Dronfield Heritage Project
Dronfield Hall Barn, High Street,
Dronfield
,
The Dronfield Heritage Project will provide the whole community with opportunities for participating in learning and discovery activities, based around the colourful lead industry entrepreneurs who occupied many of the town’s principal houses in the 17th and 18th centuries. John Rotherham, a successful lead and millstone merchant, built Dronfield Hall on High Street in the early 18th century and may have converted the adjacent Medieval timber framed manor house into a barn. We want you to help us find out more about these characters and the houses they occupied. This will be achieved through four related projects, designed for volunteer participation, currently in their early or planning stages:
• Computer digitisation of relevant materials from the Dronfield Archives. This process will facilitate research and allow archive material to be accessed on screens in the new heritage centre and on our website.
• A historical research project looking back from the early 18th century and forward to the 19th century.
• An archaeological investigation may reveal hidden secrets about Hall Barn and its surroundings.
• The rescue and redevelopment of Dronfield Hall Barn. This historic Grade II* building will be rescued from certain dereliction and re-developed as a heritage and arts activities centre, and prestigious functions venue.
A distinctive rear extension to Dronfield Hall Barn will house an education centre, archive study room and services. The original building will be largely open plan on two floors so that visitors can appreciate the medieval interior, enjoy viewing the high specification heritage and arts exhibitions and take refreshments.
