Saint Augustines Mount

[Old Miner]

Can anyone give me a date or any other info for this please.

Turnbull Close.

Boythorpe Colliery.

I remember quite fondly the mountain at the bottom of Saint Augustine’s Mount or the ‘Gussies’ as my paternal grandmother lived on the Mount at number 45.

I played on there as a child and often wondered what it was, it was of course the spoil heap of one of the Boythorpe collieries and was I suppose of no use and an eyesore until someone had the bright idea of removing it and using the newly formed land to build on. I had seen this done in the 1970’s when Barlow Lees colliery red spoil heap was removed and turned back into agricultural land.

So a few years ago the machines moved in and removed the mound and built Turnbull Close in its place.

I don’t have all the details nor dates but I am sure someone will furnish me with some more detailed information in due course. I am ever indebted to Mr. Jackson for supplying me with the photographs at http://www.oldminer.co.uk/Chesterfield/St_Augustines_Mount.htm

Many Thanks.
Old Miner.
(Neil).

[poppy]

Hi Neil
I was born and bred on Baden Powell Road and played around "Gussies" in the 60's and 70's. I well remember the "Tip" and we spent many happy hours on there digging and making "dens". We had some mighty sized holes, always under threat from being nicked by the bigger kids. Amazed that no one I knew got seriously hurt It was a suprise to me when I went to visit someone years later and houses had appeared there. Possibly the late 80's?

[Fly]

Not being from Chesterfield, those photo's are nice for me. Never knew how it looked before 
Used to have a regular customer who lived there 

[Old Cruser]

I don't know the area at all no doubt my father would have been able to tell be about the Boythorpe colliery although i have heard of it.

[Pete]

I remember that area from the early 1960s - I was at William Rhodes and we used to run from school through there to get to the playing fields on Langer Lane.

I have some very, very pleasant memories of those runs back in 1967.

[Gerty Gumdrop]

I played on there too in the late 50's when I lived at Central Terrace.  Some of my school friends lived in that area so it was a big adventure to be allowed to play there.   

[kittyboo]

I hope you don't mind me commenting but the Tip was on Mound Road and not St Augustines Mount.
I know this for sure because I lived in the block of houses that backed onto the Tip.
We also used to spend hours on there building dens, scrumping from the big black and white house garden that was in the far corner and also sledging down the side of the tip.
Many a happy day spent on there and my 2 sons also had the pleasure before it was destroyed.

[Fly]

Hi Kittyboo, welcome aboard ChesterfieldOnline 

Just wondered if this google map shot could clear up any discrepancies

[Old Cruser]

@ Kittyboo - welcome to the forum I share some of your memories as well - but in a different place 

[Old Miner]

Hi.

Yes you are right but as a kid to me the mountain or mount was the one at the bottom of the hill, the old pit tip, kinda stuck that way in my mind and I like to remember it this way but yes St Augustin's Mount is the road up the hill and not the pit tip.

Old Miner.

[Old Miner]

PS.

Maybe I aught to call it St. Augustin's Mound as opposed to Mount.

Old Miner.
 

[Old Miner]

Hi Again.

I have been talking to my dad tonight and he tells me that during the war a Nissan hut and anti-aircraft gun emplacement was built on top of the mound and was serviced by the army to protect the Tube Works.

Old Miner.