Derbyshire

CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES

ERBYSHIRE

CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES

General Editor: F. H. H. GUILLEMARD, M.A., M.D.

DERBYSHIRE

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY TRESS

ILonfcOlt: FETTER LANE, E.G.

C. F. CLAY, MANAGER

OFUtnburgl) : 100, PRINCES STREET

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[Ail rights reserved]

Cambridge County Geographies

DERBYSHIRE

by
H. H. ARNOLD-BEMROSE, Sc.D. ; F.G.S.

With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations

//**.

Cambridge : /^ / 7

at the University Press
1910

(JTambritige :

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

NOTE

THE author is indebted to his wife Nellie Arnold-
Bemrose for Chapters 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 28.

He wishes to acknowledge the information he has
obtained from the Victoria History of Derbyshire, Dr Cox's
Churches of Derbyshire, Mr Sandeman's paper on " The
works of the Derwent Valley Water Board " and Kelly's
Directory.

CONTENTS

PAGE

1. County and Shire. The Origin of Derbyshire . i

2. General Characteristics. Position and Natural Con-

ditions ......... 4

3. Size. Shape. Boundaries ..... 8

4. Surface and General Features — Peakland and Lowland 1 2

5. Watershed and Rivers . . . . . .14

6. Derwent Valley Water Scheme . . . .21

7. Geology — (i) Sedimentary Rocks . . . -25

8. Geology — (ii) Igneous Rocks . . . . -37

9. Caverns and Underground Drainage . . .41

10. Caverns and their Mammalian Contents. . . 47

11. Natural History 5I

12. Climate and Rainfall 54

13. People and Population . . . • . . .59
14- Agriculture— Main Cultivations, Woodlands, Stock . 63
15. Industries and Manufactures . 66

CONTENTS vii

PAGE

1 6. Mines and Minerals — (i) General — Coal Mines . 70

17. Mines and Minerals — (ii) Metalliferous Mines . 73

1 8. Mines and Minerals — (iii) Quarries ... 76

19. Mines and Minerals — (iv) Lead and Lead Mining 77

20. History of Derbyshire . . . . . . 80

21. Antiquities ........ 89

22. Architecture — (a) Ecclesiastical. Churches and

Crosses . . . . . . . .96

23. Architecture — (b} Religious Houses . . .109

24. Architecture — (c] Military. Castles . . .116

25. Architecture — (d) Domestic . . . . .118

26. Communications, Past and Present — Roads, Canals,

Railways ....... 129

27. Administration and Divisions — Ancient and Modern . 139

28. The Roll of Honour of the County . . -143

29. The Chief Towns and Villages of Derbyshire . 153

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Dovedale from Reynard's Cave. Phot. R. Keene . 5

Upperdale, near Monsal Dale Station on the Wye. Phot.

Frith . . 6

Monsal Dale. Phot. R. Keene 7

Chee Dale. Phot. R. Keene . 8

Dovedale. Phot. R. Keene . 9

Goyt Valley, near Buxton. Phot. Frith . .11

Hope Valley, Castleton. Phot. Frith . .13

Ashop Clough, Kinder Scout. Phot. R. Keene . 15

River Derwent, Hathersage. Phot. Frith . .16

High Tor, Matlock Bath : River Derwent. Phot. R. Keene 1 8
River Wye, Water-cum-Joly, near Miller's Dale. Phot.

R. Keene 19

Ham Rock, Dovedale. Phot. Frith 20

Howden Masonry Dam. Phot. E. Sandeman . . .24
Chee Tor (showing thick horizontal beds in Mountain

Limestone). Phot. R. Keene . . . . .29
Syncline and Anticline in Shales and Limestones, L. and

N. W. R. cutting, Tissington, near Ashbourne. Phot.

H. A. Bemrose ........ 30

Sketch-section across Derbyshire. By permission of London

Geol. Soc. . . . . . . . .31

Black Rocks, Cromford (Millstone Grit). Phot. R. Keene . 33
Boulder Clay, Crich. Phot. H. A. Bemrose . . .36

ILLUSTRATIONS ix

PAGE

Lava and Tufaceous Limestone resting on Limestone, Buxton
Lime Co.'s Quay, near Miller's Dale Station. Phot.

H. A. Bemrose 3 8

Grange Mill Vents from the N.W. Phot. A. T. Metcalfe . 40
Entrance to Peak Cavern, Castleton. Phot. Frith . . 42
Middleton Dale. Phot. Frith ... -43

The Winnats, Castleton. Phot. Frith . -4.5

Dove Holes, Dovedale. Phot. Frith. . . 46

Left Lower Jaw of fells leo, showing milk teeth, about §
(from Hoe Grange Cavern, Longcliffe : Pleistocene)
Phot. Newton & Bemrose .... -49

Upper Canine of Sabre-toothed Tiger, about £ (from
Dove Holes Cave : Pliocene). Phot. Bemrose & Sons,

Ltd 50

Old Silk Mill, Derby. Phot. R. Keene .... 67
Fragment of Rib with Engraving of Horse, Robin Hood

Cave. By permission of London Geol. Soc. . . 91
Bone Needle, Church Hole Cave. By permission of London

Geol. Soc . .91

Bone Awl, Church Hole Cave. By permission of London

Geol. Soc. . . . . . . . .91

Stone Circle, Arborlow. Phot. Frith . . . -93

Mam Tor, Castleton. Phot. Frith 94

Saxon Crypt, Repton. Phot. R. Keene .... 99
Saxon Font, St Chad's, Wilne. Phot. R. Keene . .100
St Michael's, Melbourne. Phot. R. Keene . . 101

The Nave, St Michael's, Melbourne. Phot. R. Keene . 102
St John the Baptist, Tideswell. Phot. R. Keene . .104
All Saints, Chesterfield. Phot. Frith . . . .105

Eyam Cross. Phot. R. Keene 108

All Saints, Bakewell. Phot. R. Keene . . . .no
Repton School. Phot. A. J. Laurence . . . .112
Derby School, St Helen's House. Phot. R. Keene . .113

x ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Dale Abbey Church and Guest-house. Phot. R. Keene . 114
Dale Abbey Hermitage. Phot. R. Keene . 1 1 5

Peveril Castle, Castleton. Phot. Frith . . .116

Codnor Castle. Phot. R. Keene . . . . 117

Dovecote, Codnor Castle. Phot. R. Keene . .119

The Mayor's Parlour, Derby. Phot. R. Keene . .120
The Peacock, Rowsley. Phot. R. Keene. . . .121

Haddon Hall. Phot. R. Keene 123

The Banqueting Hall, Haddon Hall. Phot. Frith . .124
Wingfield Manor. Phot. R. Keene . . . .125

Chatsworth. Phot. R. Keene 126

The Hall, Eyam. Phot. Frith 127

The Presence Chamber, Hardwick Hall. Phot. R. Keene . 128
Derby from the Derwent. Phot. R. Keene . . .130

Cromford Bridge. Phot. R. Keene 132

Road from Castleton to Buxton and Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Phot. Frith . . . . . . .134

Midland Railway Tunnel in Mountain Limestone near

Monsal Dale. Phot. R. Keene 137

Samuel Richardson. Phot. Emery Walker . . .146
John Flamsteed. Old print, Sir Henry Bemrose . .148
Sir R. Arkwright. Phot. Emery Walker . . .150

Hardwick Hall. Phot. R. Keene 152

Bridge over the Wye, Bakewell. Phot. Frith . . .155

The Crescent, Buxton. Phot. Frith 157

Castleton. Phot. Frith 159

Matlock Bath. Phot. Frith 165

Diagrams 171

MAPS

Derbyshire, Topographical .... Front Cover

„ Geological Back Cower

England and Wales, showing Annual Rainfall . . 58

i. County and Shire. The Origin of
Derbyshire.

In his preface to The Making of England, published
thirty years ago, the historian J. R. Green truly remarks
that " Archaeological researches on the sites of Villas and
Towns, or along the line of road or dyke, often furnish
us with evidence even more trustworthy than that of
a written chronicle ; while the ground itself, where we
can read the information it affords, is, whether in the
account of the Conquest or in that of the Settlement of
Britain, the fullest and most certain of documents. Phy-
sical Geography has Still its part to play in the written
record of that human history to which it gives so much
of its shape and form."

During the last thirty years much has been learned
from physical geography in the deposits left in caverns
and in the burying places of early Man. Men have
struggled for mastery in our island against wild beasts,
and have conquered some and domesticated others. Most
of these wild animals have become extinct. Since then,
men have fought with each other and our land has

B. D. i

2 DERBYSHIRE

been invaded again and again by different races of people.
In the struggle for existence the fittest have survived,
and thus have been evolved the present inhabitants of
England.

In treating of the geography of Derbyshire we may
first pause to consider the difference of meaning of the
words u County " and " Shire." Though these are
modern terms they will help us to understand the rela-
tion which our present divisions of the kingdom bear to
the ancient ones. The words " County " and " Shire,"
though now used as equivalent terms, have a very different
origin and carry us back to different conditions in the
political development of our country. The word "Shire,"
of Anglo-Saxon derivation, meaning a portion shorn or
cut off from some larger division of land, implied as a rule
a part of one of the great Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, though
in some cases it was also applied to quite a small division
of a district or even of a town^so that there were once,
for example, six small "shires" in Cornwall, and there
are still seven " shires " in the city of York. The word
u County " is of Norman date and meant the land be-
longing to or ruled by a Comte or Count. More recently
the word county acquired the same meaning as shire, so
that now we speak indifferently of Derbyshire or the
county of Derby. We cannot however call the county
of Sussex, Sussexshire, because the historic counties and
shires owe their origin to different causes. Each name
is a survival of the ancient distribution of tribes which
united to form the English people. Middlesex, Sussex,
and Essex, for example, define the areas of three Saxon

COUNTY AND SHIRE 3

kingdoms, but Derbyshire is a share or portion of the
kingdom of Mercia and is one of those counties which
take its name from the county town.

We will now consider the origin of the word Derby
which has thus given its name to our county.

For about 150 years after the first coming of the
English, the Peakland and the northern parts of the
present county of Derby were held by the Celts or
Welsh. The few Mercians who settled in the hilly parts
of Derbyshire were called Pecsaete, or Settlers in the
Peak, so that the part of England which is now called
Derbyshire narrowly escaped being called Pecsetshire after
the fashion of Dorsetshire or Somersetshire. The word
Derby we owe to the Danes. The Saxon name was
Northweorthig, or Northworth, as it would be now
written. The Danes, probably attracted by the Derby-
shire lead-mines, overran the county and built a fort at
Northweorthig, from which place the valley of the Der-
went and its tributary valleys made access to the lead
mining districts more easy. The Danes changed the
name to Deoraby, which at a later date was abbreviated
to Derby.

'The name Derby is supposed by some writers to
indicate a settlement by the uncleared deer-forest, but
it is more probable that the name was derived from
words expressing a settlement by the water (dwr].j The
first mention of Deorabisair, now Derbyshire, occurs only
two years before the Norman Conquest.

i — 2

DERBYSHIRE

2. General Characteristics. Position
and Natural Conditions.

Derbyshire is an inland county near the centre of
England bounded by Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire,
Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire. Its distance from
the sea and the hilly nature of its surface made it for
many centuries more or less inaccessible.

Though mountainous regions have now a fascination
for lovers of nature, there was a time when people looked
upon them with horror and only fled to them for refuge
from their enemies. A writer about 150 years ago thus
records the experience of some travellers on horseback on
their arrival at Dovedale : " Proceeding towards the edge
of the plain, they came to a precipice of an astounding
height from which was a stupendous view into a deep
valley, the hills rising on the opposite side covered with
wood nearly half a mile perpendicularly."

Though the county with its rivers available for water
power is adapted to many industries, few of them were
fully developed owing, no doubt, to its inland position and
the difficulty of communication. The various industries
were with few exceptions only carried on to meet local,
needs. The earliest and most important of them was
that of lead-mining, but, owing to the low price of the
metal, this has of late years declined. With this exception
Derbyshire was mainly an agricultural county. The in-
troduction of canals, and improvements in the making

6 DERBYSHIRE

and mending of roads, and the later communication by
railways, cheapened the transit of goods and caused a rapid
growth in the industries and population. The utilisation
of coal and .the manufacture of iron created quite a new
and increasing industry in the county, which was rich in
both these minerals.

Upperdale, near Monsal Dale Station on the Wye

During the nineteenth century, although the popu-
lation as a whole increased, the number of persons
engaged in cultivating the land became less, so that
fewer persons were employed in agriculture in 1901 than
in 1841. At present the railway and engineering works,
coal-mines, quarries, and various factories, employ a large

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 7

number of inhabitants, and Derbyshire, which at one time
was an agricultural county, is now essentially a manu-
facturing one.

Derbyshire is noted for its beautiful and varied scenery.
The uplands, or hilly northern portion of the county,
form the southern spur of the Pennine Chain, the back-
bone of England, and rise to a height of more than

Monsal Dale

20OO feet above sea-level. The Peak District, .the
narrow dales and gorges in the limestone in Chee Dale,
Dovedale, and at Matlock, and the various limestone
caverns, are visited annually by a large number of people.
The county is also rich in Prehistoric and Roman re-
mains. Haddon Hall, Chatsworth House, Wingfield
Manor, as well as numerous ecclesiastical buildings, are

8 DERBYSHIRE

objects of interest. Lastly, warm mineral springs at Buxton
and Matlock Bath have made these places for many years
noted as health resorts, to which the surrounding fine
scenery is an added attraction.

Chee Dale

3. Size. Shape. Boundaries.

Derbyshire has a rather irregular outline. Its greatest
length from north to south is about 55 miles, measured
from near Woodseats to Measham, and the greatest
breadth from near New Mills in the west to the Notting-
ham border near Whitwell is 37 miles. The county
encloses an area of 658,885 acres, or nearly 1030 square
miles, and is about the same size as Cheshire.

About half the counties of England are larger than

SIZE SHAPE BOUNDARIES 9

Derbyshire and the remainder smaller, so that in point
of size ^Derbyshire may be considered an average
county. Its shape is so irregular that it is difficult to
describe it concisely. The irregularity is mainly due
to the fact that rivers form about three-fourths of the
boundary. The county is broad in the north and tapers
towards the south. While, as we have seen, its greatest

Dovedale

breadth in the north is 37 miles, the distance from the
Dove near Tissington on the west to Pye Bridge on
the Erewash in the east is only 18 miles, and in the
southern part of the county, the breadth at the latitude of
Burton-on-Trent is only six miles.

Derbyshire is bordered on the north by Yorkshire,
on the east by Nottinghamshire, on the south-east by

10 DERBYSHIRE

Leicestershire, on the west by Staffordshire, and on the
north-west by Cheshire. If we examine a map of the
county, we soon notice that the following rivers form
about three-quarters of the boundaries, viz. the Etheroe
on the north-west, the Goyt, the Dove, and the Trent
on the west, and the Erewash and the Trent again on
the east. The remaining portions of the boundaries are
mainly artificial-^

A peculiarity connected with Derbyshire and the
neighbouring counties may be referred to in this chapter.
On old maps portions of Derbyshire appeared like islands
in Leicestershire, and were entirely separated from Derby-
shire geographically, though for administrative purposes
they formed part of Derbyshire. A similar occurrence is
found in other counties. Under the Local Government
Board Act of 1888 it was provided that these outlying
portions may be added to the district in which they are
situated if both parties interested in the locality agree
to the amalgamation. Portions of Leicestershire were
accordingly transferred to Derbyshire, and portions of
Derbyshire to Leicestershire in the year 1897. In the
year 1894, portions of Nottinghamshire were transferred
to Derbyshire, and the Derbyshire portion of Croxall,
Stapenhill, and Winshill were transferred to Staffordshire.
The boundary of the county had been previously altered
by a part of New Mills being annexed from Cheshire and
a part of Burton-on-Trent being transferred to Stafford-
shire.

12 DERBYSHIRE

4. Surface and General Features.
Peakland and Lowland.

A clear idea of the chief features of the surface of
Derbyshire will enable us better to understand the effect
they have had upon the history and development of the
inhabitants.

The surface of Derbyshire is very varied in character.
An examination of the physical map at the beginning of
this volume, coloured according to the heights of the land
above sea-level, will show that the county may be divided
naturally into two main portions — the uplands and the
lowlands. These differ not only in altitude, but in many
other ways.

The uplands, or the Peak District, as they are called,
form the southern end of the long ridge called the Pennine
Chain which extends through a large portion of England.
The lowlands comprise the southern part of the county.
The lowest parts in the south are slightly more than
100 feet above sea-level, whilst the highest part is Kinder
Scout or the Peak, more than 2000 feet above the sea.
The Peak is not, as its name implies, a point, but a nearly
flat plateau or tableland, higher than any other portion of
Derbyshire, which is situate to the north of Castleton
and the Edale Valley. The name High Peak is applied
to one of the hundreds or divisions of the county and the
name Low Peak to the wapentake of Wirksworth.

The finest scenery is in the uplands. The Mountain
Limestone with its outlines generally smooth and well

SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 13

rounded, with its deep narrow dales and gorges, presents
a marked contrast to the wild moorlands and escarpments
of the Millstone Grits by which it is surrounded. The
latter attain a greater height than the limestone. The
uplands are sparsely populated ; the absence of hedges and
the division of the fields by stone walls are very noticeable.
In the lowlands the fields are flat, many-acred, and divided

Hope Valley, Castleton

by hedges, so that there is a great contrast between the
two portions.

This difference of feature means a difference in the
means of locomotion, and in the amount of rainfall and
snow. In the uplands, as has been well said, the " land
is mountainous, rocky, and wind-swept, and winter longs
to linger far beyond its legitimate time."

There are extensive moorlands in Derbyshire, some
of which once formed part of the ancient forests. The

14 DERBYSHIRE

King's Forest of the High Peak was a wild region in the
thirteenth century. Its bounds began on the south at
Goyt, went down the rivers Goyt and Etheroe, thence
by Langley to the head of the river Derwent, to Mytham
Bridge, Bradwell, Hucklow, and Tideswell ; thence to
the river Wye, and up the Wye to Buxton, so that the
forest included the whole of the north-western portion of
the county.

The Peak Forest, from which the village of Peak
Forest derives its name, does not appear to have been
well wooded at any time, but Duffield Forest, or Duffield
Frith, in the southern part of the county, about five
miles north of Derby, was more fertile and covered with
woods.

5. Watershed and Rivers.

Some of the rivers in Derbyshire and on its borders
flow west into the basin of the Mersey and others east
into that of the Humber. The high land which forms
the division between the two basins is called the water-
shed or divide, though sometimes this word watershed is
used for the sloping ground down which the water flows
on either side of the divide. In order to understand the
position and nature of the river basins and drainage areas
of a country we must know something of its physical
conformation. The great watershed of Central England
passes through the higher parts of Derbyshire, and the
greater portion of the county lies to the east of this

WATERSHED AND RIVERS

15

divide. The actual water-parting passes by the Cat and
Fiddle (Axe Edge), near Buxton, along Rushup Edge
and Cowburn, a little to the east of Kinder Scout, the
western flank of the Peak ; thence it runs northward till
it meets the ridge formed by the northern outcrop of the
Millstone Grit, which it follows for about four miles, and

Ashop clough, Kinder Scout

then strikes away northwards beyond the boundaries of
the county. The streams rising on the west of this line
flow into the Goyt or Etheroe and find their way into
the Mersey. Those on the east flow into the Derwent,
the Don, or the Dove, and finally into the Humber.
The Derwent is the most important river in Derbyshire :
it has the largest drainage area (290,000 acres), and is

16 DERBYSHIRE

65 miles in length. It rises in the moorlands on the
borders of Yorkshire and Derbyshire and forms the
boundary between these counties for a short distance,
but continues for the remainder of its course in the county.
The Alport and Ashop join at Alport Bridge and enter the
Derwent at Ashopton. The Noe flows along the wide
dale of Edale and joins the Derwent at Mytham Bridge.

