The scholarly history of the "County Battery" shop in Nuthall & other local "Institutes"

A nicely-colourised old picture of Nuthall (below) showing one of the Ripley Rattler trams got me wondering about the building on the right. Looks a bit like today's "County Battery" shop and indeed it is. It was once of several local "Institutes" like the ones we'll look at in Watnall and Kimberley set up by local squires as early "community hubs".

Despite many visits to the shop over the years to buy various new vehicle batteries, I had never noticed the stone inscription above the door, It reads "Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom" which is a Biblical quote from Proverbs 9:10. So was the building a former chapel? No, it was set up as a Reading Room for local working men hence the "wisdom" quote. On the 1881 Ordnance Survey map it is shown simply as the "Institute", which was the generic name for such places.

In neighbouring Kimberley, its own Institute was established around 1872-74 in a similar looking small reading room on Rockside which survived until quite recently. The village's most persistent legacy of the Institute is the "Kimberley Institute Cricket Club" still thriving today.

Nuttall (as it used to be spelled) c.1913
Reading Room is on the right with the poster on the wall

The Nuthall History Society newsletter gives us some background on the building...

A Reading Room For Nuthall’s Working Men

A newspaper cutting from January 1877 provides us with important information about the Nuthall Reading Room, now occupied by a battery business in the centre of the old village. The building was opened on New Year’s Day and... “seems to be much appreciated by those for whose benefit it has been provided.” The article describes the opening event as of.. “such social enjoyment it will not be forgotten by the fortunate inhabitants of the little village.” A substantial tea was served to about 50 members, and the room was prettily decorated with illustrated texts, evergreens and mottoes. It seems that some of Nuthall’s working men desired a place for recreation and improvement after their day’s labours. They submitted their request to the Squire, the Revd Atkinson Alexander Holden [of Nuthall Temple], who “immediately displayed his never-failing sympathy to promote the welfare of those around him” and offered at once to have the Reading Room built and to provide a library on certain simple conditions. Furniture was presented by Mrs Atkinson Holden, of Nuttall House. The article adds... “So heartily was the Squire’s generosity accepted that the building was commenced and finished before the close of the year.”

A local history project from the 1980's sourced from a Mr T Leaf from the Nuthall History Society also adds... "Up until WWII the building was used as a reading house and was known as The Institute. Here the men of the village would relax and read the day's papers. Newspapers were relatively expensive for poorer people in those days. At the end if every year the men had a tradition auctioning off the newspapers that had been collected to the highest bidder."

The building has been taken over by County Battery

Watnall's "Victoria Institute"

Watnall also had its own "Institute" based in the old Methodist Chapel which was purchased for the community in 1897 by Judge Smyly who at the time was living at Watnall Hall and local brewer Robert Hanson. It was used more as a community hub than a reading room. JM Lee in his local history book talks about it...

"In the same year [1897], the celebrations for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee took place. There was a children’s party at the Institute and general merrymaking in the village, part sponsored by Judge Smyly, ...and who organised other fund raising activities for the Institute".

"In 1927, Lady Maud Rolleston, together with a group of other ladies, founded the Watnall Victoria Women’s Institute [W.I.] and she was its first president.

The Watnall WI still meet in the Institute to this day.

In 1940 the Institute was used by the RAF who were building a large camp in Watnall...

"In fact, it became No. 12 group’s first plotting station. A gallery was built round the inside, overlooking a large plotting table below, which was used to track aircraft movements. A few years later, in 1943, the facility was transferred to a purpose built bunker across the road and the old chapel took on more mundane duties within the RAF. It was returned to the WI in 1946/7".

Watnall's "Victoria Institute" now called the "WI Hall"
and your very own author emerging from kid's party Aug 2008!
(c) Google Streetview

Kimberley's new "Community and Business Hub"

The most modern of our local Institutes is taking shape right now on Newdigate Street in Kimberley. Funded out of the £16.5 million "Kimberley Means Business Fund" the steel framework is now in place and on Oct 31st 2025 a ceremony to mark the milestone was held.