St John’s Hall, at the back:

➢ Used as a place of worship, and for lectures/meetings/events etc.

➢ County Court until 1961 and Magistrates Petty Sessions Court until 1969

➢ Subject to conversion to apartments since 2010

▪ Front part of the building:

➢ County Court offices until c1890

➢ Solicitors 1891-c1935 (left side)

➢ J. H. Henstock/Ashbourne Telegraph/Avian Press 1922-69? (right side and basement initially, left side c1936-57)

➢ Gallery (left) and Chiropodists (right) since 1994

Number 50, the former St John’s Hall, is on the south side of the street towards its eastern end separated from the former Duke of Wellington public house by Salt Alley.

The Building

Grade II listed building completed in 1857. It is two storeys high built of red brick with eaves cornice and a tiled roof.

On the first floor, there are three tall arched casement windows with stone lintels and glazing bars for 14 larger central panes and 11 coloured narrow edge panes.On the ground floor there is a shop front, doorway with pilasters and projecting cornice, and a further smaller arched casement window (with no coloured edge panes). There is a side entrance along Salt Alley on the west side. The ridge of the pitched roof at the front of the building is parallel to St John St.

The large hall which is towards the rear of the building also has tall arched casement windows with stone lintels and glazing bars: three on each side plus two on the SE gable end. The windows on the SW and NE sides have 14 largercentral panes plus 11 coloured narrow edge panes, while those on the SE gable end have 17 larger central panes plus 13 coloured narrow edge panes. The ridge of the pitched roof hall is perpendicular to St John St and is at the height of the base of the pitched roof at the front.

The History of its Occupation and Use

Prior to the 1857 rebuilding and construction of St John’s Hall at the rear, the property consisted of “9 houses and gardens” according to the 1846 tithe apportionment. Land Tax records 1780-1832 list three “houses” with separate occupiers but one of these occupiers is described as “houses / yard”.

The earliest owner identified was a Mr. Kirkland (1780-98) about whom little is known.

From 1799-1831, the owners were the Leasons, Joseph (d.1814) and his wife Hannah (d.1831). In the Land Tax records 1818-27 Mrs Leason is shown as the occupier of “houses / yard” and in the commercial directory of 1822-23 she is listed as a grocer on the Market Place with a salt warehouse. It is thought that the salt warehouse was part of “houses / yard” at No. 50 while her main business premises and residence were on the Market Place. This probably explains the passageway on the west side being named Salt Alley. The first mention of Salt Alley found is in the 1841 census, however, it was also known as Leason’s Yard in 1832.

Various occupants of the three houses are listed in the Land Tax records 1780-1832 about whom little is known.

In 1832, Leason’s Yard was owned by John Dawson and he probably became the ownerof the entire property shortly afterwards. John Dawson was one of the three Dawson brothers who had a successful malting and tanning business on Compton. By 1835 John became part of the gentry living on Church St leaving the business to his brothers.

The 1841 census places Ellen Parkes, stationer, on the premises and she had probably been there since the early 1830s. There were also several tradespeople on Salt Alley. She passed away in 1841 and then perhaps for around 10years Frances/Fanny Smith and her nieces Fanny and Mary Smith ran their ladies’ school there. The 1851 census did not refer to Salt Alley but to Dawson’s Yard.

The Smiths had left by 1855 at which point the rebuilding probably started. Howmuch of the original building was retained is not clear but St John’s Hall at the rear was new as was probably the frontage in which the windows matched the hall. A comparison of maps clearly shows that the hall occupied a location that appears to have been a walled garden.

In the maps above, the houses of Salt Alley/Dawson’s Yard are between the walled garden/St John’s Hall and the Compton/Henmore Brook at the bottom.

At a St John’s Hall shareholder’s meeting held on Friday 20 November 1857 at the Green Dragon Inn, 33 St John St, which is opposite to 50 St John St, the layout of the building was described as follows:

“The building comprises a very spacious and lofty room, 57ft long and 28ft wide,which will be occupied on Sundays by the Wesleyan Reformers as a place of worship, and on weekdays as a lecture room and for holding religious meeting, &c. There are also apartments for use of the Literary Institute, and a residence for the Librarian; another large room, to the front, for holding sittings of the County Court, magisterial, and other public business; and a commodious school-room for the use of the Wesleyan Reformers.”