River Derwent, Hathersage

The Derwent then flows south, passes through Chats-
worth Park, and is joined by the Wye near Rowsley
Station. It then flows along the broad valley of Darley
Dale and at Matlock enters the gorge in the Mountain
Limestone, through which it flows as far as- Willersley.
The river then winds along more open dales to Derby,
and thence takes a tortuous course through a wide alluvial
valley to the Trent on the south-east of the county.

WATERSHED AND RIVERS 17

Other tributaries of the Derwent, in addition to those
mentioned above, are the Amber, which rises on Darley
Moor, the Ecclesbourn River and Bottle Brook coming
from the Wirksworth valley, and the Markeaton Brook,
which flows through Derby.

During its course through the limestone gorge at
Matlock, the Derwent receives no tributaries, but the
volume of water is very much increased by springs from
the Mountain Limestone. In the Derwent basin there
are many old lead-mines which were drained by levels
or "soughs." Meerbrook Sough (now utilised for the
water-supply of Heanor and Ripley) in 1868 yielded
over 1 6 millions of gallons a day, which flowed into the
Derwent.

The river Wye rises near Buxton on the northern
slope of Axe Edge, and collects water in Buxton from
a number of tributary streams both north and south. At
Wye Head an underground stream issues from the lime-
stone and flows through the gardens, where it is joined
by the Serpentine, a stream which rises near Burbage.
The Wye has been well described as "a singularly romantic
river, running in deep rocky ravines, its clear stream
sparkling along a confined and rugged bed." Its course
is at first through the fine gorges of Chee Dale, Miller's
Dale, and Monsal Dale, and then through a more open
country at Bakewell. During the remainder of its course
the river winds about considerably in the neighbourhood
of Haddon Hall.

The Dove, an important tributary of the Trent, rises
on the eastern slope of Axe Edge and drains 95,000 acres.

B. D. 2

High Tor, Matlock Bath : River Derwent

WATERSHED AND RIVERS

19

It is one of our most beautiful streams, and passes through
very fine scenery. It runs through the narrow gorge
of Dovedale and then emerges into a broad and fertile
valley, flows through Rocester and Tutbury, and enters
the Trent at Newton Solney. Throughout the greater
part of its course of 45 miles — during which it falls over

River Wye, Water-cum-Joly, near Miller's Dale

1500 feet — it forms the boundary between Staffordshire
and Derbyshire. It has for many years been noted for
its fishing.

The Erewash, which has a course of about 20 miles,
forms part of the boundary between Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire, and flows into the Derwent.

The Rother, which rises in the N.E. part of Derby-

2 — 2

Ham Rock, Dovedale

WATERSHED AND RIVERS 21

shire, flows through Chesterfield into the Don, and
finally becomes part of the Ouse. The Rother drains
in Derbyshire an area of over 88,000 acres.

The Trent flows through the county for a short
distance and also forms part of the boundary of Derby-
shire, on the west separating the county from Staffordshire
for some eight or ten miles, flowing through Burton, and
on the south-east dividing it from Notts for about half
this distance.

The Goyt and Etheroe separate Cheshire from Derby-
shire, drain about 54,000 acres in Derbyshire, and flow
into the Mersey. The Goyt rises on Axe Edge, and
flows down a picturesque ravine during the earlier part
of its course.

6. Derwent Valley Water Scheme.

The account just given of the rivers of Derbyshire
would not be complete without mention of the Derwent
Valley water scheme. Under this joint scheme the upper
parts of the area drained by the Derwent have been
bought for the purpose of supplying water to Sheffield,
Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester, and to the County of
Derby. The Derwent and the Ashop rise in this area,
which contains 31,946 acres, or 50 square miles of land,
and lies at a height of between 500 and 2OOO feet above
sea level. The rainfall varies from 38 inches in the
southern part to 60 inches in the more elevated regions,
and the average for the whole is about 49 inches.

The Derwent Valley Water Board was established in

22 DERBYSHIRE

1899 in order to reconcile the claims of the authorities of
the four large towns and the county above mentioned.

The method of obtaining the water is by making five
large reservoirs, three on the river Derwent — called the
Howden, Derwent, and Bamford reservoirs — and two on
the river Ashop, the Haglee and Ashopton reservoirs. It
is estimated that the Derwent reservoirs will have an area
of 594 acres, and contain over six thousand million gallons
of water, whilst those in the Ashop valley will have an
area of 319 acres, and hold more than three and a half
thousand million gallons of water. The ultimate scheme,
in addition to the reservoirs, includes the making of about
100 miles of aqueduct for distributing the water, about
2O acres of filter-beds at Bamford, and a service reservoir
at Ambergate.

On account of its magnitude the work has been divided
into three parts or instalments, which will be carried out
as they are required by the people for whose benefit they
are intended. The first portion, consisting of the Howden
and Derwent reservoirs, was commenced eight years ago
and will probably be complete in 1912. It is estimated
that it will deliver 12 or 13 million gallons of water a day
and will cost 2^ million sterling.

The reservoirs are formed by building large dams of
sandstone and concrete across the valley. An idea of the
magnitude of the work and of the method of carrying it
out may be gathered from the following particulars and
from the accompanying illustration of the Howden Dam,
photographed in 1909.

The largest reservoir, called the Bamford reservoir,

DERWENT VALLEY WATER SCHEME 23

will require a dam 1950 feet in length and 95 feet in
height. The Howden and Derwent dams, which are
nearly complete, are 1080 and mo feet in length, and
117 and 114 feet in height respectively, and will together
store 3886 million gallons of water.

The whole of the work of constructing the darns .is
administered by the Derwent Valley Water Board instead
of being let to contractors. The first acts of the Board
were to build a railway seven miles in length from the
Midland Railway at Bamford to the site of the Howden
reservoir, and to construct the village of Birchinlee which
had a population of 869 in December, 1908.

The stone used in making the dams is millstone grit,
obtained from a quarry at Grindleford on the Midland
Railway ; and it is estimated that 1,200,000 tons will be
required for the two first dams. The position for reser-
voirs of this enormous size was determined by the drainage
area for the supply of water, and the nature of the rocks
was necessarily a secondary consideration.

The foundations of the Howden and Derwent dams
are in the shales and sandstones. These beds of rock are
much contorted and crushed, and the ground is not water-
tight. It was, therefore, necessary to make what is called
a watertight " curtain," i.e. a six foot width of concrete
beneath the dam for its whole length and into the hills
at each side. This curtain in the Derwent dam extends
55 feet down below the base of the dam ; so that, although
the dam is only 114 feet high,, the distance from the
foundations of the curtain wall to the top of the dam
(including the dam foundations, 54 feet) is 21 2 feet.

DERWENT VALLEY WATER SCHEME 25

The main aqueduct extends from Howden to Amber-
gate reservoir and is 30 miles in length. The first
instalment of the Ambergate reservoir, which is for
regulating the supply to the towns, will hold 30 million
gallons of water. The water will be distributed from
this reservoir to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and the
County of Derby, by means of pipes. The whole of the
works, including the three instalments, are expected to
cost ^6,000,000, and the additional cost of carrying the
water to the four towns will be slightly over one million
sterling.

7. Geology, (i) Sedimentary Rocks.

s*

In Chapter 4 we saw how the northern part of
Derbyshire differed from the southern and eastern parts.
Not only are there differences of elevation, however, but
also those of soil and of the occupations of the people. In
some places the hard rock comes to the surface and is
quarried as limestone or sandstone, in others coal is being
raised from below the surface of the earth ; in others
again clay forms the surface of the land, and is dug out
and used for making bricks and tiles. There is a reason
why one part is mountainous, another level, one thinly
peopled and agricultural, another populous and industrial,
one barren and another fertile. These variations are due
to the differences between the rocks of which the ground
is composed, and if we would learn why the rocks affect
the" shape and nature of the ground we must turn to
geology for the explanation. \

26 DERBYSHIRE

The word rock is used for any natural stone, whether
it be hard or soft. Thus limestone, sandstone, clay, mud,
and coal are all called rocks by the geologist. The greater
portion of the rocks in Derbyshire are what are called
sedimentary, and have been laid down in water just as
gravel, sand, and mud are deposited by our rivers and
lakes, and as limestone mud is laid down at the bottom
of the sea.

The sedimentary rocks of Derbyshire consist mainly
of clay, shale, sandstone, limestone, and gravel.

A visit to one of the numerous quarries in Derbyshire
or a walk up one of our limestone dales will teach us that
the rocks are arranged in beds or layers of varying thick-
ness, one above another. The materials vary from bed to
bed so that, as at Cromford station, limestone alternates
with shale. It will easily be understood that the beds at
the bottom of the quarry are the oldest, being necessarily
deposited before those above them. This arrangement of
one bed or stratum above another tells us the order in
which the beds have been laid, the oldest being at the
bottom, and the newest at the top.

The oldest beds in Derbyshire consist of Mountain
Limestone, these are followed by the Limestone Shales,
Millstone Grits and Coal Measures, and together form
what is called the Carboniferous or coal series. Above this
series we have the Permian or magnesian limestones and
sandstones, the Bunter Conglomerates and Keuper Marls
or clays with gypsum ; later, the Pleistocene cavern de-
posits, glacial drifts, and clays ; and later still the alluvium,
peat bogs, calcareous tufa, and stalactitic formations.

GENERAL LIST OF THE ROCKS OF DERBYSHIRE.

QUATERNARY

Recent

Pleistocene

(Superficial deposits of Historic
Iron, Bronze, and Neolithic
Ages

l Cavern deposits, Glacial Drift,
j Sands and Clays of Palaeo-
I lithic Age

TERTIARY Pliocene

Cavern deposit of Doveholes

SECONDARY Triassic

[Keuper

I Bunter

(Red Marl with Gypsum
{Waterstones

( Pebble Beds or Conglomerate
\ Lower Mottled Sandstone

PRIMARY

Permian

I Marls and Sandstones

( Magnesian Lime- T ,, . T .

« c«; Lower Magnesian Limestone

stone Series

Coal Measures

V Carboniferous

(Marls and Sandstones

(Middle Coal Measures
Lower or Gannister Series

Millstone Grit Beds of Grit divided by Shales

T. c, , (Shales with thin beds and

LlmeStone Shales J nodules of LImestone

(Limestone with Chert, thin
Shales and Clay partings,
and contemporaneous and
intrusive Igneous Rocks

28 DERBYSHIRE

The rocks earlier than the Carboniferous are not seen
because we have not reached the bottom of the limestone
in Derbyshire. The Jurassic, Cretaceous, Eocene, and
Pliocene rocks are absent from the county, though
deposits of Pliocene age have been found in a cavern at
Dove Holes.

The table overleaf gives a list of the strata found
in Derbyshire. The thickness of some of the beds is
unknown, whilst that of others varies in different parts
of the county. The table denotes therefore only the
relative ages or order of succession of the deposits.

The sedimentary rocks were deposited in more or
less horizontal layers, and some of the beds — as those at
Chee Tor near Miller's Dale — remain horizontal, but in
various parts of the county, in quarries or natural sections,
we can see that the beds of rock are inclined and in some
cases have been bent into arches and troughs. The
amount of inclination is called the dip.

At Cromford station the beds are not level or hori-
zontal, but dip towards Derby and under the Black
Rocks. At Matlock Bath opposite the High Tor the
limestone beds dip rapidly, or at an high angle towards
Derby, but as we walk to Matlock Bridge they become
horizontal, as seen in the face of the High Tor, then roll
over and dip towards Matlock Bridge to the north. What
we see is the section of a dome or inverted basin of beds
of rock, which is called an anticline. If instead of going
to the Bridge we proceed by road to Cromford, we see
that the limestone beds first dip towards Matlock Bath
station, and then rise along the Lovers' Walk, roll over,

Chee Tor
(showing thick horizontal beds in Mountain Limestone)

30 DERBYSHIRE

and dip in the direction of Cromford, forming another
anticline. Between the two anticlines, where the lime-
stone beds dip into the ground, we have what is called
a syncline. We thus learn that the rocks, owing to
lateral or side pressure, have been crumpled in some parts

Syncline and Anticline in Shales and Limestones,
L. and N. W. R. cutting, Tissington, near Ashbourne

of the county. The figure given above shows a well-
marked anticline, and a syncline to the left of it, in the
railway cutting at Tissington.

The structure of the northern part of the county is
shown in the figure on the opposite page which is a rough
section across the Pennine Chain. The beds are folded into

PQ

32 DERBYSHIRE

a broad irregular dome, so that the lowest beds are in the
middle of the area, dip east and west, and are covered
by beds higher in the series. To the east and west of
this dome are the synclinal troughs which form the coal-
fields.

There are several places in the county in which the
Mountain Limestone comes to the surface. But the
largest mass of limestone forms an irregularly-shaped inlier
measuring 20 miles from north to south, and 10 miles
from east to west. Roughly, the beds dip away from the
mass in every direction, the rocks on the east dipping
gently beneath the shales. On the west the dip is greater,
and the rocks are thrown into numerous folds, and often
broken. The thickness of the limestone in Derbyshire is
not known, the beds at the base not having been reached.
The lowest beds seen are near Pig Tor tunnel in the
valley of the Wye, and are about 1800 feet down in the
limestone series.

The limestone varies in structure, composition, and
colour. It is often an almost pure carbonate of lime.
The upper beds are generally thin, and contain bands and
nodules of chert. The limestone is distinguished by the
number of fossil contents, which are mineralised remains
of organisms living in the sea at the time the limestone
was deposited.

The limestones are succeeded by a series of shales,
with thin limestones and limestone nodules, termed the
limestone shales. These are followed by shales and sand-
stones.

Above these we have the Millstone Grit series, which

GEOLOGY

33

has been divided into five divisions by the Geological
Survey. They are found in the northern part of Derby-
shire, and on the east and the west side of the Pennine
Chain. They extend as far south as Little Eaton. The
outcrop of each sandstone bed forms a long ridge with
a sloping surface on one side in the direction of the dip,

•" ••••*?.

Black Rocks, Cromford (Millstone Grit]

and on the other side a steep face or escarpment which is
nearly vertical. These escarpments are locally known as
" edges," and form well-marked features in the landscape.
Amongst the finest of them are Curbar, Froggatt, Barn-
ford, and Derwent Edges on the eastern side of the
county, and the "Black Rocks" near Cromford.

The Coal Measures lie on the east and west of the
B. D. 3

34 DERBYSHIRE

Pennine Chain. In Derbyshire they are divided into the
Middle Coal Measures about 2300 feet in thickness, and
the lower or Gannister series, which is about 1000 feet.
The Middle Coal Measures consist of sandstones, shales,
and clays with ironstones and coal seams. The Gannister
series is made up of flagstones and shales, with thin coal-
seams, under which are floors of gannister. The seams
of coal vary from 2 to 7 feet in thickness.

The fossils in the Coal Measures indicate a great
profusion of vegetable growth during the time when they
were formed. The flora, consisting of some hundreds
of forms, has only distant representatives to-day in the
tree-ferns of tropical swamps. The seams of coal are
composed of compressed and mineralised remains of this
vegetation.

In the east of Derbyshire, the Permian rocks, con-
sisting of limestones, sandstones, and marls, have been
deposited upon the upturned edges of the Coal Measures,
and are found in a narrow strip running north and south.
They were probably formed in isolated basins or inland
salt lakes. The Permian rocks of Derbyshire consist
mainly of the lower magnesian limestones and sandstones.
The scenery of this limestone somewhat resembles that
of the Mountain Limestone, but is on a much smaller
scale.

The Triassic rocks have been divided into the Bunter
and the Keuper. The Bunter in Derbyshire consists of
pebble beds or conglomerate, and the lower mottled
sandstone. It is found in several isolated patches. The
largest extends from Ashbourne by Mugginton to Quarn-

GEOLOGY 35

don, near Derby. It is found at Norbury and Brailsford,
and further south near Breadsall and Morley Dale, and
at Sandiacre in the Erewash valley.

The Keuper beds (or new Red Marl) overlie the
Bunter. They occupy a large tract of country south of
Ashbourne, Breadsall, and Sandiacre, and stretch across
the county in a direction from east to west. The Upper
Keuper consists of red marl and shale with micaceous
sandstone (called skerry) and irregular bands of gypsum.
The Lower Keuper consists mainly of sandstones.

The Keuper beds were deposited on the more or less
tilted edges of the Carboniferous rocks. They cover in
one place Millstone Grit, in another the Yoredale rocks,
and in another the Mountain Limestone. Hence, before
the Keuper period, earth movements took place which
raised the older rocks and exposed them to the action of
the weather.

The Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of Derbyshire
owe their preservation to the fact that they have been
washed into caverns and thus protected from the denuda-
tion or wear and tear of the rocks above them. A brief
description of these deposits will be found in Chapter 10.

The later Pleistocene or glacial deposits consist of
clays, sands, and gravels. Boulders varying in size and
character are often found embedded in the Boulder Clay.
Some of them consist of rocks derived from the district,
others are foreign to it, and must have travelled hundreds
of miles from the places where they once formed part
of the natural rock. These boulders are frequently
much scratched, grooved, and polished from having been

3—2

0

GEOLOGY 37

pressed and rubbed against the rocks of the country over
which they passed, and when the rocky floor is laid bare
by the removal of the clay it has been found to be covered
with scratches and grooves whose bearings indicate the
direction from which the boulders and clay have been
brought. A few years ago, scratches in a N.N.W.
direction were seen on the limestone floor below the
Boulder Clay at Crich.

8. Geology, (ii) Igneous Rocks.

There are some rocks in Derbyshire, locally called
" toadstone," which have had a very different origin from
that of the sedimentary rocks described in the last chapter.
Several good exposures of these rocks may be seen in
travelling by rail from Derby to Miller's Dale. Imme-
diately after leaving Matlock Bath station and just before
entering the High Tor tunnel, a bed of dark-coloured
rock is seen on both sides of the railway cutting. It is
about 70 feet in thickness, with beds of limestone above
and below it. Just before we arrive at Miller's Dale
station there is a bed of similar dark rock at the bottom of
the dale on our right with a bed of white limestone above
it ; whilst in the wall of the cutting on our left hand we
can see traces of a bed of similar dark rock, between
which and that at the bottom of the dale is a stratum
150 feet thick of limestone beds. If we alight at Miller's
Dale and walk a short distance up Priestcliffe Lane
towards Taddington we soon enter the upper bed of dark

38 DERBYSHIRE

rock. These beds have been traced through various
parts of the county and sometimes extend over a number
of square miles and are always interbedded with the lime-
stone. That they were once lava streams is evident on
examination of the rock, which is crystalline in structure,

-:'

Lava and Tufaceous Limestone resting on Limestone,
Buxton Lime Co.'s Quay, near Miller's Dale Station

t — lava^ a = tufaceous limestone, I— limestone

studded with numerous holes or vesicles, some of which
have been filled with carbonate of lime and are called
amygdaloids. There is another variety, also interbedded
with the limestone, which is not a massive rock but made
up of fragments, which vary in size and are arranged in

GEOLOGY 39

thin layers. The fragments, when carefully examined,
are found to be irregular in shape and composed of a vol-
canic glass with numerous small steam holes. They are
due to the breaking up of molten rock in a volcano and
are called lapilli, while the beds of rock are known as
volcanic tuff1.

Beds of tuff may be seen amongst other places at
Litton near Tideswell, in Cressbrook Dale, Tearsall
Farm, near Matlock, and in the Tissington railway cut-
tings. These lava streams and tuff beds tell us that
whilst the limestone was being deposited upon the bed
of the ocean, submarine volcanoes burst forth, welled
out their lava streams, and deposited their tuff on the
sea floor.

The volcanoes from which these outbursts came must
have been buried under further accumulations of materials
on the sea floor, but in a county like Derbyshire where
the limestone is entrenched by deep valleys we might
expect to find traces of the pipes through which the
volcanic material came to the surface.

