Alfreton is the first town one reaches in Derbyshire after leaving the M1 Motorway at exit 28. It was already mining coal in Chaucer's day, and it now has knitwear, hosiery, and other manufacturer's, but it has kept some beauty and certainly much of interest to the visitor.
The broad King Street climbs the hill to the busy market-place, with the 18th century George Hotel. In the High Street to the right is a well-preserved Elizabethan house, now the council offices. Close to the stir of the marketplace, but peacefully set at the end of a road which opens out to a path across the park of the old Hall, is the large church, with a story going back to the last days of the Normans when Robert FitzRanulph, who in 1172 was involved in the murder of Thomas Becket, gave it to Beauchief Abbey.
Its oldest fragment is the lofty pointed tower arch of about 1200, with cable and nail-head in its capitals, the rest of the tower being 200 years younger. As old as the tower arch, is part of a coffin lid carved with the head of a cross that may have marked the grave of the first priest of this place.
The fine 14th century porch is guarded by a modern figure of St Martin in an elaborate niche, below which projects a cornice carved with flowers and shields. In the north aisle will be seen the delicately sculptured memorial of George Morewood who died in 1792.
The Morewood family lived at nearby Alfreton Hall until 1963, when it was taken over by the council. This fine house, built in 1750 and much enlarged in the 19th century, was reduced to manageable proportions and opened as an adult education centre in 1968.
In a wayside garden at the foot of the hill is a Methodist chapel and a manse, with a school across the way. They are the gift to the town of an Alfreton pit-boy who went to America, made a fortune, and reached high administrative office. He was one Robert Watchorn, who came back to his birthplace, laid out this garden, built the chapel on the site of his old home, and opened it on the day his mother would have been 100 years old.
Mr Watchorn was the most famous of American Commissioners of Immigration between 1905 and 1910 and is remembered at the American Museum of Immigration at Ellis Island in New York Harbour. He never forgot his early years in Alfreton and used some of his wealth to rebuild the area of the town in which he lived. Amongst his buildings are a fine church, schoolrooms, houses and the Abraham Lincoln Library. He also laid out extensive parklands.
Alfreton was given a charter to hold a market in the 13th century and local legend would have us believe that King Alfred gave the town its name. In King Street there is a unique lock-up, built about 1820, from which it is said the only prisoner excaped up the chimney.
Worth investigating, though for totally different reasons, is the David Nieper Factory Shop which specializes in exclusive lingeries, nightwear, and co-ordinating leisurewear and blouses.
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