In the nineteenth century NALGO House was a guest house and the poet and artist "Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddall, later his wife, stayed there in 1857^[1]". Rossetti, together with Holman Hunt and John Everett Millias, "was a leading spirit in founding the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood^[2]". He married Elizabeth Siddall in 1860; Elizabeth "had been a model for a number of paintings including Millais' Ophelia^[2]".

The property on Lime Tree Road, Matlock Bank, was purchased in December 1888 for £1,950 with money raised entirely by donations for what was to be the Derby & Derbyshire Convalescent Home, linked to the one already established at Derby for the sick poor^[3]. A Board of Trustees and management and officers were appointed^[3]. The property had been chosen because it had to be capable of receiving 35 patients and for its position "situated on Limetree-hill ... about 500 feet above the [river] Derwent^[4]". When it was bought there was still a sitting tenant in but they were due to leave on 25th March 1889^[3]. A fundraising grand bazaar was held in the Drill Hall in February 1889 and a large sum was raised^[3]; this was repeated in subsequent years.

Advertisements were placed in local papers during February 1889 and Miss Peet was appointed as the matron; Miss Eastland later took over^[5]. The venture was opened by Lady Edward Cavendish in June 1889^[4]. Annual meetings were held and in 1900 the board reported extensive repairs to the boundary walls and building as well as redecoration both inside and out^[6]. They also tried to help the war effort that year.

"In January last, at a special meeting, the Board decided to place ten beds at the disposal of the War office for convalescent soldiers returning from the front, giving the preference to members of the Derbyshire Regiments or men from Derby and the county." By the date of the meeting they had only received one application and he wasn't from Derbyshire^[6]!

This postcard dates from the days the property was run by NALGO as a Convalescent home for its members^[7]. Later in the twentieth century it became The Lindens^[1] residential home for the elderly but has been converted into three private homes in recent years.

References (coloured hyperlinks are mainly to transcripts elsewhere on this website):

^[1] Barton, David A. "Around Matlock in Old Photographs", (1998) part of a series called "Britain in Old Photographs", Budding Books, ISBN 1-84015-076-9, p32
^[2] "Dante Gabriel Rossetti" (1967), The Masters, No. 89 (text by William Gaunt), Purnell & Sons Ltd
^[3] "The Derby Mercury", Wednesday, February 20, 1889
^[4] "The Derby Mercury", Wednesday, June 19, 1889
^[5] Miss Peet was the matron of the Derby & Derbyshire Convalescent Home from about 1891 and references include:
1891 Kelly's Directory | 1891 Census | 1908 Kelly's Directory.
Miss E. Eastland, was the sister in charge in 1916 Kelly's Directory
^[6] "The Derby Mercury", Wednesday, July 25, 1900
^[7] Trade directory references to Nalgo House Convalescent Home for Local Government Officers have been found in Kelly's 1932 Directory (Miss Pacey, Matron) and Kelly's 1941 Directory (Miss Mary L. Bridges, matron).
NALGO, or the National Association of Local Government Officers, even provided Holiday Camps for the members.
An interesting website, with a short history of NALGO is Trade Union Ancestors (this will open in a new window).