At Grange Mill, about five miles from Matlock Bath,
are two dome-shaped hills with grassy slopes rising from
the valley to a height of 100 and 200 feet respectively.
They consist mostly of a grey rock with numerous green
lapilli, whilst some parts are of coarser material.

The position of these hills and their relations to the
limestones surrounding them show that they form the
necks or stumps of old volcanoes composed of the material

1 The term Volcanic Ash is sometimes applied to them but though in
popular use is incorrect because the rocks have not been subjected to fire.

40 DERBYSHIRE

which has filled the pipe up which the rock came from
the interior of the earth.

In the limestones which are seen on both sides of the
valley is a bed of volcanic tuff about 90 feet in thickness.
It is higher up in the series of limestone and was probably
thrown out of these vents.

A good section of the tuff may be seen at Shothouse

Grange Mill Vents from the N.W.

Spring on the road from Grange Mill to Winster. Per-
haps the largest vent in Derbyshire is Calton Hill near
Taddington, which is composed of a dark green or black
crystalline rock known as basalt.

There are other vents near Castleton, at Hopton, and
at Kniveton. We also have in Derbyshire some igneous
rocks of a later period than the Carboniferous volcanoes.

GEOLOGY 41

They may be popularly described as volcanoes which
failed to reach the surface of the ground.

After the limestone had become consolidated into
hard rock the molten material from the inside of the
earth pushed its way up into the Mountain Limestone,
across the beds and in some places between them, baking
the limestone with which they came into contact and
making it into a crystalline limestone or marble.

By the agency of denudation the rocks above them
have been removed and valleys have been cut into them
by rivers, so that we are able to find sections which show
their relation to the beds in contact with them. These
intrusive masses, as they are called, are composed of
a coarse-grained crystalline rock, very hard and black or
dark green in colour. In Tideswell Dale a sheet of this
intrusive rock about 70 feet in thickness has baked the
limestone below it into marble for a depth of some feet.
At Peak Forest a similar rock has baked the limestone
beds above it.

In Tideswell Dale and on Masson Hill near Matlock
and at Water Swallows the intrusive rock is quarried for
road-metal.

9. Caverns and Underground Drainage.

There are numerous caverns in Derbyshire in the
upper beds of the Mountain Limestone which are inter-
esting either because of the manner in which they have
been formed, or from their connection with the under-

42

DERBYSHIRE

ground drainage of the district, or lastly from the mam-
malian deposits which some of them contain. In some
parts of the limestone district there are numerous vertical
cavities or "swallow-holes" in the ground, which have
been formed by water dissolving the limestone and carrying
it away in solution. The hamlet of Water Swallows
near Buxton no doubt owes its name to the number of

Entrance to Peak Cavern, Castleton

swallow-holes in its neighbourhood. The water disappears
down these holes and the surface drainage passes under-
ground and dissolves out of the solid rock a system of
chambers and tunnels. The Peak Cavern at Castleton,
which has a magnificent entrance, is an example of a
natural cavern connected with a system of underground
drainage.

CAVERNS 43

The water which runs down Rushup Edge north of
the road from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Castleton, instead
of flowing down the valley in a westerly direction towards
Chapel-en-le-Frith, enters the limestone along a line of
swallow-holes near Perryfoot, at the boundary of the
Mountain Limestone and shales. The water is finally
discharged partly through the caverns, but largely by a

Middleton Dale

spring called Russett Well, and the combined stream,
known as Peak's Hole Water, flows down the valley,
joining the river Noe near Hope.

Another system of underground drainage occurs near
Eyam. The water enters the limestone by swallow-holes
and finds its way to the valley of the Derwent by way of
Middleton Dale. The disappearance of the water down
swallows often results in a dry valley which represents

44 DERBYSHIRE

the old watercourse. Linen Dale near Eyam is one of
these dry valleys, and Great Rocks Dale, through which
the Midland Railway passes between Doveholes and
Buxton Junction, is another. The Winnats and Cave
Dale near Castleton are fine examples of dry valleys.

The Speedwell Cavern and the Blue John mine near
Castleton are partly natural and partly artificial. The
entrance to the Speedwell is at the foot of the Winnats.
A level was driven into the hill to reach some of the lead
veins and entered the New Rake vein at a distance of
750 yards from the entrance. The level now contains
water and visitors are taken in a boat to the large narrow
cavern, which extends to a great height and was hollowed
out by underground waters. A solid platform has been
built on the sloping floor of the cavern and the excess
of water falls over into the lower part known as the
"Bottomless Pit." This pit was explored by the Kyndwr
Club in 1901, and the water at the bottom was found to
be 2O feet deep and 63 feet below the platform.

The Blue John mine consists of large underground
cavities connected by artificial passages, and derives its
name from the variety of fluor spar known as " Blue
John " which is obtained from it. The total distance of
the winding passages is said to amount to more than three
miles. Eldon Hole, a chasm 180 feet deep in the side
of Eldon Hill near Peak Forest, which the writer and
others explored in 1900, is about 100 feet long and 20 feet
wide at the top, and at the bottom measures 36 feet by
29 feet. The floor when reached from the surface is
found to be composed of loose angular blocks of lime-

46

DERBYSHIRE

stone and from it a low archway opens out into a large
cavern, the lowest part of which is 256 feet from the
surface of the ground.

Amongst other caverns shown to visitors are the
Bagshawe Cavern at Brad well near Castleton, the High
Tor, Cumberland, and Jacobs Caverns, Matlock Bath, and
Poole's Hole, Buxton. As a rule the parts accessible to

Dove Holes, Dovedale

the public form but a small proportion of the whole, the
passages sometimes extending to several miles in length.

Water charged with carbonic acid has the property of
dissolving limestone and in this way the caverns have
been formed. As the water evaporates the carbonate of
lime which has been dissolved is re-deposited as beds
of tufa, and in a cavern the drippings from the roof form

CAVERNS 47

stalactites hanging from the roof and stalagmites built up
from the floor which often produce most beautiful effects.
Large deposits of this rock have been formed by the
warm springs at Matlock Bath. Here and in Via Gellia
it is quarried for ornamental rock work.

The " Petrifying Springs " at Matlock Bath, which
issue from the limestone, form deposits of carbonate of
lime on any small objects placed in them and at the
present day along their short course into the Derwent are
forming tufa.

10. Caverns and their Mammalian
Contents.

Many of the caverns of Derbyshire are interesting
because of the records they contain of animals which
existed in England, not only during the later Prehistoric
period, but also during the older Pliocene and Pleistocene
periods. These records consist of bones buried in clay or
cave earth. In some cases a more ancient deposit has
been carried by water to a lower level of the cavern, and
subsequently the upper part of the cavern has been carried
away by denudation or the action of the weather. In
other cases, the animals have lived in the caverns or been
taken into it by hyaenas. Still later, man and domesticated
animals have lived in the cave, and their remains have
been covered up by the deposits of clay and stalagmite.
In this chapter we shall briefly consider some of the more
important of the Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits.

48 DERBYSHIRE

The Dream Cave at Wirksworth was explored by
Dean Buckland in the early part of last century. He
found an almost perfect skeleton of a rhinoceros. The
animal had fallen down an open swallow-hole, and was
buried in the clay and loam introduced by a stream of
water.

At Windy Knoll, near Castleton, is a swallow-hole
in the limestone. It contained bones of the bison, bear,
fox, wolf, and reindeer. Professor Boyd Dawkins con-
sidered that these remains point out one of the routes by
which the bisons and reindeer passed from the east to the
west of England, or from the valley of the Derwent into
the plains of Lancashire and Cheshire.

On the north-eastern boundary of Derbyshire, four
of the Creswell Caverns in the Magnesian or Permian
limestone were explored by the Rev. J. M. Mello and
Professor Boyd Dawkins. They contained remains of
a Romano-British population, with bones of recent
animals. Below these deposits were bones of the cave
bear, hyaena, wolf, bison, deer, lion, mammoth, woolly
rhinoceros, and the modern horse (Equus caballus\ together
with the tools of Palaeolithic man.

In 1902 a cavern in the limestone quarry at Hoe
Grange, near Longcliffe, was broken into. The cavern
was filled with clay and sand, which contained numerous
bones. The writer obtained over 8000 specimens, of
which 4545 were named by Mr E. T. Newton. They
comprised some twenty-seven species of vertebrate animals.
There was no evidence of the presence of man. The
reindeer, which was present at Creswell, was absent from

CAVERNS

49

Longcliffe, and its absence is the more remarkable in that
it occurs in nearly all the lists of animals from Derbyshire
caves. The rhinoceros at Longcliffe is different from the
woolly rhinoceros which has been previously found in
Derbyshire. The horse, though present in most of the
Derbyshire caves, was absent from Longcliffe. The
mammoth (Elephas primigenius) was found at Creswell,
but was absent from Longcliffe, whilst Elephas antiquus
was represented at Longcliffe by a milk tooth only.

Left lower jaw of Felis leo showing milk teeth, about f
(From Hoe Grange Cavern, Longclijfe : Pleistocene]

The fallow deer is supposed to have been introduced
into Great Britain by the Romans, but the large number
of bones of this animal found in the Longcliffe cavern
mingled indiscriminately with those of the other Pleisto-
cene animals proves that it existed in Britain in Pleistocene
times. The occurrence of the lower jaw of a lion's whelp
was said by Professor Dawkins to be " the most important
recorded from any cave in this country."

B. D. 4

50 DERBYSHIRE

A cavern at Dove Holes, 2| miles north of Buxton,
was broken into by the quarrymen prior to the year
1903, and the bones, which were described by Professor
Dawkins, were those of the hyaena, the sabre-toothed
tiger (Machairodus), the mastodon, Elepbas meridionalis,
Rhinoceros etruscus, Equus stenonis (probably the ancestor of
the horse of Pleistocene age and the present day called
Equus caballus] and Cervus etueriarum. These mammalia
belong to the fauna of the Pliocene strata of Britain and
the Continent.

Upper Canine of Sabre-toothed Tiger, about &

(From Dove Holes Cave: Pliocene)

The Dove Holes cave " is the only Pliocene cave yet
discovered in Europe, and is the only evidence yet avail-
able of the existence of the upper Pliocene bone caves
which from the nature of the case must have been as
abundant in Europe as those of the succeeding Pleistocene
age." Professor Dawkins considers that the fragmentary
remains in the cave at Dove Holes were derived from
a den of hyaenas belonging to the Pliocene age, and that
they were conveyed from a higher level into it by water,

CAVERNS 51

and that the cave at Dove Holes escaped the destruction
by denudation because it was a sufficient distance below
the surface of the ground.

Remains of Pleistocene mammalia, frequent in the
river gravels of the southern counties, have been found
in at least one place in Derbyshire. In 1896, the
author and Mr R. M. Deeley obtained the greater por-
tion of the skeleton of a hippopotamus, together with
part of the breast-bone of an elephant and of the femur
of a rhinoceros, in the Derwent gravel at Allenton,
immediately to the south of Derby. These bones are
now in the Museum at Derby.

ii. Natural History.

There are several lines of evidence which lead to the
conclusion that what we call the British Islands formed
part of the continent of Europe at a late geological
period.

The bones of extinct animals found in the caverns
of Derbyshire and other parts of England, and in the old
river gravels, are similar to those found on the continent
and on the bed of the North Sea, especially on the Dogger
Bank. When these animals invaded Great Britain, the
North Sea could not have existed and the English Channel
also, instead of sea, must have been a broad plain or river
valley. The land must therefore have been some
300 feet above its present level. The raised beaches on
some parts of our coasts also point to an elevation of

4—2

52 DERBYSHIRE

the land, while on the other hand the remains of forests
now sunk beneath the sea and only to be seen at low
water show that a sinking of the land has since taken
place. The fact that the number of species is greater
on the Continent than in Britain, and greater in Britain
than in Ireland, shows that Britain was severed by sea
from the Continent before all the European species had
time to establish themselves with us, while even before
this Ireland must have been separated from Great Britain.
The distribution of the flora of Derbyshire is mainly
determined by the climate and the soil. The former
varies to a great extent with the altitude, and the latter
depends upon the rocks from which the soil has been
produced. Different plants thrive best on different soils
and as we proceed from lower to higher ground, the less
hardy plants die out. There is therefore a very rich and
varied flora in a county like Derbyshire. The number of
species of flowering plants which have been noted in the
county is about 1000. The richest part is the Peak
district, including the Mountain Limestone and Millstone
Grit, in which are found subalpine and bog plants. In
the dales are many plants peculiar to the Mountain Lime-
stone. The fragrant lily-of-the-valley flourishes in the
loose dry gravel on the steep limestone slopes of the Via
Gellia and Monsal Dale, the yellow heartsease and white
saxifrage grow well in the banks and fields on the
Mountain Limestone, and the small yews and juniper
bushes form a marked contrast to the white limestone
crags on which they grow in many of the dales and
gorges. The central area, including the Coal Measures,

NATURAL HISTORY 53

is the poorest in plants, and the southern or lowland
part is rich in such plants as are found in simitar districts
of England.

In the parks of Derbyshire are many fine oaks and
Spanish chestnuts, as well as beech, sycamore, elm, horse-
chestnut, and lime. In Darley Dale churchyard is an
ancient yew tree 32 feet in circumference, dating from
Saxon times.

The wild animals of Derbyshire of the present day
differ little from those of other counties. The weasel is
common in all parts of the county. The stoat is rare in
the northern parts, and the fox survives in considerable
numbers in the southern parts, which is hunted, but
is killed in the moorlands, where it is exceedingly rare.
The badger is becoming more rare and the marten and
polecat are extinct. The otter exists in large numbers on
the river Dove, especially in the lower portion, where
protection is given to it by the landowners, but is scarce
in the upper Dove and in the Derwent. The red deer,
which is known to have existed in a wild state in the
Forest of the Peak until about the year 1600, is now
found only in the parks of Chatsworth, Hardwick, and
Calke Abbey. There are about twelve herds of fallow
deer in the county, and many of them may be descended
from the wild fallow deer which inhabited the Peak and
other forests. The herd at Stanton-in-the-Peak, near
Rowsley, consists entirely of the black variety.

Derbyshire is not so rich in birds as some of the other
counties, because its distance from the sea prevents the
visits of maritime birds, and because the greater part of

54 DERBYSHIRE

the county, with the exception of the Trent valley, is
outside the main migration routes.

There is however in Derbyshire an overlapping of
the northern and southern kinds of birds. The lowlands
are a breeding place for such southern species as the
nightingale, and the uplands for such birds as are rarely
found breeding in the central plains of the Midlands.
The ring ousel, a summer visitor to the uplands, and the
meadow pipit, a resident, seldom breed below an altitude
of 1000 feet, whilst the yellow wagtail and red-backed
shrike nearly always breed at a height of less than 500
feet. On the bare uplands bird life is comparatively
scarce.

12. Climate and Rainfall.

The climate of a country or district is, briefly, the
average weather of that country or district, and it depends
upon various factors, all mutually interacting, upon the
latitude, the temperature, the direction and strength of
the winds, the rainfall, the character of the soil, and the
proximity of the district to the sea.

The differences in the climates of the world depend
mainly upon latitude, but a scarcely less important
factor is this proximity to the sea. Along any great
climatic zone there will be found variations in proportion
to this proximity, the extremes being "continental"
climates in the centres of continents far from the oceans,
and " insular " climates in small tracts surrounded by sea.
Continental climates show great differences in seasonal

CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 55

temperatures, the winters tending to be unusually cold
and the summers unusually warm, while the climate of
insular tracts is characterised by equableness and also by
greater dampness. Great Britain possesses, by reason of
its position, a temperate insular climate, but its average
annual temperature is much higher than could be expected
from its latitude. The prevalent south-westerly winds
cause a drift of the surface-waters of the Atlantic towards
our shores, and this warm-water current, which we know
as the Gulf-stream, is the chief cause of the mildness of
our winters.

Most of our weather comes to us from the Atlantic.
It would be impossible here within the limits of a short
chapter to discuss fully the causes which affect or control
weather changes. It must suffice to say that the conditions
are in the main either cyclonic or anticyclonic, which
terms may be best explained, perhaps, by comparing the
air currents to a stream of water. In a stream a chain
of eddies may often be seen fringing the more steadily-
moving central water. Regarding the general north-
easterly moving air from the Atlantic as such a stream, a
chain of eddies may be developed in a belt parallel with
its general direction. This belt of eddies, or cyclones as
they are termed, tends to shift its position, sometimes
passing over our islands, sometimes to the north or south
of them, and it is to this shifting that most of our weather
changes are due. Cyclonic conditions are associated with
a greater or less amount of atmospheric disturbance ;
anticyclonic with calms.

The prevalent Atlantic winds largely affect our island

56 DERBYSHIRE

in another way, namely in its rainfall. The air, heavily
laden with moisture from its passage over the ocean,
meets with elevated land-tracts directly it reaches our

shores the moorland of Devon and Cornwall, the Welsh

mountains, or the fells of Cumberland and Westmorland

and blowing up the rising land-surface, parts with this

moisture as rain. To how great an extent this occurs is
best seen by reference to the accompanying map of the
annual rainfall of England, where it will at once be
noticed that the heaviest fall is in the west, and that it
decreases with remarkable regularity until the least fall
is reached on our eastern shores. Thus in 1906, the
maximum rainfall for the year occurred at Glaslyn in the
Snowdon district, where 205 inches of rain fell ; and the
lowest was at Boyton in Suffolk, with a record of just
under 20 inches. These western highlands, therefore,
may not inaptly be compared to an umbrella, sheltering
the country further eastward from the rain.

The above causes, then, are those mainly concerned
in influencing the weather, but there are other and more
local factors which often affect greatly the climate of a
place, such, for example, as configuration, position, and
soil. The shelter of a range of hills, a southern aspect,
a sandy soil, will thus produce conditions which may
differ greatly from those of a place — perhaps at no great
distance — situated on a wind-swept northern slope with
a cold clay soil.

It is interesting to know how rainfall is measured, and
how its distribution is recorded. When a meteorologist
speaks of the mean rainfall at Buxton being 52 inches, he

CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 57

means that if all the rain which falls upon a level piece
of ground in Buxton during an average year could be
collected without waste, at the end of the year it would
form a layer of water which would cover the piece of
ground to a depth of 52 inches. The weight of such
a mass of water is very great, as may be realised from the
fact that one inch of rain is equivalent to 100 tons of
water on each acre. The rainfall of course varies from
day to day and year to year. Thus in 1882, one of
the wettest years on record, the rainfall at Buxton
was 65-86 inches, whereas during 1887 it was only
32-38 inches.

The rainfall for a number of years in Great Britain
has been measured and recorded by voluntary observers,
whose records have been published annually in British
Rainfall from 1860 to the present time. The results
thus obtained are shown on the map illustrating this
chapter. From this it is plain that the heaviest rainfall
is in the Welsh and Cumberland hills and in Cornwall.

A similar map for Derbyshire was made by Dr Barwise,
and published in 1899, in the "Report upon the Water-
Supplies of Derbyshire " by himself and Mr J. S. Story.
The mean rainfall varied from below 25 inches to over
50 inches. The heaviest rainfall in the county occurred
near Woodseats in the Derwent basin and at Fairfield,
near Buxton, whilst over the strip of land between Derby
and the river Trent containing Wellington and Alvaston
the lowest rainfall was recorded.

In 1907 the highest rainfall in Derbyshire was at
Bleaklow Stones, 2060 feet above sea level in the Peak

GEORGE PHIUPtSON LT.

(The figures give the approximate annual rainfall in inches.}

CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 59

district, where it measured 64 inches. At Derby it was
28*38 inches, or rather more than two inches above the
average of 30 years.

In Derbyshire there are few records of temperature
over a series of years compared with those of rainfall.
The mean temperature for twenty years (1881-1900) at
9 a.m. at Buxton, 987 feet above sea level, was 46*1°
Fahr., and at Belper, 344 feet above sea level, 46-8°. At
both places July was the hottest month and January the
coldest. The mean temperature at Buxton for 20 years
(1881-1900) was 45*2° Fahr., and at Belper 47*3°.