DerbyshireAdvertiser and Journal - Friday 27 November 1857_p4

The first time St John’s Hall was used for worship was on Sunday 6 December 1857 and later in the month there was an inaugural concert (see advertisements below).

It is not clear for how long the Wesleyan Reformers used St John’s Hall but by 1864 they had their own chapel on Compton. In 1870 the Congregationalists were using the hall but they appear to have moved to the Sion Chapel (Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion) on Derby Road by 1881.

In 1858, Francis Wright of the Butterley Company and Osmaston Manor successfully brought forward a motion at Ashbourne Local Board to move the Petty Sessions Court from The Green Man to St John’s Hall. However, when the move was made is not clear because the commercial directories for 1860 and 1864 continue to show the Petty Sessions Court at The Green Man.

The monthly County Court would continue at St John’s Hall until 1961 while the weekly Petty Sessions Court or Magistrates Court (Saturdays at 12:00) would continue there until 1969.

By 1891 the County Court offices had moved and an advert was placed:

The solicitors Cull & Brett and a dental surgeon, Mr. Broad, appear to have moved into these offices later that year. Cull & Brett featured in the 1891 commercial directory on St John St while Mr. Broad advertised his premises on St John’s Hall (see below).

Cull & Brett became Cull, Brett & Osborne in 1908 and would remain at St John’s Hall (offices at the front) until around 1932. MrBroad appears to have continued there until 1904 while G. Pearson opened his furniture showroom in St John’s Hall in 1903.

Joseph Henry Henstock was the successor as printer and stationer on the Market Place to Robert Hobson, who had started Avian Press in 1836 and started the Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal in 1846, and Edward Bamford. Henstock started the Ashbourne Telegraph in 1903 and in 1922 moved the Avian Press to 50 St John St.

The photograph below, which dates to 1933-35, show A. H. Osborne, Solicitor on the left side (successor to Cull, Brett & Osborne) and Avian Press on the right side.

After Antill Holbrook Osborne had moved to 41 St John St, the frontage was changed to accommodate Henstock and the Ashbourne Telegraph c1936 as the photograph below illustrates.

The Ashbourne Telegraph merged with the Ashbourne News And Dove Valley Record becoming the Ashbourne News Telegraph in 1957 and the old Ashbourne Telegraph office was vacated.

Jessie E. Woolley’s home decorating shop then occupied the old Ashbourne Telegraph Office on the left side from 1958 (50 St John St).

The Avian Press office may have continued to occupy the right side (50b St John St). It was reported that the Ashbourne News Telegraph moved from under St John’s Hall to the Market Place in 1969 although the Avian Press may well have remained there until it was dissolved in 2015.

In the 1970s, it is not clear how St John’s Hall was utilized but it may have continued as a meeting hall after the Magistrates Court finished in 1969 .The front left side (50) was occupied by Jessie E. Woolley until 1978 and was followed by Derbyshire Dales Shoes. The front right side (50b) was occupied by the Tabernacle Craft Shop 1970-73 and Arthur Chadwick’s saddler’s and sweetshop from 1973.

In the 1980s, St John’s Hall became the home of Ashbourne Snooker Club (1982) while Derbyshire Dales Shoes and Arthur Chadwick’s continued although the latter was succeeded by In Step dance supplies in 1985.

In the 1990s, Ashbourne Snooker Club closed (1990) and St John’s Hallwas opened as a religious meeting place by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1994 (from at least 1985 they had been using the Gallery on the first floor at the front).

At the front, at No. 50 (left side) the Ashbourne Gallery opened (1994) while at No. 50b (right side), Country Cousins opened by 1990 to be followed by Knit ‘N Sew in 1993 and Rita Skidmore’s chiropodists in 1994 (see advertisements below).

The Gallery and chiropodists remain, though in different hands, and from 2010 St John’s Hall has been subject to plans for conversion to apartments.

© PaulThompson 2025

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