Thus it was, that alongside hammer, anvil and forge, future fortunes were duly fashioned. On January 29, 1826, Hasland blacksmith Joseph Eastwood’s wife Hannah gave birth to a second son Edward, a young man destined to bring fame and fortune to Chesterfield. Members of this family would be revered and remembered for almost two centuries, writes Tony Hallam.
THROUGHOUT HIS TEENAGE YEARS, Edward lived quietly with his parents in Hasland. Frequently he must have stood beside his father, in admiration of the creative skills in the heat and beat of the forge. At the age of 20 he moved to South Derbyshire, as a contractor’s time-keeper involved in early railway construction, during the building of the Erewash Valley Line (1847) between Long Eaton and Ilkeston. His honed practical skills and workmanlike efficiency did not go unnoticed and where other colleagues failed, Edward stepped in to open up a successful career in the burgeoning railway industry…