Buxton is the only place in Derbyshire where regular
records of sunshine have been made. The average of five
years (1904-1908) was 1334 hours. The 1313 hours of
sunshine at this place in the year 1907 may be con-
trasted with the 1666 hours at Cromer, the 1234 hours
at Westminster, and the 894 hours at Manchester in the
same year.

13. People and Population.

Little is known about the earliest inhabitants of
Derbyshire. They were probably men of the Palaeo-
lithic or Early Stone age, who lived by hunting and
fishing at the time when England was joined to the
Continent. They dwelt in caverns, and were without
domestic animals or a knowledge of agriculture. These
men were succeeded by those of the Neolithic or New
Stone age who lived in rude huts in spaces which they had
cleared in the forests. They had domesticated the goat,

60 DERBYSHIRE

ox, sheep, dog, horse, and hog, had cultivated wheat and
flax, possessed some knowledge of spinning and weaving,
and understood the art of making pottery by hand.

When Julius Caesar invaded Great Britain he found
that the Britons belonged to various races, used different
languages, and were in different stages of civilisation.
The people inhabiting Derbyshire were called by the
Romans Coritani.

The Romans had three forts in Derbyshire, viz.
Little Chester, Brough, and Melandra Castle. Derventio
(Little Chester) was the most southerly of the system of
the North British auxiliary forts held by the Romans.
That this county was then of importance is shown by the
Roman " pigs " of lead which have been found in Derby-
shire, and the extensive system of Derbyshire roads in
Roman times.

On the retirement of the Romans at the dawn of the
fifth century, the Celts or Welsh were left in possession
and retained a large part of the Peakland for 150 years.
They were disturbed by hordes of Picts from Scotland,
and by Saxons from Northumbria. The Saxons soon
settled in parts of Derbyshire, and founded the kingdom
of Mercia. Those who settled in the Peak were called
Pecsaetas or Peak settlers, and the county might have
been called Pecsetshire. Some of the Celts were driven
away and others gradually became absorbed in the Saxon
or Mercian population. Northweorthig (now Derby)
was held by the Saxons for three centuries, and Repton
shared with Tamworth the " Capitalship " of Mercia.
Ethelfrith in the seventh century took a large part of the

PEOPLE AND POPULATION 61

Peakland from the Celts or Britons, and thus considerably
extended his kingdom. The country was invaded by the
Northmen or Danes, who were attracted by the lead, and
then settled here. They changed the name Northweorthig
to Derby, the termination "by" denoting its Scandinavian
origin. They took the north part of the kingdom as one
of their five "burghs," each ruled by its own earl.

There was much righting between the Saxons and
the Danes until in 941 A.D. King Edmund finally freed
from Danish rule the five burghs and all Mercia "long
time constrained by heathen men in captive chains."

The ancient or geographical county of Derby con-
tains, according to revised returns, an area of 658,885
statute acres. Its population numbered 620,322 persons
in 1901. In 1 80 1 the population was only 161,567.
It has therefore nearly quadrupled during the century.
When the census was taken in 1901, there were
610,522 people in the Administrative County of Derby,
105,912 of whom were in the county borough of
Derby. About three-fifths of the people live in towns
or in urban districts and the remainder in villages or in
rural districts.

The average number of persons to a square mile is
600 in Derbyshire, compared with 558 for the whole of
England and Wales, so that the density of its population
is slightly above the average. The census of 1901 shows
that there were more males than females in Derbyshire.
The former numbered 306,545 and the latter 303,977.

Of the 620,322 persons enumerated in the county of
Derby, 431,803, or 69*6 per cent., were born within the

62 DERBYSHIRE

county, 5310 were born in London, 3882 in Ireland,
2580 in Wales and Monmouthshire, 2321 in Scotland,
and 997 in British colonies and dependencies. Persons of
foreign birth numbered 1341 ; 859 of these were British
and naturalised British subjects, and 482 foreigners.
Only 2ii persons were enumerated as having passed the
night of the census of 1901 in barns, sheds, and caravans.

The main occupations of the people were as follows : —
the men were chiefly engaged in the mining and metal
industries, in agriculture, on railways, in house-building,
and other trades ; while the women following occupations
were mainly domestic servants, workers in cotton, hosiery,
and lace, dressmakers and milliners.

There were 356 blind persons, 362 deaf and dumb,
and 1692 lunatics and imbeciles in Derbyshire, 1202 of
the latter being inmates of institutions. It should be
noted that the numbers of persons enumerated as suffering
from one or another infirmity are affected by the presence
or absence of institutions in which many of such persons
might be resident. Thus of the 198 persons enumerated
as deaf and dumb in the county borough of Derby, 155
were in the Royal Institution for the Deaf and Dumb,
the use of which is not confined to the inhabitants of the
borough.

AGRICULTURE 63

14. Agriculture— Main Cultivations,
Woodlands, Stock.

The agricultural character of Derbyshire is as varied
as its surface. The meadows on the banks of the Trent,
Derwent, and Dove in the southern lowlands of the
county provide a rich pasture, but the northern uplands
are poor grazing land and in some parts yield only a
scanty herbage. The red marl or clay and the gravels in
the arable district south of Derby are productive, whilst
the limestones in the north are generally unsuited for
anything but permanent pasture. The coal districts in
the eastern part of Derbyshire are mainly devoted to the
getting of coal and to allied industries. The statistics of
the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for the year 1906
deal with 650,370 acres in the county of Derby ; of
which 35,274 acres are mountains and heath, and 3958
water.

The total acreage of cultivated land according to the
returns made in 1906 was 489,322 acres, of which 450,128
acres are occupied by tenants and 39,194 acres are farmed
by the owners. The total number of holdings is 11,481,
of which 2392 are above one and less than five acres,
6129 are above five and less than 50 acres, whilst not
more than 2870 are above 50 acres and only 90 above
300 acres. The average size of the Derbyshire farm is
42*6 acres. So that though Derbyshire is not a great
agricultural ^county, the small farm system is not only
common, but in many cases the farm has consisted of

64 DERBYSHIRE

much the same acreage for several hundred years and has
been farmed by the same family for many generations.

The vegetable products of Derbyshire — as well as of
all the counties— are arranged by the Board of Agri-
culture under the following divisions : — Corn Crops,
Green Crops, Sainfoin and Grasses for Hay, Other Crops,
and Small Fruit. The portion of land which does not
produce any of these crops is described as Bare Fallow,
and in our county this comprised only 1749 acres in the
year 1906.

The corn crops are grown on 41,206 acres and con-
sist of wheat, barley, oats, rye, and beans and peas. Thus
about one-fifteenth of the area of Derbyshire is devoted
to these crops. Oats and wheat are the most important ;
barley being grown on 5034 acres only.

The green crops cover about 18,000 acres, or one
thirty-sixth of the county. They consist of turnips and
swedes, mangold, potatoes, cabbage, and vetches or tares.

A somewhat larger portion of the county, viz. 24,358
acres, or about one twenty-seventh of its area, is devoted
to the growing of clover, sainfoin, and grasses. Nearly
three-fourths of this produce is " for hay," the remainder
is "not for hay," but the land is broken up in rotation.
The largest portion of agricultural land in Derbyshire is
used for Permanent Pasture, or grass not broken up in
rotation. This area of permanent pasture measures no
less than 402,857 acres, or nearly two-thirds of the entire
area of the county. The proportion of arable land to
permanent grass land is a little over one-fifth r

The woodlands of Derbyshire, though formerly more

AGRICULTURE 65

extensive, covered only 25,852 acres in the year 1906.
Coppice woods (or those which are cut over periodically
and reproduce themselves naturally by stool shoots) and
plantations form only a small proportion of the whole
woods.

The animals reared in Derbyshire for various purposes
are divided into four classes, viz. horses, cattle, sheep,
and pigs. In the year 1906 cattle numbering 142,450
formed the largest class : the number of sheep was
nearly the same as that of cattle, 140,773. The number
of horses was 28,472, and of pigs 27,751. The greater
number of horses are used for agricultural purposes, whilst
the cows are reared to supply milk for the towns of Derby-
shire and for Liverpool, Manchester, and Stockport.

In the south-western part of the county condensed
milk is largely manufactured. In 1901, the Anglo-Swiss
Condensed Milk Company started works which have had
a great influence on the agriculture of this part of the
country. The supply of milk is derived from Derbyshire
and Staffordshire, and the maximum daily quantity is
about 20,000 gallons in summer and 10,000 in winter.
The annual output consists of about 15 million tins of
condensed milk, which are mainly exported to the British
colonies.

Cheese-making, which some fifty years ago was so
great an industry, has become almost extinct except in
large factories. The reason for this is that the railway
system increased the facilities for selling milk in London,
Liverpool, Manchester, and Stockport.

B. D.

66 DERBYSHIRE

15. Industries and Manufactures.

Derbyshire in early times was mainly an agricultural
county and, with the exception of lead-mining, industries
were only worked to supply local needs. But since the
seventeenth century, when the mining industries made
a great advance, and in the nineteenth century, when rail-
ways came in and enabled coal to be applied more largely
to industrial purposes, there has been a rapid advance in
industry and a decline in agriculture.

The census returns taken every ten years show the
changes which have taken place. The number of people
engaged in agriculture in 1841 was over 18,000 ; this rose
to 26,000 in 1 86 1 , and fell to below 1 6,000 in 1901. The
numbers engaged in the textile trades rose from 11,000 in
1841 to 22,000 in 1 86 1, and fell to below 13,000 in 1901,
whilst those employed in the hosiery and lace industries
fell from 8000 in 1841, to 4000 in 1871, and rose to
nearly 9000 in 1901.

The mining and iron trades have during the same
period rapidly increased. The iron trades employed about
four times as many persons in 1901 as in 1841. The
increase in mining was much greater. The number of
persons employed in mining in 1901 was more than six
times as great as in 1841. The knitting of stockings by
hand was a domestic industry throughout Derbyshire
before the invention of the stocking frames. In 1758
Jedediah Strutt, a native of Derbyshire, invented a rib
machine for attaching to Lee's Stocking Frame. The
stockings knitted on this machine were known as "Derby

INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES 67

ribs," and the industry spread rapidly over the midland
counties. These frames were often in the homes of the
worker, but the factory system has caused the aggregation
of the trade in the centres of Derby, Ilkeston, Heanor,
and Long Eaton.

Silk was manufactured in Derby in the eighteenth
century. The first textile silk-mill in England was erected

Old Silk Mill, Derby

by John Lombe on an island in the river Derwent which
was rented from the Corporation. This mill was at work
until a few years ago but has since been removed by the
Corporation. During the nineteenth century the industry
rapidly increased, but after 1861 declined, owing to the
competition with France, and in 1901 there were only
about 600 persons employed in the county in the manu-
facture of silk.

5—2

68 DERBYSHIRE

The cotton trade, which is now an important industry
in Derbyshire, began in 1771, when Richard Arkwright
patented the "water-frame" and subsequently made other
improvements in the manufacture of cotton. He left
Nottingham, where horse-power was used, for Cromford,
at which place he utilised the water-power of the river
Derwent. The removal of the excise duty on calico in
1774 revolutionised the cotton industry, which spread
rapidly in Derbyshire, and many new mills were built at
Belper and Milford by the Strutts, who were partners
of Arkwright, and at Glossop. The improvement of
bleaching and dyeing and the introduction of cotton
printing was a natural result of the growth of the cotton
trade. The former trades are now carried on near Glossop
and Matlock.

Paper is manufactured at Glossop, New Mills, and
Hayfield in the Mersey watershed, and at Bonsall and
Little Eaton in the Derwent watershed.

Pottery and china manufacture are also important
industries. Pottery was made at Duffield during Nor-
man times, and at Dale Abbey and Repton paving tiles
were manufactured in the fourteenth century. In the
eighteenth century brown pottery was made in many
places in Derbyshire, and at the present day pottery works
at Codnor Park, Derby, Ripley, Langley Mills, Ilkeston,
Swadlincote, and Hartshorne employ a large number of
hands.

Derby is specially noted for its china industry. The
first china works in Derby were established by Duesbury
on the Nottingham Road. At a later date he bought the

INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES 69

Chelsea china factory, and plant at Bow, and afterwards
closed these two works and manufactured only in
Derby. The china works remained for three genera-
tions in the Duesbury family, and after passing through
several employers were discontinued in 1845. In 1877
Mr Phillips, who came from the Worcester Royal Porce-
lain Works, revived the manufacture of china in Derby
on a new site, and in 1890 the Company received the
honorific title of Royal and became the Derby Royal
Crown China Company.

The iron trade is now the most important industry of
Derbyshire, with the exception of coal mining) (dealt with
in the next chapter). After the middle of the seventeenth
century the trade in iron increased, but at the close of
that century it declined rapidly because of the importa-
tion of cheap Swedish iron and the expense of procuring
charcoal for the furnaces and forges.

About the middle of the eighteenth century the sub-
stitution of coke for charcoal created a great revival of
the iron industry, which has been maintained to the
present day. From the census returns of 1901 it appears
that engineers and machine-makers formed by far the
greater proportion of the iron-workers in Derbyshire.
The railway men at Derby, however, form an impor-
tant branch of this trade. The locomotive and carriage
works there employ a great number of hands, and
according to the census of 1901, over twelve thousand
men were employed for the conveyance of persons and
goods on railways in the county.

70 DERBYSHIRE

16. Mines and Minerals, (t) General-
Coal Mines.

The mines and minerals of Derbyshire are so numer-
ous and interesting that several chapters will be required
to describe them. The language of commerce uses the
terms minerals and metals in a more or less general sense
for the materials forming the crust of the earth which
have been obtained either from the surface of the ground,
from pits or quarries, or from greater depths in mines.

Each year the Home Office publishes reports of its
inspectors of mines. These reports contain information
about inspections under three sets of Acts of Parliament
— the Coal Mines Regulation Acts, the Metalliferous
Mines Regulation Acts, and the Quarries Act. Interesting
information is given about the minerals worked, the
number of people employed, and the quantities of minerals
obtained, and it is convenient therefore to divide our
subject into three portions — the coal mines and minerals
connected with them, the metalliferous mines, and the
quarries ; though lead-mining, being such an old and
important industry, will have a separate chapter.

In the year 1906, according to Mr Stokes' report, the
number of people employed in Derbyshire in coal mines
was 51,904, in metalliferous mines 482, and in quarries
3927. From the coal mines 16,647,224 tons were raised,
from the metalliferous mines 46,194, and from quarries
2,5^79,840 tons.

Coal is the most important and most largely worked

MINES AND MINERALS 71

mineral in Derbyshire. It is obtained from three separate
coalfields — the North Derbyshire, which is part of the
Lancashire coalfield ; the Leicestershire and South Derby-
shire ; and the Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire
coalfield, on the east of the latter county. Although
the presence of coal near to the ironstone must have
been known at an early date, we have no evidence to
show how early coal was worked in our county. From
a charter of Edward II we learn that in 1315 the coals
from Derbyshire were used in the monasteries, and the
monks of Beauchief Abbey were supplied with coals from
mines near Alfreton and Norton.

The amount of coal raised in Derbyshire has increased
rapidly each year. Since the year 1808 when a little over
a quarter of a million tons were carried by the Cromford,
Erewash, and Nottingham Canal, the output has in-
creased, as we have seen, to more than sixteen and a half
million tons in the year 1906. There are about 176 coal
mines in Derbyshire, and of the 52,000 people employed
in them slightly over 41,000 worked underground, and
only between ten and eleven thousand above ground.
Females have not been employed in Derbyshire coalpits,
but before the middle of the nineteenth century boys as
young as five years of age were employed for driving the
donkeys and hauling the baskets of coal. The Mines
Act of 1872 prohibited the employment of very young
children in mines, and led to improvements in the methods
of mining.

The coal is worked at varying depths in Derbyshire,
from 100 to as much as 1700 feet below the surface of

72 DERBYSHIRE

the ground. In 1899 about as much coal was raised
from the last 600 feet as from the first 400 feet, and by
far the greatest quantity was obtained at a depth of be-
tween 500 and 1000 feet. In some places the coal is
worked at the surface, but in Derbyshire only 4759 tons
were obtained from quarries in 1906.

There are several important minerals which occur in
the coal-measures in Derbyshire, and are worked in the
collieries. These are ironstone, fireclay, gannister, and
pyrites.

The Derbyshire ironstone is what is commonly called
clay ironstone, and is found nearly throughout the whole
depth of the coal-measures in the eastern coalfield of the
county. Formerly a large quantity was raised in Derby-
shire, but Northamptonshire ore, which is much easier to
get, is now largely imported into Derbyshire. In 1906,
only 5485 tons of ironstone were raised in Derbyshire,
against 56,874 raised in Northamptonshire.

A large quantity of fireclay is obtained from the
Derbyshire coalfield. This clay contains little or no
iron, lime, or alkali, and will stand intense heat without
melting. In 1906, 72,389 tons were raised in Derby-
shire.

Gannister, a hard and fine grained sandstone consisting
of silica, sometimes forms the floors of the seams of coal
in the lower measures. It is used in some places for
road-metal and when ground down and mixed with fire-
clay makes excellent fire-bricks, or forms fire-resisting
lining for the inside of furnaces. In 1906, 367 tons were
obtained from mines and noo tons from quarries.

»

MINES AND MINERALS 73

Pyrites, a mineral composed of sulphur and iron, is
frequently found in nodules and in thin layers in coal
seams. It deteriorates the value of the coal in which it
occurs, and gives much trouble in sorting the coal for
iron smelting, but it is used largely for the production of
sulphuric acid. Some 1774 tons of it were raised in
Derbyshire in 1906.

17. Mines and Minerals, (if) Metalli=
ferous Mines.

Of the 482 persons employed in metalliferous mines
in Derbyshire in 1906, the report states that 297 worked
below ground and 185 above ground. The quantity of
material raised was 46,194 tons, and we may divide the
material into two classes, firstly that consisting of gypsum,
chert, ochre, and umber, which as commercial products
are never found in association with lead ore ; and secondly
the minerals such as barytes, calc spar, and fluor spar,
which often form the matrix enclosing a lead vein ; and
zinc ore, which is often found in lead-mines.

Alabaster or gypsum (sulphate of lime) is said to have
been raised from Chellaston as early as the fourteenth
century. It is obtained by sinking shafts or driving levels
into the ground (i.e. horizontal tunnels) and then cutting
out in headings, from which the blocks of gypsum are
taken out. Though it is now mainly used for making
plaster of Paris, the whiter variety called alabaster was
used for ornamental purposes. The pulpit and entrance

74 DERBYSHIRE

to the choir in St Luke's Church, Derby, and tombs in
the churches at Bakewell and Ashbourne are wrought
in alabaster. Plaster of Paris is made by baking the
gypsum in ovens, and thus evaporating what is called its
water of crystallisation, the mineral falling into a white
powder. The powder is used for statues, medallions,
casts of all sorts, paper-glazing, and many other purposes.
The output from Derbyshire in 1906 was 7381 tons.

The mining of chert is a characteristic Derbyshire
industry. The chert of commerce is a silicious limestone
used in making china and porcelain which is found in thick
beds in the neighbourhood of Bakewell. Its crystalline
structure differentiates it from the nodules and layers of
chert in the upper beds of Mountain Limestone. The
chert is obtained in large blocks by taking away the lime-
stone underneath the bed of chert and letting the latter
fall by its own weight. In 1906, 3612 tons of chert
were obtained from mines and 150 tons from quarries in
Derbyshire. A large quantity is sent to the potteries
in Staffordshire.

Umber, ochre, and manganese " black wad " are used
in the manufacture of paints. In 1906, 74 tons of ochre
from mines, in addition to no tons from quarries; and
63 tons of umber from mines were obtained in Derby-
shire. These substances are found in cavities in the
limestone into which they have at some time been
introduced by water.

