A Kimberley Town Walk

This short walk starts in the middle of Kimberley (Toll Bar Square). It takes you through Kimberley, looking at some aspects of a surprisingly long and eventful history. It is just over a mile long and takes 1½ - 2 hours at a relaxed pace. It is almost all on paved surfaces and is technically undemanding. Copies of the walk are normally available at a price of £1.00 from Kimberley Library.

A Kimberley Collection by J M Lee and Don Webb

This is a collection of statistical and reference material concerned with Kimberley and its area. It contains, largely, the research material upon which ‘A Brief History of Kimberley’ is based. It is available at Kimberley Library, and from the Nottinghamshire Library Service. If required, it is also available as a special order from this web site.

The Reverend Baron von Hube. From Mr Donald Webb, Kimberley.

The Reverend Baron von Hube, Vicar of Greasley, Notts, 1866 - 1907, was the first to write, in 1901, a full-scale history of his parish, which is of interest because he recorded its development in his own time. He also examined documents available to him to test the then current historical version, though he hadn’t the advantage of later discoveries, which means that his theories don’t always coincide with today’s account. He was a member of the Anglican gentry, in a parish where Methodism was probably the strongest sect, so that his point of view was a special one, and didn’t reflect the social and political changes that his ordinary parishioners were undergoing.

Rodolf von Hube had an eventful life. It began in present day Poland, though at that time, early 19th century, it had been divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria-Hungary. He fled to the United Kingdom, settled in London, then, in 1857, moved on to South Africa where he became first Deacon, then Priest, in the Anglican Church at East London, in the Eastern Cape. He returned to the UK in 1863, and became a curate in Eastwood, (Notts) and Ironville (Derbys) before his presentation to Greasley.

D H Lawrence seems to have used something of von Hube in his novels, and refers to the parish history in “Women in Love”, although it would be unwise to suppose that there is too much coincidence between the Polish Vicar in the books and von Hube himself. I have been unable to establish his birth details or whether he was entitled to his title “Baron”.

A full account of my research exists and has been deposited with the Nottinghamshire Archives, and Library Services, (Kimberley, Eastwood and Local history, Chapel Bar, Nottingham) but copyright requirements meant that the booklet couldn’t be published more widely. - Donald Webb, Kimberley

A Watnall Collection by J M Lee.

This is a collection of statistical and reference material concerned with Watnall and its area. It contains much of the research material upon which ‘A Brief History of Watnall’ is based although some records, which are now easily available on the internet, have been omitted. The Collection is available at Kimberley Library, and through the Nottinghamshire Library Service. If required, it is also available as a special order from this web site.