Nat Gould

Robert Ottiwell Gifford Bennett 1834-1902

Robert Ottiwell Gifford Bennett was born in 1834 in Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire, the son of William Bennett 1797-1879 and his wife Ernestina Mary von Schultz 1801-1865. His father was a solicitor and attorney. However he did not follow him into the legal profession, but became a medical practitioner.

He qualified MD (Edinburgh) 1857 and MRCS (England) 1856. He was a Fellow of the Medical Society of London, Senior Physician Devonshire Royal Hospital at Buxton in Derbyshire, Coroner for the High Peak and Low Peak, Honorary Physician to the Home of Rest in Buxton, Medical Referee for the Hospital at Ventnor in the Isle of Wight, and Medical Referee for several insurance companies (2).

Dr. Bennett began working at the Devonshire Royal Hospital in 1860 (3). He had Bennetston Hall built at Barmoor between Chapel-en-le-Frith and Buxton, but seems not to have resided there.

In 1867 he married Jane Maria (maiden surname unknown) born in 1834. She died on 25 October 1888. He remarried in about 1890, his second wife being Jane (maiden surname unknown) born in 1857 in County Cork in Ireland. He had no children.

He bought land from the Devonshire Estate from about 1865 until 1892 for the building of Bennett Street in Buxton, where work began on the construction of the houses in about 1877.

He sometimes spelled his surname as Bennet, and when the street was built it originally had the different spellings at either end on the street signs.

Bennett Street developed a strong community spirit, and was elaborately dressed with paper flowers and decorations during the Wells Dressing celebrations in the town.

It lost many of its sons during the First World Way, and has its own War Memorial to those who died and served. The original memorial was replaced and is still reverently maintained.

Dr. Robert Ottiwell Gifford Bennett served Buxton in many different capacities. For over forty years he was Honorary Physician at the Devonshire Royal Hospital and the Buxton Baths Charity. a director of the Buxton Improvements Company which built the Pavilion and its Gardens, Honorary Physician to the Convalescent Home for Ladies (Home of Rest)in West Street, and a Justice of the Peace.

He died of a heart attack on 27 June 1902 at his home Park Place aged 69 years. When his funeral took place, the local paper reported that "The long procession left Park Place a little after 12.00 midday and formed an imposing spectacle as it weaved its slow way via Devonshire Circus and Spring Gardens to Fairfield Church." All the shops and offices drew their blinds, and the cortege reached the full length of the main street, Spring Gardens. The service took place at Fairfield church, where he had been a churchwarden (4). He was buried in the family vault at Chinley Chapel.

(1) The Doctor who built a Buxton Street: Dr Robert Ottiwell Gifford Bennett MD 1834 - 1902 by E. Wildgoose http://www.peaklandheritage.org.uk/ ; The Architect of Victorian Buxton: a Biography of Robert Rippon Duke by M. Langham and C. Wells (1996) pages 111-112 and 184-185.
(2) Medical Directory 1890.
(3) The hospital closed and is now part of the campus of the University of Derby in Buxton.
(4) He had been actively concerned in the enlargement of the church building, which contains plaques to his memory and that of his second wife.