Barytes, locally termed ucauk," is a heavy mineral
often found in lead-mines. Formerly this mineral was
thrown away on to the old hillocks surrounding the

MINES AND MINERALS 75

mines. Of late years, since its commercial value has
been recognised, it has been obtained from the old tip
heaps. It is largely used for adulterating white lead, and
probably enters into the composition of paint. It is also
used for coating papers upon which impressions from
"process" blocks are made. In 1906, 326 tons of barytes
were raised in Derbyshire.

Calc spar, or crystallised carbonate of lime, is chiefly
found associated with lead ore. Some large specimens
have been used for ornamental purposes, but it is chiefly
used for garden walks. For this purpose it is broken up
and sifted. In 1906, 1298 tons were obtained from mines
and 700 tons from quarries.

Fluor spar, or fluoride of lime, is sometimes called
fluxing spar, because the commoner varieties are used in
smelting copper ores and in plate-glass making. "Blue
John " is the name given to the dark purple concretionary
spar found in the Blue John mine, and it is much used
for making ornaments, which fetch a good price. Fluor
spar is used for making one of the most penetrating and
corroding acids known, called fluoric acid. This has the
property of corroding glass, and is kept in leaden vessels,
on which it has no action.

In working the old lead mines, fluor spar and other
minerals were thrown aside as useless, so that in the old
hillocks or refuse heaps there are large quantities of fluor
spar. During the last few years the value of the fluor
spar refuse has been discovered, and large quantities have
been sent away for fluxing purposes to various parts of
England and America. In 1906, 26,984 tons were

76 DERBYSHIRE

obtained from mines or mine hillocks, and 700 tons from
quarries.

The amount of zinc ore raised in Derbyshire was
only 766 tons in 1906. Little attention to the ores of
zinc was paid until the eighteenth century. They are
often associated with lead ore.

18. Mines and Minerals. (Hi) Quarries.

Limestone or carbonate of lime is the most widely
distributed mineral in Derbyshire. The quantity quarried
in 1906 was more than twice as great as that of all the
other minerals taken together, and amounted to 1,841,875
tons. It covers a large area of ground in the northern
part of the county from Castleton in the north to near
Ashbourne and Wirksworth in the south, and is associated
with some of the finest scenery. It is used in the manu-
facture of iron, chemicals, and lime, as a metal for roads,
and for building purposes. A large quantity of limestone
is burnt at Buxton, Ambergate, and Small Dale near Peak
Forest Station. The stone is broken up and burnt in
special kilns. The carbonic acid which it contains is
driven off and the resulting product is quicklime.

The limestone in the eastern part of Derbyshire is of
a different kind and contains magnesia as well as lime.
The Houses of Parliament are partly built of magnesian
limestone from near Bolsover.

The sandstones of Derbyshire vary very considerably
in colour and texture. They are used for paving, building,
and roofing, and for making millstones. Some of the

MINES AND MINERALS 77

millstone grit is used for engine beds, and other founda-
tions where strength and weight are required. This
rock has been used largely for buildings. St George's
Hall Liverpool, Chatsworth House, and Buxton Crescent,
are built of Derbyshire gritstone.

In addition to the above-mentioned minerals, large
quantities of clay, brick-earth, marl, and shale are
quarried, as well as gravel and sand.

19. Mines and Minerals, (iv) Lead and
Lead Mining.

The oldest industry in Derbyshire is that of lead-
mining and smelting.

The majority of mines have been worked out, or
abandoned owing to the difficulty of getting rid of water,
the expense of obtaining the ore, and the great fall in the
price of lead. The only mine at which any quantity of
lead is being raised at the present day is the Mill Close,
near Darley Dale, in the upper beds of the Mountain
Limestone. The large number of old mine-heaps or
hillocks and of old shafts bear witness to the vast amount
of lead-mining which has been done in Derbyshire.

The discovery of pigs or blocks of smelted lead with
Latin inscriptions proves that lead ore was raised and
smelted in Derbyshire during the Roman occupation of
Britain.

Since the Roman invasion some of the mines appear
to have belonged to various religious houses, and became

78 DERBYSHIRE

the property of the Crown at a very early period. The
lead-mining industry in Derbyshire is governed by curious
customs and rights which have existed for many centuries.
A poem composed by Edward Manlove, printed in 1653,
and a book called The Articles and Customs of the King's
Field in the High Peak of Derbyshire, published in 1601,
give in detail the old customs and rights of lead-mining.
These mining rights were confirmed by Acts of Parlia-
ment passed in the years 1851 and 1852.

In certain parts of the county anyone may search or
dig for lead without asking for the permission of the
owner or occupier of the land, and the latter cannot claim
compensation. This is subject to the condition that the
miner finds lead ore and pays a dish of lead to the bar-
master. The miner is entitled to sufficient surface on
which to deposit his hillock of waste material, a way to
the highway or road most convenient from the mine, and
a right of waterway to the nearest stream of running
water. The only satisfaction the owner of the land gets
for annoyance and loss is the right to sell any other
mineral except lead which the miner may bring to the
surface.

The miner had to pay dues to the Crown, the Duchy
of Lancaster, the barmaster, and in some places to the
church of the district. The royalty to the Crown was
a certain rate per dish, a dish containing about 472 cubic
inches. The barmaster even at the present day carries
his dish with him to measure the ore. The standard
dish for the wapentake of Wirksworth is of brass, and is
kept at the Moot Hall, Wirksworth.

LEAD AND LEAD MINING 79

The lead ore chiefly worked is galena or sulphide of
lead, which contains a small quantity of silver (two to
four ounces per ton). The ore occurs in veins known to
the miners as "rakes," "pipes," and "flats." A rake
vein is generally an almost vertical fissure or crack in
the limestone, and " serins " are strings of ore which
branch off from the rake and form smaller veins. The
ore occurs in ribs with layers of calcite or fluor arranged
more or less parallel to the walls of the rake or vein.
Pipe veins are irregularly-shaped hollows or pockets in
the limestone, generally parallel to the bedding-planes
and often connected with one another by a crack filled
with clay or spar called a leader. A flat is not so common
as the rake or pipe veins. It is generally found along
the junction of two beds of limestone, and consists of a
low flat chamber with the roof and floor only a few feet
apart : it seldom has any leaders connected with it.

We can readily understand from the chapters on
caverns and underground streams that the miner must
often have met with volumes of water greater than
pumping engines could cope with. Before steam-engines
were introduced, the miners drove adits through the
limestone with their mouth on a river or brook-side, so
that water running out found its way into the natural
drainage of the district. These artificial underground
channels for carrying away the water from the mines are
called "soughs." The Hill Car and Meerbrook soughs
are the longest in the county. The former, near Youl-
greave, is about four miles in length, took 21 years to
drive, and cost upwards of £50,000. The Meerbrook

80 DERBYSHIRE

sough, ..which drains the Wirksworth lead-mines and
empties the water into the Derwent near Whatstandwell,
was commenced in 1773, is three miles in length, and
cost ^45,000.

With few exceptions the descent into the mines is by
ladders, "stempels," and footholes. Stempels are pieces
of wood, about four to six inches in diameter, fixed from
one side of the shaft to the other and fastened at each end
in the rock. They are placed a few inches from the side
and about two feet apart on opposite sides of the shaft.
The miner descends by planting one foot on a stempel
on each side of the shaft, and moving the feet alternately
on to lower stempels. The most dangerous way of
climbing a shaft is by footholes, which are small holes
about eighteen inches apart made on opposite sides of a
narrow shaft. The miner places his feet in them with
legs astride in the shaft, his back pressing against the side
of the shaft, and in descending places the palms of his
hands where his feet have been, taking alternate steps
until he reaches the bottom of the shaft.

20. History of Derbyshire.

In considering the present-day condition of a country
we must by no means omit a review of its past, for the
one is but the outcome of the other and is indissolubly
connected with it. The complex social and political life
of the present day is a growth from small and seemingly
unimportant happenings perhaps hundreds of years ago,

HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 81

and it is the tracing of these which makes history so
interesting. Let us now see what these early influences
in Derbyshire have been.

In Chapter 13 we have already sketched the history
of the county up to the time of the Norman Conquest.
Soon after the Normans settled in England a, most
interesting and valuable survey and series of statistics
were made and recorded in the Domesday Book. The
portion dealing with Derbyshire is short, but shows how
much the county has been influenced by Scandinavian
rule. The population of Derbyshire was 2868, including
the exceptionally large number of 42 censarii, i.e. men
who paid money rent instead of service.

Derbyshire was one of the very few English counties
which had a distinctive industry at the date of the survey.
Its lead-mining was evidently important, though the
greater part of the county was agricultural. The King
was the chief holder of lands here as elsewhere, and these
were grouped into large manorial blocks for the sake of
agricultural organisation. He owned a series of manors
stretching from Ashbourne to the York border, and the
payment from these before the Conquest had been in
" honey and lead." Ashbourne is the only recorded town
paying in "pure silver." William de Ferrers was custodian
of these manors for a time, but soon acquired possession
of them.

William the Conqueror also owned the forfeited

estates of Edwin, late Earl of the Shire, and his eight

messuages in Derby, the valuable manor of Melbourne,

and a group of manors with their satellite " berewicks."

B. D. 6

82 DERBYSHIRE

Berewicks were settlements connected with barns for the
collection of corn, a " wick " being a village in which
barley was grown.

The growth of towns was accelerated under the royal
ownership of land, as it was easier to obtain privileges
from the distant King, who was always wanting money
for his wars and national improvements, than from the
wealthy neighbouring barons.

The King granted large portions of his land to the
different earls in fee-farms for life. Henry de Ferrers at
one time owned one hundred and fourteen manors in
the county, and a large part of the political history of
Derbyshire is concerned with his house. His chief castle
was at Tutbury just outside the county boundary, and he
founded a Priory there before 1086. The chief credit of
the victory of the Battle of the Standard at Northallerton
against the Scots is due to his son, Robert de Ferrers,
who obtained the title of Earl of Derby as a reward.

The Peverils of North Derbyshire also played an
important part in history, and William Peveril's castle of
Peak is mentioned in the Domesday record, but it passed
to the crown in the reign of Henry II.

Derbyshire took little part in the wars of the Barons,
and the three fortresses of Castleton, Bolsover, and
Horsley were generally held for the King, who appointed
William de Ferrers, son and heir of the insurgent baron
who lost his castles in 1174, as custodian. King John
visited his Derbyshire castles several times, and rebuilt
Horsley. Earl Ferrers took arms against King Henry III,
and all his lands were confiscated, and his local possessions

HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 83

conferred on the King's son Edmund, Duke of Lancaster.
Some of this property still remains with the royal "Duchy
of Lancaster." It was then, probably, that Duffield Castle
was demolished.

Derbyshire was linked with Nottinghamshire for civil
administration up to Henry Ill's reign ; the assizes were
held only at Nottingham, and from the time of Henry III
to that of Elizabeth they were held alternately at Derby
and Nottingham. There was only one county gaol at
Nottingham for the two counties.

Edward Fs reign marks the beginning of parliamentary
rule, but no Derbyshire names are mentioned in parlia-
mentary lists until 1295. Grants of markets were made
to a number of Derbyshire towns during the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, among them Ashbourne, Wirks-
worth, Melbourne, Sandiacre, Bakewell, Monyash, and
Ilkeston. The chief industries were wool, wine, and
lead, and a good deal of trade was done in these with the
rest of England and with the Continent. , Fulling and
dyeing were carried on in Derby, and the name Full
Street still survives.

The Third Derby Charter was obtained in 1204; it
enacted that no cloth should be dyed within a radius of
ten leagues from Derby except at Nottingham, it also
allowed the burgesses to form guilds. The guilds were
very important during the middle ages and exercised a
great monopoly in trading, though they were themselves
sometimes fined for taking excessive tolls. Although
they might oppress individuals yet they stood up for the
liberties of the town against any infringement of them by

6—2

84 DERBYSHIRE

the King, and against foreigners. The history of the
wool trade in Derby is a long series of disputes between
the King, the Abbots of Darley, and the burgesses.

The earliest trading was private and retail, but it
developed into municipal trading when civil officials were
allowed to buy and sell in the various markets.

There was little besides architecture and dress in
which money might be invested at this time, so money
accumulated, and the guilds often became very wealthy
bodies. Besides carrying on trade, they built churches,
repaired and built bridges and town walls, and assisted
the poor. Chesterfield had several guilds in the thirteenth
century, and there also was one at Dronfield and another
at Tideswell.

Derbyshire was closely connected with John Baliol,
the claimant for the Scotch throne in 1291. He held
the custody of the Peak and the honour of Peveril, and
served as Sheriff for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire from
1261-4. All the leading men were engaged in his wars
until his deposition in 1296.

In 1327 Queen Isabella held the High Peak Castle,
town, honour, and forests of the then yearly value of
^291. 135. 4^., which sum must be multiplied by fifteen
to bring it up to the present value of money.

During the fourteenth century the archers of Derby-
shire were of great repute, and frequent levies were made
for the wars with France, Scotland, and Spain. One
hundred and fifty bowmen were provided by this county for
Agincourt in 141 5. Edward III commissioned 500 archers
and 200 hobelers (light horsemen) to fight against the

HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 85

Scots, but there were frequent desertions and punishment.
The archers continued to be famous, and 4510 of them
are included in the muster of April, 1539. These county
musters played an important part in Elizabeth's reign and
onward until James I abolished the old form of military
service.

There was great dissatisfaction felt in Elizabeth's
reign because some of the miners were compelled to
serve in quelling the rebellion in Ireland, while the mines
were standing idle and the men themselves were quite
untrained for service.

'The Black Death was very severe in Derbyshire in
1349 and the plague again visited the county in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Grass grew in the
streets of Derby, and the Hedles Cross in the Arboretum
once stood on the western outskirts of the town to mark
the spot where temporary fairs or markets might be held
with least danger of infection. During these terrible
visitations of plague harvests were ungathered, and many
deaths occurred amongst all classes of the people. The
story of the heroic action of Mompesson, the vicar of
Eyam, in his efforts to prevent the spread of the disease
and to help his stricken people is well known.

There was much religious persecution during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the wild places
in the Peak formed convenient hiding places for fugitives.
Several important Derbyshire families were Catholic, as
owing to the comparative inaccessibility of this county
and the hill country generally, the old faith lingered on
more effectively than in the more civilised south. The

86 DERBYSHIRE

last Protestant martyr in Derby was Joan Waste, a girl
only 22 years of age, who was burnt for her faith at
Windmill Pit in 1556.

Derbyshire, probably owing to its inaccessibility and
its distance from the coast, is celebrated for its illustripus
prisoners. John of Bourbon was taken prisoner at Agin-
court, and confined at Melbourne Castle for nineteen
years.

Mary Queen of Scots spent much of her unhappy
captivity in Derbyshire at Chatsworth, Derby, Buxton,
and Wingfield, until her final custody at Tutbury Castle,
preceding her execution at Fotheringay in 1585.

Anthony Babington, the leader of the conspiracy to
murder Elizabeth and to set Mary Queen of Scots on
the English throne, owned a house in Derby in Babington
Lane, where Queen Mary stayed in January, 1585. The
plot was discovered by Walsingham, and Babington was
executed in 1587.

In the seventeenth century a large number of Scotch
prisoners were confined in the church at Chapel-en-le-
Frith, and in sixteen days 44 had perished from cold and
starvation.

A number of French prisoners were sent to Derby-
shire during the wars of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries and the art of netted glove making was
introduced by them into Chesterfield.

George Fox, the celebrated founder of " The Society
of Friends," was also a prisoner in Derby for a year,
"amongst thirty felons in a close stinking place." At
his trial the name " Quaker " was first given to him by

HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 87

Justice Bennett, in allusion to the tremblings that formed
part of his ritual in preaching. Derby was also the first
place where a female quaker preached.

James I visited Derby, and King Charles also visited
the town, staying three days at the " Great House " in
the market place, and obtaining £300 from the Corpora-
tion.

During the civil wars many Derbyshire men fought
against the King under Sir John Gell of Hopton, who
had previously made himself notorious over the collection
of ship-money.

The Royalists were defeated at Swarkestone Bridge
and at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Gell was made Governor of
Derby and kept his main guard in the Town Hall for
four years. His soldiers were similar to the levies raised
at the beginning of the war, " a set of poor tapsters and
town apprentices" as Cromwell calls them. The town
and the neighbouring gentry grumbled at the expense of
keeping them so long, as it exceeded that of other towns
by three thousand pounds. Farmers, moreover, were
afraid of bringing their produce to Derby market lest
they should be robbed by the soldiers.

Gell was successful in the siege of Lichfield Cathedral,
and again at the battle of Hopton Heath near Stafford,
where the Earl of Northampton was killed. The body
was brought to Derby for burial in the Cavendish vault
in All Saints' Church. The Royalists pillaged up to the
gates of Derby and stormed Wingfield Castle, but Gell
regained it after one month's siege. The county was in
a miserable state during its varying fortunes, and in 1646

88 DERBYSHIRE

there was a serious mutiny in the Derbyshire regiments.
The unpopular and tactless Secretary of State to Charles I,
Sir John Coke of Melbourne, was a Derbyshire man.

William Cavendish, fourth Earl of Devonshire, played
a great part in driving James II from the throne, and
bringing William of Orange over to England. The final
conspiracy was hatched in a small house on Whittington
Moor, near Chesterfield, and its restored remains are still
called "Revolution House." William Cavendish was
made a Duke by William III as a reward for his
services.

In August, 1709, the whole county was thrown into
a ferment by an assize sermon preached by Dr Sacheverell
at All Saints' Church, Derby. It was a covert attack on the
revolution of 1688, and advocated the principle of non-
resistance to supreme power. After a nine days' trial, he
received a mild sentence which the Tories regarded as an
acquittal, whereat bells were rung and bonfires lighted in
Derby as tokens of joy.

In 1745 Swarkestone Bridge became famous as the
most southerly point reached by the pretender Charles
Edward and his force of seven thousand men. The more
important men of the county joined the tradesmen and
yeomen to resist the « Popish Pretender," but no battle
was fought, as the officers turned faint-hearted, and
Charles Edward, much to his regret, was obliged to
retreat with his force.

Soon after the Restoration a post was established twice
a week between Derby and London, and in 1719 the
first Derby newspaper made its appearance.

HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 89

The county was in a very unsettled state from the
time of the French Revolution to the passing of the
Reform Bill. There were riots at Bakewell, Ashbourne,
and Wirksworth, due to the rebellion of the miners
against forced service in the militia. In 1811 the Luddite
riots commenced and the stocking-frame breakers did
much damage. The distress amongst the working classes
reached a crisis in 1817. A murderous scheme was
hatched, incited chiefly by those in authority. It was
soon quelled but, for the sake of example, two stone-
masons and one frame-knitter from Pentrich suffered the
outrageous death of being hanged, drawn, and beheaded
(instead of being quartered) for " High Treason." Shelley
the poet was in the crowd and commented unfavourably
upon the execution.

21. Antiquities.

The earliest history of the people who inhabited
Derbyshire is not derived from written records but from
the relics or antiquities which have been found in the
county.

Archaeologists divide the prehistoric period during
which Great Britain was inhabited into four more or less
distinct periods. These are the Palaeolithic (old stone)
period during which man used • rude implements and
weapons of stone ; the Neolithic (new stone) period when
he used more highly finished weapons of stone but was
still ignorant of the use of metals ; the Bronze age when

90 DERBYSHIRE

his implements were made of copper and tin ; and the
Iron age when the use of that metal became established.

Relics of man of the Old Stone period are found in
caverns and old river gravels associated with bones of
animals which are now extinct in Britain, whilst those
of the New Stone age are found associated with wild and
domesticated animals, many of which are similar to those
now living in Great Britain. The break between these two
stone ages is of a very marked character and there is little
doubt that a very lengthy period of time separated them.
During the Neolithic or New Stone age, the climate and
general surface of the country were very little different
from what they are to-day, whilst the climate of the
Palaeolithic or Old Stone age was so much colder that
a large portion of Great Britain was coated with ice.
During this age, Great Britain was united to the Conti-
nent of Europe.

