I thought rather than mention the writings of the late Miss Nellie Kirkham (Mrs. J. H. D. Myatt) under just any subject on the Forum, I would write about them in a separate subject to themselves on the Forum. She was a prolific writer and researcher and was especially interested in the Derbyshire lead mining field, most of all she was fasinated by it's drainage levels called soughs. She wrote and recorded in the days when there were no County Record Offices like they are now, and obtained her information from a variety of sources. Her articles contained a lot of references that help researchers today.
She lived at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire and died on the 28th May, 1979. Doug Nash of "Op Mole" to whom she left her collection wrote an obituary to her in the Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, Vol. 7 No.4, October, 1978 pp 195-198.
A few years before her death Doug Nash beset himself a mammoth task of typing up her articles, to be included in a bibliography of her collected works. When he finished this awsome task, a copy was presented to Nellie and one (from memory consisting of two volumes) was placed with the Derbyshire Record Office, New Street, Matlock, Derbyshire.
At the end of the obituary, is printed the list of her articles dating from 1929 to 1975, all of which are included (along with plans, sketches and pictures) in the copy of her Collected Works deposited at the Derbyshire Record Office by Doug Nash. Thus if anyone has difficulty in obtaining a copy of any of her articles, they can always be researched at the DRO in Matlock from these Collected Works.
She wrote a book "Derbyshire Lead Mining Through The Centuries" published by D. Bradford Barton Ltd., Truro, in 1968, which is a general introduction to the Derbyshire lead mining history (which can still be purchased secondhand - perhaps from our bookseller friends on the website!). More specialist articles on certain mines and soughs were often published in Archaeological Society or Mining/Caving Club publications. The list included with her obituary details these separate articles and who published them.