The Recent age of the Geologist includes all pre-
historic time from the Neolithic, through the Bronze and
Iron ages, to the present time. The changes from the
Neolithic age to the Bronze and Iron ages show no gap
like that between the two Stone ages, but were gradual.
The different materials doubtless remained in use side
by side for some time, and the change from one period
to another would be made at different times in different
districts.

The antiquities subsequent to the Iron age we gener-
ally classify as Roman and Saxon, corresponding with the
history of our land from 55 B.C. to 1066 A.D.

The only traces of Palaeolithic man found in Derby-

ANTIQUITIES

91

shire occurred in the Creswell Caves on the N.E. border
of the county. These caves have yielded results only
surpassed in England by those of Kent's Cavern at Tor-
quay. In 1876, no less than 2726 bones and 1040

Fragment of rib with engraving of horse (full size),
Robin Hood Cave

Bone needle, Church Hole Cave (full size]

Bone awl, Church Hole Cave (full size]

implements were obtained from Robin Hood Cave, and
1604 bones and 234 implements from Church Hole Cave.
The implements were of quartzite, flint, and bone.
Amongst other interesting implements found in Church
Hole Cave were "a well-shaped needle, absolutely perfect,

92 DERBYSHIRE

made out of a metacarpal or tarsal bone of a ruminant
and much larger than any of those figured from the
Palaeolithic caves of France, Belgium, or Switzerland "
and " two bone awls fashioned out of the tibia of a hare
and polished by long-continued use." On one flat piece
of bone was scratched a sketch of the head and fore-
quarters of a horse. This was the first trace of pictorial
art discovered in Great Britain. The majority of the
bones were those of animals now extinct but alive in this
country when it was part of the Continent of Europe
during Palaeolithic times. The similarity of these de-
posits to those in France and Switzerland proves that the
hunters of those countries found their way along the
Eastern Valley, now covered by the German Ocean, and
wandered as far north as southern Yorkshire.

The remains of Neolithic, Bronze, and early Iron
man in Derbyshire consist mainly of burial mounds and
other remains of tombs. Nearly 300 of these have been
opened, and their contents examined scientifically, but
many others must have been destroyed and used for building
and other purposes. -^The common word in Derbyshire
for a burial ground is "low," from the Saxon word
meaning a small hill or heap, and it often occurs in place
names. ^ These burial mounds have been divided into
three kinds, those which belong to the Neolithic stage,
those of the Bronze age, and those of later type which
may belong to Roman times.

There are about a dozen structures in Derbyshire
popularly known as druidical circles. The two finest
are at Arborlow, near Parsley Hay station, on the

ANTIQUITIES 93

L. & N. W. Railway between Buxton and Ashbourne ;
and the "Bull Ring" at Dove Holes, on the L. & N. W.
Railway, between Buxton and Manchester. It is con-
sidered that they were connected with religious rites, and,
as Sir Norman Lockyer has shown, they were probably
erected as rough astronomical instruments.

There are in Derbyshire ten or twelve defensive
works or fortifications which are not of Roman origin.

Stone Circle, Arborlow

They are probably pre-Roman and were used as refuges
in times of tribal insecurity. The largest of these are on
Mam Tor near Castleton, Carl's Wark near Hathersage,
and the fort at the western end of Combs' Moss, near
Dove Holes.

Derbyshire contains interesting traces of the Roman
occupation. )The three Roman forts in Derbyshire were
Melandra, Anavio or Brough, and Little Chester. Me-
landra Fort is near the borders of Cheshire, and not far

94 DERBYSHIRE

from Dinting Vale station on a branch of the Great
Central Railway. It lies near the confluence of the
Glossop brook and the Etheroe. It commanded the easy
access to the hills of North Derbyshire. Brough Fort is
near Hope station on the Dore and Chinley branch of
the Midland Railway. It is near the confluence of the
Bradwell Brook with the river Noe, and commanded the

Mam Tor, Castleton

approach to the hills in the neighbourhood of Castleton
and Bradwell. Little Chester is in the N.E. part of the
present borough of Derby. It is situated as other Roman
forts often are, in an open valley, close to water, and
commands the approaches to the hilly country to the
north.

The Roman Road in Derbyshire known as Ryknield

ANTIQUITIES 95

Street passed through Lichfield, Little Chester, and
Chesterfield to Templeborough near Rotherham. Four
other Roman roads branched out from Little Chester.
One led to Buxton (called by the Romans Aquae\
probably a Roman village, a shorter road ran to Sawley-
on-Trent, and another may have led westwards to
Rocester on the Staffordshire border. From Melandra,
the road known as the Doctor Gate led across the moors
eastward to Brough and ultimately to Templeborough,
another led to Stockport and Manchester, and another
possibly to Buxton.

From Brough the Batham Gate ran up the Bradwell
valley and across the moors to Buxton ; and Doctor Gate
and Long Causeway connected Melandra, Brough, and
Templeborough.

In the neighbourhood of Buxton and Wirksworth
Roman remains have been found in caverns showing
that they were inhabited during the Roman occupation.
Numerous other small finds are scattered over the hilly
country, which point to temporary occupation only.
Roman " pigs " of lead have been found near Matlock
and Brough, which show that the lead-mining industry
flourished in Roman times.

The Saxon remains in Derbyshire, which consist of
grave-mounds, earthworks and other visible monuments,
are few compared with those of prehistoric age. A
number of barrows or mounds, however, have yielded
ornaments and utensils which sometimes are found with
the skeletons or bones of uncremated bodies, and in other
cases with the calcined bones or ashes.

96 DERBYSHIRE

22. Architecture— (a) Ecclesiastical.
Churches and Crosses.

Dr Cox remarks in his exhaustive work on the
Churches of Derbyshire that " this county cannot vie with
Somersetshire in its towers, with Northamptonshire in
its spires, with Norfolk or Suffolk in the size or beauty
of so many of their churches, or with Kent in the num-
ber of its brasses ; but no other county of the same size
has anything like the same extensive variety of styles, and
excellent specimens of every period, both in the ecclesi-
astical fabrics themselves and in the monumental remains."
So that, although Derbyshire possesses no cathedral like
Lichfield or Southwell, much may be learned from a cfudy
of its " history in stone." A continuous development
may be traced from the Romanesque period on through
the various Gothic periods ; each one embodying the
ideals and aspirations of the people, and never copying
the art of a past age. But there was no abrupt change in
any one year, at all places alike, for styles nearly always
overlap, and progress was not at all uniform in different
parts of the country.

A preliminary word on the various styles of English
architecture is necessary before we consider the churches
and other important buildings of our county.

Pre-Norman or — as it is usually, though with no great
certainty termed — Saxon building in England was the
work of early craftsmen with an imperfect knowledge of
stone construction, who commonly used rough rubble

ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 97

walls, no buttresses, small semi-circular or triangular
arches, and square towers with what is termed "long-
and-short work" at the quoins or corners. It survives
almost solely in portions of small churches.

The Norman Conquest started a widespread building
of massive churches and castles in the continental style
called Romanesque, which in England has got the name
of " Norman." They had walls of great thickness, semi-
circular vaults, round-headed doors and windows, and
massive square towers.

From 1150 to 1200 the building became lighter, the
arches pointed, and there was perfected the science of
vaulting, by which the weight is brought upon piers and
buttresses. This method of building, the " Gothic,"
originated from the endeavour to cover the widest and
loftiest areas with the greatest economy of stone. The
first English Gothic, called " Early English," from about
1 1 80 to 1250, is characterised by slender piers (commonly
of marble), lofty pointed vaults, and long, narrow, lancet-
headed windows. After 1250 the windows became
broader, divided up, and ornamented by patterns of
tracery, while in the vault the ribs were multiplied. The
greatest elegance of English Gothic was reached from
1260 to 1290, at which date English sculpture was at
its highest, and art in painting, coloured glass making,
and general craftsmanship at its zenith.

After 1300 the structure of stone buildings began to
be overlaid with ornament, the window tracery and vault
ribs were of intricate patterns, the pinnacles and spires
loaded with crocket and ornament. This later style is

B. D. 7

98 DERBYSHIRE

known as "Decorated," and came to an end with the
Black Death, which stopped all building for a time.

With the changed conditions of life the type of
building changed. With curious uniformity and quick-
ness the style called "Perpendicular" — which is unknown
abroad — developed after 1360 in all parts of England and
lasted with scarcely any change up to 1520. As its name
implies, it is characterised by the perpendicular arrange-
ment of the tracery and panels on walls and in windows,
and it is also distinguished by the flattened arches and the
square arrangement of the mouldings over them, by the
elaborate vault-traceries (especially fan-vaulting), and by
the use of flat roofs and towers without spires.

The mediaeval styles in England ended with the
dissolution of the monasteries (1530-1540), for the
Reformation checked the building of churches. There
succeeded the building of manor-houses, in which the
style called " Tudor " arose — distinguished by flat-headed
windows, level ceilings, and panelled rooms. The orna-
ments of classic style were introduced under the influences
of Renaissance sculpture and distinguish the " Jacobean "
style, so called after James I. About this time the pro-
fessional architect arose. Hitherto, building had been
entirely in the hands of the builder and the craftsman.

Most of the Saxon churches have long since perished,
but round chancel-arches of probable Saxon work may be
seen at Marston Montgomery, Sawley, Stanton-by-Dale,
and Ault Hucknall, this last-mentioned church containing
much work in Saxon style. There is a very remarkable
Saxon crypt of late eleventh century date under the altar

ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 99

at Repton, with spirally twisted pillars and a vaulted
roof, which is unique in Britain. A characteristic tri-
angular-headed window, i.e. two stones inclined at an
angle, may be seen at Sandiacre, and the sides built in

Saxon Crypt, Repton

" long and short " work, i.e. alternate bands of stone of
different widths. At St Chad's Church, Wilne, there is
a Saxon font of eighth or ninth century date, possibly the
oldest in England.

7—2

10o DERBYSHIRE

Derbyshire is particularly fortunate in possessing two
such perfect examples of Norman or Romanesque work as
the large parish church of Melbourne, near Derby, and the
little gem of late Norman work at Steetley Chapel in the
extreme north-east of the county. St Michael's Church,
Melbourne, is built on the cruciform plan, and has a central
tower and a fine west porch flanked by two small towers.

Saxon Font, St Chad's, Wilne

At the east end, the spring of the original three semi-
circular apses of the chancel and transepts may be plainly
seen. The thick walls and huge circular pillars on their
square bases give the idea of strength and permanence so
characteristic of our Norman conquerors. These early
builders knew nothing of the laws of weight and thrust,
and so constructed every part strong enough to carry the

ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 101

upper walls and roof. The round arches of the arcades and
chancel and the small round-headed clerestory windows
on the north side are of typical Norman design.

Steetley Chapel had been used as a barn for 350 years,
but divine service was once more held there in 1875. It
has an unique richly-ornamented apse at the east end,

St Michael's, Melbourne

with a decorated stone vault, and is ornamented on the
outside with shallow buttresses. Many Norman orna-
ments may be studied here, including beak-heads, cones,
billets, zig-zags, grotesques, and foliage on the capitals
and arches.

At Whitwell there is a fine cruciform Norman church

I02 DERBYSHIRE

considerably altered in the fourteenth century, and other
interesting remains of Norman work may be seen at
Aston-on-Trent, Bakewell, Longford, Sandiacre, and
Youlgreave. There are fine south doorways at Allestree,

The Nave, St Michael's, Melbourne

Breadsall, and Long Eaton, and particularly at Bradbourne.
Norman fonts still exist at Mellor and Tissington, and
a lead one at Ashover. There is a strange font at Youl-
greave with what appears to be a stoup for holy-water
attached.

ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 103

The reign of Henry III marks the age of national
development, and a freer and more artistic spirit is shown
in this Early English period of Gothic architecture.

In its arcade, chancel, and the three sedilia Ilkeston
Church shows the Transitional period, which employed
new methods of construction coupled with old Romanesque
ornament. Ashbourne Church was built about the middle
of the thirteenth century, and the choir is one of the best
examples in the kingdom of the grace and beauty of the
style. There are two triple lancet windows in the north
transept.- There is also a fine doorway with characteristic
"tooth" moulding. Other details such as clustered pillars
and pointed arches may be seen at Wirksworth, and
typical lancet windows at Stanton-by-Dale, Doveridge
chancel, and Weston.

Early English towers occur at Breadsall and Ecking-
ton, but the spire at Breadsall is of later date. "Broached
spires " of this or later periods may be seen at Ockbrook,
Boisover, Sandiacre, and Horsley.

A great number of Derbyshire churches seem to have
been practically rebuilt in the Decorated Period, viz.
1250-1350 A.D., and we have therefore a number of
particularly fine examples.

An important characteristic of this period is the de-
velopment of tracery in windows. The grouping of
lancet windows under an enclosing arch left a space in
the head that was first pierced with geometrical forms,
such as circles and trefoils, which later developed into
beautiful bar tracery, becoming more and more twisted
and contorted into meaningless forms, though never

104 DERBYSHIRE

descending quite into the excessive ornamentation of the
flamboyant tracery of the Continent.

Examples of Decorated windows of different dates
and other details can be seen at Sawley, Weston-on-
Trent, Norbury, Hathersage, Tideswell, Chesterfield,
Ashbourne, Bonsall, Crich, Chaddesden, Ilkeston, Sandi-

St John the Baptist, Tideswell

acre, and Wilne, some of the windows of the last two
churches being almost flamboyant in character.

St John the Baptist, Tideswell, is a particularly fine
church of grand proportions of the Decorated Period,
situated in a little village some 2j miles from Miller's
Dale. It has many important features, including an
unusually large chancel, three fine stone sedilia, a stone

ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 105

sepulchre, a stone reredos, an ancient font, a window
with " reticulated " tracery, and a tower of late date
(probably about 1380) having a wonderful combination
of turrets and pinnacles. The crooked spire of All

All Saints, Chesterfield

Saints Church, Chesterfield, provokes much interest. It
was built about 1350, and the twisting is possibly due
to the use of unseasoned timber.

Fairs, markets, and revels were sometimes held inside

106 DERBYSHIRE

this church, as elsewhere in mediaeval times, and the sacks
of wool stored here formed a hiding place for Robert de
Ferrers in 1265.

Ashbourne Church has a fine tower and a very grace-
ful octagonal spire of the Decorated Period called " The
Pride of the Peak." Its angles are ribbed by strings of
ball flowers, and it possesses twenty windows.

The visitor to the fine church of Hathersage is shown
the supposed grave of Little John, which is about ten feet
long. His bow and cap formerly hung in the church.
Mention should also be made of the beautiful chancels of
Dronfield, Norbury, and Sandiacre.

The love of ornament and of sculptured forms threat-
ened to run wild in Decorated times, but all building
was summarily checked about the middle of the fourteenth
century, owing to the long war with France, but above all
to the Black Death of 1348 and 1349.

When architecture once more asserted itself, it was
sobered and disciplined. The Perpendicular style was
that of rigid, straight lines in window tracery, and of
superficial ornament and panelling, with which everything
was overlaid. The construction, however, was good, and
the ornament was never used to disguise construction.

Many of the churches had the steeply-pitched roofs
lowered and made nearly flat, probably the timbers had
perished near the outer walls and were taken out and cut.
The weather-line moulding of the old roof can often be
seen on the tower as at Ashbourne, Allestree, and Wirks-
worth. The aisle walls were often raised and small
square-headed windows inserted as at Allestree, Sandiacre,

ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 107

and Wilne, etc. Details of the style may be studied at
Elvaston, Longford, Youlgreave, and North Wingfield,
and also in the beautiful tower at Youlgreave, the fine
late Perpendicular tower of All Saints, Derby, the roofs
of Longstone and Repton churches, the screen at Chester-
field, the exceptionally fine one at Fenny Bentley, and
the unique fourteenth century oak pulpit at Mellor.
Perhaps the churches which show the best series of ex-
amples of several periods are Ashbourne, Norbury, Sandi-
acre, Youlgreave, and Wirksworth. North Wingfield
Church still boasts its old wooden roof of 1350, and
Kirk Langley and Chesterfield have interesting screens
of the Decorated Period. Radbourne Church possesses
the fifteenth century woodwork from Dale Abbey.

Derbyshire is very rich in monumental remains in
stone obtained in the district, and consequently the
number of brasses is not so great, though there are some
good ones at Morley, Tideswell, and Sawley.

The Celtic crosses in the churchyards of Eyam, Bake-
well, Bradbourne, Hope, Blackwell, Norbury, Spondon,
and Taddington are interesting. At Bakewell there are
over 100 fragments of sculptured stone, none later than
1260, and many earlier than noo. At Chelmorton and
Darley Dale there are also a large number. Many of
them are emblematical and represent shears, keys, swords,
axe, bugle, chalice, cross, and stars. The axe is often
supposed to mark the grave of the village carpenter, but
more probably marks that of a knight, or man-at-arms.
The knife is rare, it may show the grave of the official
" Kerver " of some great family, which was a post of

Eyam Cross

ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 109

honour. Early stone effigies may be seen at Darley
Dale, Melbourne, and Youlgreave, and stone lecterns at
Chaddesden, Crich, Etwall, Mickleover, and Spondon.

The sedilia at Dronfield, Ilkeston, Monyash, Sandiacre,
and Whitwell are remarkably good, and most uncommon
and noteworthy stone chancel screens may be seen at
Ilkeston and Chelmorton, and a stone parclose in Darley
Church.

The earliest glass in the county is probably that of
the Early English lancet window in the west wall of the
north transept at Ashbourne. Egginton has some splendid
glass of about 1300 A.D., but unfortunately very little, and
the finest of all, of about fifty years later in date, is to be
seen at Norbury. The late fifteenth century glass from
Dale Abbey has found a home in Morley Church, and
some fine early seventeenth century is at St Chad's, Wilne.
The east window of Youlgreave Church was filled in
1876 with beautiful glass designed by Burne Jones, and
the south transept window of Darley Church is a famous
design of " The Song of Solomon " by the same accom-
plished artist. There is also some good modern glass in
Ashbourne Church, including a " St Cecilia " window.

23. Architecture — (b] Religious Houses.

The religious houses of Derbyshire, though not
numerous, have an interesting and unique history. A
large portion of the church lands and many of the
churches and manors belonged to the monasteries of
the neighbouring counties. Henry I gave the collegiate

All Saints, Bakewell

ARCHITECTURE— RELIGIOUS HOUSES 111

church of All Saints, Derby, and the church at Wirks-
worth to the Dean of Lincoln, as his predecessor,
William Rufus, had given Ashbourne and Chesterfield.
Melbourne Church belonged to the Bishop of Carlisle,
who also owned a palace at Melbourne, in which he took
refuge when driven from Carlisle by the Scots. The
churches of Bakewell, Hope, and Tideswell, from the
thirteenth century for 300 years, were a constant source
of dispute between the abbot of Lenton Priory and
the Chapter of Lichfield. Even now Derbyshire can
claim no cathedral of its own, but belongs to the see
of Southwell, and until lately was part of the see of
Lichfield.

One of the oldest monasteries in the county was at
Repton, the capital of Mercia. It was founded early in
the seventh century " for religious men and women under
the government of an abbess." Several of the Mercian
kings were buried at Repton. The monastery was
destroyed by the Danes, but in the twelfth century
Repton became famous for a Priory of Austin Canons
transferred from Calke. It was destroyed by Henry VIII
at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, many
of which had become so corrupt that they well deserved
their fate.

Repton Priory illustrates the usual plan for erecting
a monastery, viz. a square cloister-garth surrounded by
various buildings, but as the river Trent flowed on the
north side, the church, contrary to custom, had to be built
on the south boundary, and the refectory or dining room
on the north. The picturesque gateway to the precincts

112 DERBYSHIRE

still remains, and the hall is used as a school-room.
The Chapter House and the Calefactory or warmed
sitting room, with a dormitory above, were on the east,
and the kitchens, buttery, and cellars with a guest hall
built above them on the west. The other buildings
included a " yelyng-house," or brewing house, a
" boultyng-house " where the meal was sifted, and a

Repton School

"kyll house," which might have been the slaughter-house,
but was probably the kiln-house. Repton School has
been erected on the ruins of the priory, and part of the
mediaeval brickwork of Thacker's house, erected after the
dissolution, is in a good state of preservation, as is also
"the Prior's Lodging," an excellent example of early
brickwork (1436-38).

ARCHITECTURE— RELIGIOUS HOUSES 113

Derby School is also on the site of an old religious
establishment of Austin Canons, who removed thence to
Darley, near Derby, and founded a very important abbey,
of which some small domestic remains survive. They
owned three Derby churches, besides several in the
county, and whenever the vicars of these churches were
ill, the abbot and convent were bound to provide them

Derby School, St Helen's House

with food and clothing as long as they lived. The vicars
had all fees from their churches except the mortuary fee,
which had to go to the over-ruling convent of Darley.
When a householder died, his best beast went to the
over-lord, and his second-best beast went as a mortuary
fee, provided he had more than three beasts. If he left
no beasts, then some of his household furniture or wearing
apparel might be confiscated as the convent's fee.

B. D. 8

114 DERBYSHIRE

A colony of Premonstratensian or White canons was
established at Beauchief, near Sheffield, and another at
Dale, near Stanley, the site of which is still marked by a
fine east window arch of the same type as, and not much
later than that, at Lincoln Cathedral. There is an inter-
esting account extant of the foundation of this monastery.
A holy baker, of St Mary's Street, Derby, had a vision of

Dale Abbey Church and Guest-house

the Blessed Virgin Mary, who commanded him to go to
Deepdale " and there serve my son and me in solitude."
He found the place, "a marsh exceeding dreadful," and
then in the rock under the mountain he cut out for him-
self " a very small dwelling, and an altar turned to the
south, which is preserved to this day."

Derby had a house of Benedictine nuns in Kings
Mead, who were for a time under the control of the

ARCHITECTURE— RELIGIOUS HOUSES 115

powerful Abbot of Darley. There was a flourishing
house of Dominican or preaching friars in a street in
Derby, which is still called Friar Gate. The Normans
established leper hospitals in Derby, Chesterfield, Locko,
Alkmonton, and Spital-in-the-Peak, near Hope. The
Locko hospital was preserved down to the fourteenth

Dale Abbey Hermitage

century as a preceptory of the semi-military order of
Knights of St Lazarus, and was the only one in England.
Derbyshire suffered severely from the Black Death
in 1348-9. Two-thirds of her beneficed clergy died,
and must have been much missed, for they not only said
mass and administered the sacraments, but assisted the
poor, and often acted as schoolmasters.

8—2

116

DERBYSHIRE

24-

Architecture— (c) Military. Castles.

The foundations of an enormous keep at Duffield,
four miles from Derby, were accidentally discovered
in 1886. The walls are sixteen feet thick, and form a
rectangle 95 feet by 93 feet, so the keep must have been
larger than almost any in England except the Tower of

Peveril Castle, Castleton

London. Duffield Castle was a very important strong-
hold of the Ferrers family, and was probably demolished
about 1266 after Robert de Ferrers' defeat at Chesterfield
in his fight against the King.

We can obtain a good idea of what a Norman keep
was like from the ruins of Peveril Castle at Castleton. \ It
presents the minimum of comfort with its three stories,

ARCHITECTURE— MILITARY 117

one partly underground, and no fireplace anywhere.
Probably the fire was in the middle of the room with
a ventilating shaft in the roof. The keep and courtyard
were defended on one side by a strong wall, on the other
by a precipice. The courtyard gave a little breathing
space, and made a place of refuge for cattle and dependents
in time of war. Peak Castle was built by William Peveril

Codnor Castle

in the days of the Conqueror, but it passed to the Crown
on the forfeiture of Peveril's son's estates. King John
visited his two castles of Peveril and Bolsover in 1200,
also his castle of Melbourne, and the castle of Horsley
in 1209, but little or no remains are left of these Norman
castles.

There was also a castle at Codnor assigned to

118 DERBYSHIRE

William Peveril by the Conqueror and afterwards owned
by the Greys, of which some portions survive, and
Mackworth, the home of the Touchets, has a pretty
remaining fragment.

Tutbury Castle, although just outside the county
boundary, undoubtedly played a great part in the history
of the county.

25. Architecture— (d) Domestic.

We have seen how much geology has influenced the
geography of our county. It largely determines the
natural history, the animals, birds, and flowers, it also
affects the landscape, the rivers, and the watersheds, and
by them the industries and population of the county.
But geology is also a very important factor in deter-
mining the houses of the people. ../In the southern
portions of the county, red brick walls with either thatch
or red tiles were largely used, as at Repton and Norbury.
Specimens of mediaeval brickwork still remain at Thacker's
House, Repton. Sometimes " half-timber " was used, as
may be seen at Somersall Herbert, Sudbury, Hartshorn,
Mickleover, Derby, and Hilton. In the central portion,
a mixture of brick and stone was employed, brick walls
with stone dressings, as at Sudbury, Derby (including
Babington House, and houses in the Wardwick and
Friargate), Longford, DufEeld and Stydd ; while in the
northern portion stone only was used, giving a typical
Derbyshire style of which Haddon is the supreme

i

Dovecote, Codnor Castle

The Mayor's Parlour, Derby

ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC

121

example, though hundreds of others might be mentioned,
including those at Alport, Bakewell, and Ashford.

The stone domestic buildings are generally simple and
well-proportioned, with gables and mullioned windows,
and roofed with "grey" or stone slates, or they are
sometimes thatched as at Kilburn and Biggin.

Derbyshire has several fine seats and manor houses,

The Peacock, Rowsley

particularly of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth
century. 3Peveril Castle, already described, represents the
earliest and most comfortless method of living. Haddon
Hall on the other hand gives us a good idea of what feudal
life might be when no longer a question of incessant attack
or defence. Haddon has two courts with a fine banqueting
hall between. In this hall there are still the old raised
table and the minstrel's gallery. The kitchens are at one

122 DERBYSHIRE

end of the building, the sitting rooms at the other. The
manor is in a good state of preservation, though it has
not been used for a dwelling for nearly 200 years.
George IV was the last to occupy the state apartments.
Sir George Vernon, in the time of Henry VII and VIII,
kept a large retinue of servants here, and it was his
daughter Dorothy who was supposed to have eloped with
Sir John Manners down the moss-covered steps leading
from the beautiful ball-room. The cottage garden has
yew trees clipped to represent a boar's head and a
peacock, the arms of the Vernon and Manners families.
There are architectural examples of five distinct periods,
and this, together with its romantic situation, makes
Haddon one of the most interesting old buildings in
England.

Wingfield Manor is the stately ruin of a mansion,
a fortress, and a prison. It was built in the middle of
the fifteenth century by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, treasurer
to Henry VI. The chief features of the manor are a
large groined vaulted undercroft or crypt, over which is
a fine hall with an exquisite oriel window, a beautiful
porch, and a well-preserved quatrefoil battlement. Mary
Queen of Scots was imprisoned here for nearly sixteen
years. The building suffered much during the siege at
the time of the civil wars, and some of the cannon balls
are preserved in the farmhouse near.

Chatsworth, "The Palace of the Peak," is a noted
mansion, built in the sixteenth century by Bess of Hard-
wick, and pulled down to make way for the present
building commenced in 1687 b7 William, the fourth

CT1

q

8

PQ

ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC

125

Earl and first Duke of Devonshire. It contains many
art treasures, including some beautifully carved wood-
work by Grinling Gibbons and a local artist Watson.
The State apartments are on a grand scale, and have
many times been occupied by royalty. The large con-
servatory, built by Sir Joseph Paxton, served him as a
model for the 1851 Exhibition, now the Crystal Palace,

!

Wingfield Manor

and the gardens also contain the fine Emperor Fountain,
which- throws water to the height of 260 feet.

/Of mansions of the time of Elizabeth and James I we
have Hardwick Hall, Barlborough, Tissington, Sudbury,
and numerous smaller ones. Dr Cox says there is no
county in all England that has so many remnants left
of the smaller halls and manor houses of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. Eyam, Swarkestone, Beeley,

126

DERBYSHIRE

Fenny Bentley, Bradbourne, Bradshawe, North Lees,
OfFerton, Riber, Youlgreave, Hartington, Highlow, and
Snitterton are but a few of them.J

"Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall," is a stately
symmetrical building, the windows of which are overdone
for the sake of effect. Some are merely shams. There
are fine plastered rooms, and the original entrance gate-

Chatsworth

way and garden walls built by the renowned "Bess of
Hardwick" still remain, whilst the parapet and flower
beds have the initials E.S. and a coronet. Near by are
the ruins of the older manor house.

Bolsover is interesting because it is built on the site
of the old Norman keep, and is partly composed of the
old materials. It has thick walls, quaint vaulted chambers,
and fine chimney-pieces. Outside are the ruins of a later

ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC

127

building, the riding school of the Duke of Newcastle.
The four watch-towers are landmarks for miles around.
Derbyshire has no late seventeenth century work of
the time of Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, but
of the succeeding period when classic architecture was
well established, we have an example in Kedleston, the

The Hall, Eyam

seat of Lord Scarsdale, the father of Lord Curzon of
Kedleston.

Derby has a good example of a Jacobean house, which
is now converted into a caf6.

The beautiful garden at Melbourne, laid out in 1720,
is in the Dutch style, and contains stately vistas with
fountains and statues at central view-points, and a dense
yew-hedge walk.

COMMUNICATIONS 129

26. Communications, Past and Present.
Roads, Canals, Railways.

In these days of rapid locomotion, it is hard to realise
the difficulty there was in past time for people who
wished to travel from one part of the country to another.
At one time the only means of communication was by
British track-ways or forest paths which traversed parts
of the country. One of these ways passed through Derby,
and the river Derwent was crossed by a ford, probably
near what is now known as the Holmes, which was only
passable when the water was low. The Romans during
their occupation of Britain made several roads through
Derbyshire which are briefly described in the chapter on
antiquities. After the withdrawal of the Roman legions,
the existing roads were allowed to fall into decay, and
new roads were not constructed. For many centuries
the people journeyed by rude paths, only capable of being
passed on foot or at best by horses. The Roman roads
were generally made in a direct line across the country,
over hills, down into the valleys, and up the other side
irrespective of the gradient. In later roads the same
method was followed, no doubt because they were used
at first by pedestrians and riders on horseback when there
were few or no wheeled conveyances. An instance of
such roads is that from Chesterfield to Matlock, which
was made down the steep descent of Matlock Bank
to the bridge over the Derwent at Matlock Bridge.
Later a more suitable course was chosen between town

B D. Q

COMMUNICATIONS 1 31

and town, and hills and streams were avoided as much as
possible.

vjn the eighteenth century turnpike roads were made.
Towards the end of that century when coaches came
into use for travelling, the roads were much improved.

The earliest turnpike Act that had reference to
Derbyshire was for repairing and improving the road
from the Trent at Shardlow through Derby and Hog-
naston to Brassington. (The reason alleged for this first
turnpike road in Derbyshire terminating at a small place
such as Brassington was that the "traveller towards the
north, having by means of this improved road been helped
over the low and deep lands of the county and landed on
the rocky districts might find his way therein, without
further assistance, to Buxton, Tideswell, Castleton, Stoney-
Middleton, Ashford, Bakewell, Winster, Matlock, Wirks-
worth, Hartington, Longnor, etc." The latter part of
this road, which was hilly, was afterwards abandoned
except by the natives, and travellers preferred to journey
by Ashbourne to Newhaven, although it was a longer
route.

In 1814, less than a century ago, the road from Derby
to Matlock passed through Kedleston, Wirksworth, and
Cromford. Before 1818 there was no direct public road
from Derby to Cromford. On the western side of the
Derwent was a private road belonging to the Strutts,
the Harts, and Richard Arkwright. It was made into a
public road in 1818.

Other old roads in the county were (i) the Notting-
ham and Newhaven turnpike which entered Derbyshire

9-2

132 DERBYSHIRE

near Alfreton and passed through Wessington, Matlock,
Snitterton, Wensley to Pike Hall, where it crossed the
old Roman road and ended at Newhaven ; (2) the road
from Matlock to Ashbourne, which passed through Hop-
ton, Cromford, and Kniveton ; (3) that from Matlock to
Alfreton and Nottingham, which passed through Crom-
ford, Lea Bridge, Holloway, Crich, and South Wingfield ;

Cromford Bridge

(4) that from Matlock to Buxton, through Darley, Rows-
ley, Bakewell, and Ashford, as well as by Newhaven.

The growth of trade caused an increase of traffic.
The main roads from Manchester, London, Leeds, and
Birmingham passed through Derby, so that the county
town became one of the changing stations for the wagons
and coaches on these roads. In 1735 Derby was in
communication with London by coach, which ran once

COMMUNICATIONS 133

a week. In 1790 the coach (then a through coach from
Manchester) left Derby daily about three in the afternoon
and arrived in London about ten o'clock the next morn-
ing. In the year 1828 there were at least seven coaches
each day from Derby to London, and from Derby to
Manchester, besides others to Nottingham, Birmingham,
Leeds, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and other towns.

Bridges are a necessary accompaniment of roads, and
often were built by a ford where the water was shallow.
The old county bridges, notably those at Cromford,
Matlock, Bakewell, and Rowsley were first erected for
pack-horse and pedestrian traffic only, and when wheeled
vehicles came into use they had to be widened. Proof of
the widening may be seen in the different style of archi-
tecture on opposite sides of several of the bridges.

Before the construction of railways, the only means
of conveying goods and minerals other than by road was
by canal. Great Britain was the last nation in Europe
to construct canals as a means of inland navigation.
Various expedients were adopted for removing obstruc-
tions in the rivers with a view of facilitating commerce,
but it was not until the year 1755 that the construction
of canals entered the system of British economy. A large
amount of capital was provided for the making of canals,
and risked in undertakings that were likely to prove
advantageous, and in a short time the country was inter-
sected by canals.

In 1719 an attempt was made to render the Derwent
from Derby to the Trent navigable, but in 1794 the
Derby canal from Derby to the Trent and Mersey canal

134 DERBYSHIRE

was navigable, and, according to Simpson, gypsum, stone,
and other materials were imported to, and coal and cheese
were exported from, Derby.

The Cromford canal, which was completed before
the year 1 794, began at Cromford, ran for some distance
on the west side of the Derwent, and then from Lea
followed the east bank to Ambergate, Whatstandwell,

Road from Castleton to Buxton and Chapel-en-le-Frith

and Bull Bridge, and joined the Erewash canal at Langley
Bridge. Five miles to the north of Eastwood, a tramway
worked by horses carried coals and cotton from the
Pinxton wharf of the Cromford canal up to Mansfield,
and brought back stone, lime, and corn to the canal.
Cromford wharf was a busy centre for the import and
export of produce. Matlock Bath and Cromford obtained
their supplies of coal from there.

COMMUNICATIONS 135

The whole of the stone quarried from Stancliffe for
the building of St George's Hall, Liverpool, was shipped
to its destination by the Cromford canal.

Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester were important
centres of industry before the introduction of railways,
holding constant communication with London and Bir-
mingham and with each other. But the only modes of
conveyance were by canal, by fly wagon, and by coach,
and the charges made were proportional to the speed.
Wool required two days to travel the 15 miles between
Leicester and Market Harborough. Only three coaches
ran daily each way between Leicester to Nottingham
besides the through coaches from distant places. Many
of the fly wagons were long stagers and were of little
benefit to the intermediate towns.

The charge for conveying haberdashery from London to
Leicester was £2. i$s. od. a ton by canal, 55. a cwt. or ^5 .
a ton by wagon, and id. a pound or over ^9 a ton by coach.

One of the earliest railways constructed in England
was the Cromford and High Peak Railway. It was
opened in the year 1830, and was 33 miles in length.
It began at the High Peak Junction near Cromford
by the Cromford canal and ended at Whaley Bridge at
the Peak Forest canal. Its course was over the hills and
not along the valleys. Parts of the line were along
inclined planes and the longest stretch of level ground
was 12 miles. This railway not only carried goods from
one canal to the other over the Pennine Chain, but also
opened out a large mineral trade in the hilly district over
which it passed at a later date. The line was taken over

136 DERBYSHIRE

by the London and North- Western Railway, and is now
connected with the Midland near Cromford and the
London and North-Western Railway at Parsley Hay and
Buxton, the portion between Buxton and Whaley Bridge
having been dismantled.

The rise of the Midland Railway, which has for many
years been associated with the county town of Derby, is
an interesting one. The Leicester and Swannington line
was opened in 1832. The coal raised in the Nottingham-
shire and in the Leicestershire coalfields were distributed
mainly in the respective areas by water navigation. The
attempt of the Erewash Valley coal-owners to obtain a
market for their coal in Leicester resulted in the con-
struction of the Midland Counties Railway, which con-
nected Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester. It was opened
in 1839. In the same year the line from Birmingham to
Derby was opened, and a year later the North Midland
line from Leeds to Derby. In the year 1844 an amalga-
mation of the three railways took place and formed the
nucleus of the Midland Railway. This amalgamation
made Derby an important railway centre, and since that
time the Midland Railway has been greatly extended
into a complete system in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
The Midland is the only railway whose main line passes
through the county, but there are branches of several
other important lines which serve the needs of Derby-
shire. The London and North-Western Railway, in
addition to the High Peak line, runs from Manchester to
Buxton, thence to Ash bourne and Uttoxeter, and after-
wards joins its main line through Rugby to London.

138 DERBYSHIRE

The North Staffordshire Railway has a line from
Derby to Uttoxeter and Ashbourne, and the London and
North-Western Railway has running powers over this
line from Ashbourne to Uttoxeter.

The Great Northern has a branch line from Notting-
ham to Burton via Egginton, and during the last few
years the Great Central has constructed a line through
Chesterfield to Manchester.

It will thus be seen that Derbyshire is very well
supplied with railways, notwithstanding the hilly nature
of the country.

The introduction of railways was vigorously opposed
by the canal owners, who naturally objected to being
deprived of a monopoly in which they had invested large
sums of money, and some of the canals had to be pur-
chased by the railways and kept up by them. This
resulted in railways spending large sums of money on
canals which they would rather not have possessed.
What future there may be for canals is a matter of
speculation. The use of horse-power renders them slow
in transit. It is possible, however, that as the motor car
on roads is revolutionising traffic and competing with
railways to some degree, that a similar motive power
applied to barges might make canals more useful. But
against this, there is the fact that they cannot be used in
hilly districts because of the numerous locks and con-
sequent delay in traffic and the large quantity of water
which would be required and which would be impossible
to obtain. The transhipment from canal to railway is
also a factor which increases the expense of conveyance.

ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 139

27. Administration and Divisions-
Ancient and Modern.

The government of our English counties is the result
of a blending and alteration of several systems. The
word Sheriff is a survival both of the Saxon and Norman
rule. In Saxon England the county or shire was presided
over by the Shire-reeve, who was elected by the people.
In Norman England the Count, who represented the
Sovereign, was head of the county. In time he deputed
his functions to some local lord, who became known as
the Vicecomes to the Normans, but by the more English
name of Shire-reeve or Sheriff to the people, who preferred
the old Saxon to the new Latin word. This is why
the Saxon Sheriff, originally elected by the people of the
county, has for many centuries been appointed by the
Sovereign of England.

Derbyshire formed part of the Saxon kingdom of
Mercia. The eastern portion of that kingdom was con-
quered by the Danes, and Derby became one of the five
Danish burghs and was therefore associated with the
other four burghs of Lincoln, Leicester, Stamford, and
Nottingham. During the Norman rule the shires of
Derby and Nottingham were grouped together for admini-
strative purposes. For this reason, up to the reign of
Henry III, the assizes of the two counties were held at
Nottingham, and there was only one county gaol, that
at Nottingham, for both shires. From that time up to
1566, the assizes were held alternately at Derby and

140 DERBYSHIRE

Nottingham. In the year 1566, up to which time there
had only been one Sheriff for both counties, an Act of
Parliament was passed giving a separate Sheriff to each
of the counties of Derby and Nottingham.

The office of Lord-Lieutenant was not created until
the year 1554. Hallam remarks that "the power of
calling to arms and mustering the population of each
county given in earlier times to the Sheriff" or Justice of
the Peace or to Special Commissioners of Array began to
be entrusted to the Lord-Lieutenant." His " office gave
him the command of the Militia, and rendered him
the chief Vice-regent of his Sovereign responsible for the
maintenance of public order." The Lord-Lieutenant
was at first an extraordinary magistrate, constituted only
in time of difficulty and danger, but the office soon became
a permanent institution.

Derbyshire is at the present time divided into six
hundreds or wapentakes, viz. the High Peak, Wirks-
worth or the Low Peak, Appletree, Scarsdale, and the
joint hundreds of Morleston and Litchurch, and of
Repton and Gresley. Modern historians consider that
the hundreds of the Domesday Book cannot be corre-
lated with those of the present day, because in ancient
records the terms for these divisions, such as wapentake,
hundred, liberty or soke appear to have been used some-
what indiscriminately.

We will now consider the present mode of county
government. The chief officers in the county are the
Lord-Lieutenant and the Sheriff, who are appointed by
the King, the latter annually and the former generally for

ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 141

life. The Lord-Lieutenant is in most cases a nobleman
or large landowner. In Derbyshire, the Lord-Lieutenancy
has been held by the nine Dukes of Devonshire, and the
present Duke is the twenty-second person who has held
that office.

The County Council now conducts the main business
of the county, and meets in the County Council build-
ings in St Mary's Gate, Derby, where the offices and
Council Chamber are situate. This County Council
consists of 21 Aldermen and 63 Councillors, the latter of
whom are elected, nine from each of the Parliamentary
Divisions of the County. The County Council, amongst
other duties, keeps the county roads and bridges in repair,
appoints the police, manages the County Lunatic Asylum,
and looks after the health of the people ; and generally
carries into effect the laws passed by Parliament.

The County Council represents the central form of
County Government which was started in 1888, but
another Act was passed in 1894 for Local Government
in the towns and parishes. In the large parishes, the chief
authorities are now the District Councils, of which there
are 26 in Derbyshire, while the smaller parishes have their
Parish Council or Parish meetings.

In Derbyshire there are four boroughs which have
been incorporated by Royal Charter. They are each
governed by a Mayor and Town Council. Derby is the
most ancient borough in the county, has the powers of
a County Council and is called the County Borough of
Derby. The governing body consists of 16 Aldermen
and 48 Councillors. The Borough of Chesterfield, which

142 DERBYSHIRE

was incorporated in 1204, has six Aldermen and 18 Coun-
cillors ; that of Glossop the same number of each as
Chesterfield, and that of Ilkeston five Aldermen and
14 Councillors. The boroughs have greater powers of
government than the parishes.

Derbyshire is divided into nine Poor Law Unions,
each of which is under a Board of Guardians, whose
duty is to manage the workhouses and to appoint and
control various officers to carry on the work of relieving
the poor.

For purposes of justice, the Administrative County
has one court of Quarter Sessions, which meets at Derby,
and is divided into 15 Petty Sessional divisions, each
having Magistrates or Justices of the Peace, whose duty
it is to try cases and administer justice. The County
Borough of Derby and the Municipal Boroughs of Ches-
terfield and Glossop have separate Commissions of the
Peace.

The number of civil parishes in Derbyshire is 314.
There are 255 ecclesiastical parishes within the ancient
county of Derby, and of these 249 are in the Diocese of
Southwell, three in that of Peterborough, and three in
that of Lichfield. Formerly Derbyshire was in the
Diocese of Lichfield, but now Derbyshire and Notting-
hamshire form the Diocese of Southwell.

The control of public elementary and secondary
education in the county under the Education Act, 1902,
is directed by five Education Committees, elected respec-
tively by the County Council, the Council of the County
Borough of Derby, and the Councils of Chesterfield,

ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 143

Glossop, and Ilkeston. Since 1902, further powers have
been given to, and duties placed upon, the Education
authorities, including amongst the former the feeding of
necessitous children in elementary schools, and amongst
the latter the medical inspection of children in elementary
schools.

Derbyshire is represented in the House of Commons
by nine Members of Parliament. The County Borough
of Derby elects two Members, and the remainder of the
county, which for Parliamentary purposes is divided into
seven divisions, sends one Member from each division.

28. The Roll of Honour of the County.

There is an old adage which says : —

" Derbyshire born and Derbyshire bred,
Strong in the arm and weak in the head,"

or, as some say it should be, " wak" meaning "awake in the
head." Be this as it may, Derbyshire is not without her
illustrious men and women in every walk of life.

The first Earl of Derby was the powerful Norman
Baron, Robert de Ferrers, who owned so much land in
this county. The title was forfeited in the reign of
Henry III, but Henry VII revived it, and conferred it
upon Thomas, Lord Stanley, who had crowned him
King.

Amongst more recent statesmen we have Lord Mel-
bourne, the first of Queen Victoria's Prime Ministers.

144 DERBYSHIRE

His name was taken from the little Derbyshire village
where his ancestors, the Coke family, resided, and it has
been adopted for that of one of the great capitals of our
Australian colonies. Lord Chief Justice Denman, born
in 1779, owned a farm at Stoney Middleton, and his
grandfather was a doctor at Bakewell. Lord Denman
was a reformer of abuses, and truly an upright judge.

The Dukes of Devonshire have resided at Chats-
worth, and the Cavendish family have been represented
in the House of Commons almost continuously for over
three centuries. The noted "Bess of Hardwick" built
three of the finest seats in the county, viz. Chatsworth,
Hardwick, and Oldcotes, but Chatsworth has been rebuilt
and Oldcotes has disappeared. Horace Walpole records a
tradition that she would die if she ceased building, and
that shortly before her death, the work at Bolsover Castle
was stopped by the frost. But alas for the tradition,
Bolsover was built by her son ! She was married four
times, and remained a widow for the fourth time for
17 years. Her second husband was William Cavendish,
and her fourth husband George, Earl of Shrewsbury, the
custodian of the unhappy Mary Queen of Scots.

Amongst soldiers there was Sir John Gell of Hopton,
who made himself notorious over the collection of ship-
money, though better known, perhaps, was his kinsman
of more modern times, Sir William Gell, the archaeologist
and geographer — " topographic Gell " as Byron terms
him — who wrote on Pompeii, Rome, and Greece gene-
rally and died in 1836. Derbyshire can proudly point
to Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram of Butterley

THE ROLL OF HONOUR 145

Hall, " the Bayard of India," as one of her most noble
and famous sons, a tower of strength during the Indian
Mutiny, and in turn both besieger and besieged in Luck-
now. He died in 1863 and was buried in Westminster
Abbey.

Notable amongst Derbyshire divines, were Bishop
Pursglove, who was born and bred in Tideswell, and
died in 1579, having built two grammar schools and a
hospital ; William Bagshawe, " the Apostle of the Peak,"
an eminent Nonconformist and author, who was born at
Litton in 1628 ; and Mompesson the vicar of Eyam, whose
courageous unselfishness at the time of the Plague did so
much to restrict its spread.

Of men of letters the most salient name is Richardson,
though less by virtue of peculiar genius than by the fact
of his having struck a new vein in fiction which appealed
to the readers of that day with a success which nowadays
seems astounding. Born in 1689, the son of a joiner,
and with no special education, Samuel Richardson was
still more remarkable in that his first novel Pamela was
published when he was over fifty. It was followed
by Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandhon, but all three have
passed long since into practical oblivion.

William Howitt, born at Heanor in 1792, and his
wife, Mary Howitt, were keen lovers of nature, and
wrote many poems as well as tales and travels which are
both interesting and instructive, amongst the latter an
account of the Australian goldfields in early days.

Newton, " the Minstrel of the Peak," who was born
near Tideswell and lived at Eyam, is better known within

B. D. 10

Samuel Richardson

THE ROLL OF HONOUR 147

the county than to the outer world ; Antony Bradshawe
of Farley's Hall, the author of a quaint and interesting
poem on Duffield and the customs of the peak, was
a barrister and a historian. His memorial, self-erected
fourteen years before his death in 1614 in Duffield church,
is inscribed to himself and his two wives and twenty
children.

William Hutton, the well-known historian of our
county, was bom in Full Street, Derby, in 1723. Be-
sides his history, he wrote a large number of poems, and
an interesting autobiography, which reveals his hard fight
with poverty, and the life of the lower classes of his time.

The famous philosopher of the nineteenth century,
Herbert Spencer, was born on April 2yth, 1820, at
Exeter Row, and lived later in Wilmot Street, Derby.
He was distinguished for having applied the principles of
evolution to the social and moral development of man-
kind ; and the ten volumes dealing with his stupendous
system of synthetic philosophy mark thirty-six years of
unflagging industry against adverse circumstances and
continuous bad health. His best known work on
Education, Intellectual, Moral, and Physical, has been
translated into nearly every known language including
Chinese and Japanese, and a copy is given to every public
teacher in France. He died December, 1903, and left an
interesting biography which was published after his death.

Erasmus Darwin, poet, evolutionist, and physician,
and grandfather of the illustrious Charles Darwin, was
the author of Loves of the Plants, and was a resident
in Derby for nearly twenty years, though not a native.

10—2

148

DERBYSHIRE

Derbyshire is particularly noteworthy for its scientific
men. John Flamste.ed or Flamstead, the first Astronomer
Royal, was born of Derby parents, who went to Denby,
five miles away, to escape the plague in 1646, the year after

John Flamsteed

his birth. He went to Greenwich the year the Observatory
was built (1676) and formed the first proper catalogue of
the fixed stars. He was a friend of Isaac Newton, and
his great work was the Historia Caelestis Britannica.

The Derbyshire toadstones furnished John White-

THE ROLL OF HONOUR 149

hurst with material for his speculations, which were
published in 1778. He was the first to believe that
they were as truly igneous rocks as those of Vesuvius or
Etna. The family of Whitehurst was well known as
clockmakers in Derby.

Amongst artists, Joseph Wright, always known as
"Wright of Derby," who was born in 1734, bears a de-
served reputation. He was a wonderful painter of artificial
light, of fire, moonlight, volcanoes, and other studies in
chiaroscuro. Some of his finest works are portraits and
historical subjects, several of which find a permanent
home in the Derby Art Gallery.

Sir Francis Chantrey, the matchless English sculptor,
was born at Norton in 1781. His beautiful monument
of " The Sleeping Children " at Lichfield is well known.

Brindley, the famous engineer and constructor of
canals, was born at Thornsett in 1716. He could hardly
read or write, but took Nature as his book, and his in-
born mechanical genius solved most of his problems.

The founders of the great cotton industry, " Ark-
wright, Strutt, and Need," built their first mills in
Derbyshire at Cromford and Milford, and later acquired
residences in the neighbourhood. Jedediah Strutt in-
vented the ribbed stocking machine in 1758. Joseph
Strutt presented the Derby Arboretum to the town, and
many other proofs of this family's munificence have been
given to Derbyshire.

We must also record Michael Thomas Bass as a Derby
benefactor. Though not a Derbyshire man, he repre-
sented the borough in Parliament for thirty years. He

150 DERBYSHIRE

was simple-minded and unobtrusive, but princely in his
gifts, among which were the Free Library, Museum, Art
Gallery, and Swimming Baths.

Other notabilities who resided in Derby during the

Sir R. Arkwright

eighteenth century were Duesbury, the Staffordshire
potter, who established the Derby China works in 1755
in connection with Heath, of the Cockpit Hill works ;
and John Lombe, who started the silk-throwing industry
in Derby.

THE ROLL OF HONOUR 151

Finally, a heroine of whom Derbyshire will ever be
justly proud is the venerable lady, still with us, Florence
Nightingale of Lea Hurst, near Cromford. She was
wealthy and accomplished, but she loved nursing and
studied it as a science, so when the call for help came
from our suffering and neglected soldiers in the Crimea,
she was willing and prepared to obey the call. She
revolutionised nursing, and when a grateful nation sub-
scribed £50,000 as a recognition of her services, she
devoted it all to founding the Nightingale Home for
Trained Nurses.

29. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES
OF DERBYSHIRE.

(The figures in brackets after each name give the population
from the 1901 census returns, and those at the end of each
section are references to the pages in the text.)

Alfreton (17,505) is a market town, pleasantly situated on
the brow of a hill, and connected by the Midland Railway with
Mansfield. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the collieries
and fron-works of the neighbourhood, (pp. 71, 132.)

Allestree (589). A parish two miles north of Derby,
(pp. 102, 106.)

Ambergate and Heage (2490). A large parish. Am-
bergate station is a junction on the Derby, Chesterfield and
Sheffield and on the Derby, Matlock and Manchester branches of
the Midland Railway, (pp. 25, 76, 134.)

Ashbourne-(4O39) (mentioned in Domesday Book as Esse-
burn), on the slope of a hill, is a market and union town. It is
1 3 miles from Derby by road, and four miles from Dovedale, and
is the terminus of the branch of the North Staffordshire Railway
from Rocester, and also of the branch line of the London and North-
Western Railway from Buxton. It is an interesting old town,
with a fine parish church, noted for its spire, which is called the

154 DERBYSHIRE

"Pride of the Peak," and a grammar school founded in 1585. Its
trade depends on the farmers and the numerous fairs and markets.
The Royalist troops suffered defeat here in 1 644, and Ashbourne
Hall, now converted into a hotel, was occupied by the Pretender
on his march to Derby, and also on his retreat from that town.
On Shrove Tuesday, the old custom of playing football in the
streets is still kept up. (pp. 34, 35, 74, 76, 81, 83, 89, 103, 104,
106, 107, 109, in, 131, 132, 136, 138.)

Ashford (684), often called Ashford-in-the- Water, is a parish
about a mile and a half from Bakewell on the river Wye, which
here flows between lofty hills. Up to a few years ago, it was
celebrated for its marble quarries, but the industry has now become
extinct. Rottenstone was obtained from the neighbourhood,
(pp. 121, 131, 132.)

Ashover (2426), seven miles south-west of Chesterfield, is a
township on the Amber, which here flows through the Mountain
Limestone. Extensive limestone quarries are worked, but the

many old lead-mines are disused, (p. 102.)

•

Aston -upon -Trent (537). A parish and village six miles
south-east of Derby. All Saints' church contains a Saxon Cross
built into the wall and some portions of late Norman work,
(p. 102.)

Ault Hucknall (1582). A village and parish seven miles
from Chesterfield. The church of St John the Baptist is Norman
and Early English. Hardwick Hall, a seat of the Duke of
Devonshire, was erected in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
(p. 98.)

Bakewell (2850) is an interesting market and union town
beautifully situated on the Wye, which is spanned by a stone
bridge of six arches. It has a station on the Midland Railway,
and is noted for its fine church and old cross. Several chert
quarries are worked, and the rock sent to the potteries. Haddon

CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 155

Hall and Chatsworth are in the immediate neighbourhood, (pp.
71, 74, 83, 89, 102, 107, in, 121, 131, 132, 133, 144.)

Barlborough (2056). A village and parish eight miles
from Chesterfield. St James's church contains four Norman
arches. The chancel is Early English, (p. 125.)

Beighton (3371). A village and parish in the north-
eastern division of the county. The chapel of St Thomas has
a western tower in the Norman style built of part of the ruins
of the abbey in 1660.

Bridge over the Wye, Bakewell

Belper (10,934), a market and union town on the Derwent
about eight miles due north of Derby, is a straggling modern
town, with a station on the Midland Railway. The chief indus-
tries are cotton-spinning, and the manufacture of hosiery, stoves,
and grates, (pp. 59, 68.)

Blackwell (4144). A parish about three miles from
Alfreton with extensive collieries which employ a large number
of people, (p. 107.)

156 DERBYSHIRE

Bolsover (6944) is a large village six miles east of Chester-
field on the Chesterfield and Mansfield Railway. Bolsover Castle
is in the neighbourhood, (pp. 76, 82, 103, 117, 126, 144.)

Bonsall (1360). A town and parish about one and a half
miles from Cromford Station, situate about 700 feet above sea level.
Some of the inhabitants are employed in limestone and dolerite
quarries, and in paint and colour works. The Via Gellia, a
beautifully wooded and narrow valley in the limestone, is partly
in this parish, (pp. 68, 104.)

Bradbourne (132). A township, parish, and village six
miles from Wirksworth. All Saints' church contains remains of
Saxon and Norman work. (pp. 102, 107, 126.)

Bradwell (1033). A township and old town two miles from
Hope station, situate about 600 feet above sea level and nearly
surrounded by limestone hills. Here are large limestone quarries
and the Bagshaw Cavern, (pp. 14, 46, 94, 95.)

Brampton (2185). A township, village, and parish adjoin-
ing Chesterfield on the west. The church contains a Norman
doorway.

Brassington (651). A township, village, and parish four
miles from Wirksworth, 800 feet above sea level. The church
possesses extensive Norman remains. In this parish are several
brickworks and limestone quarries, Harboro' and Rainster Rocks,
and the Hoe Grange Quarry, in which a cavern with Pleistocene
remains was discovered, (p. 131.)

Breadsall (515). A village and parish two and a half
miles from Derby with a station on the Great Northern Rail-
way. The ancient church contains many interesting remains,
including a carved alabaster "Pieta" and some chained books.
A priory was founded here in the reign of Henry III, and the
estate was at one time owned by Dr Erasmus Darwin, (pp. 102,
103.)

CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 157

Brought (66). B rough and Stratton form a township near
Hope. At the confluence of the rivers Noe and Bradwell are the
remains of a Roman Camp. (pp. 60, 93, 94, 95.)

Burbage (1503). On the Wye, one mile from Buxton.
It was formed into a civil parish in 1894. Poole's Hole, a cavern
in the limestone, is in the parish. The large quarries belonging
to the Buxton Lime Firms Co. Ltd. employ several hundred men
and have a branch line from the L. & N. W. Railway, (p. 17.)

The Crescent, Buxton

Buxton (6373), close to the eastern border of the county and
the source of the Wye and called Aquae by the Romans, is one of
the important inland watering-places of England. It is situate at
a height of 1000 feet above sea level, the portion called Higher
Buxton being about 100 feet higher. It has two railway stations,
the Midland and the London and North-Western Railway. The
town is placed in the deep valley of the Wye, and is almost
surrounded by hills. The district is wild and bleak, but beautiful

158 DERBYSHIRE

river scenery is afforded by the Goyt valley and by the deep gorges
of the Wye in the direction of Miller's Dale. The chief interest
is the spring of tepid water which issues from the ground at a
temperature of 82 degrees and is largely charged with nitrogen. It
is used for bathing and medicinal purposes, and there are a number
of various kinds of baths in connection with it. Poole's Hole, a
cavern in the limestone, is close to the town ; and there are lime-
stone and sandstone quarries in the neighbourhood, (pp. 8, 14,
15, 17, 44, 46, 50, 56, 57, 59, 76, 77, 86, 93, 95, 131, 132, 136.)

Castleton (547) is a village about two miles from Hope
Station. It is celebrated for its ancient Peak Castle, the ruins of
which remain, the Peak Cavern, Speedwell Cavern, and "Blue
John" mine, The Winnats, and Mam Tor or the Shivering
Mountain. It is visited by a large number of people, (pp. 12,
40, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 76, 82, 93, 94, 116, 131.)

Chapel-en-le- Frith (4626), a small market town, is about
six miles north of Buxton on the Midland and London and North-
Western Railways, (pp. 43, 86.)

Charlesworth (1967). A township and parish about two
miles from Glossop and near the borders of Cheshire. The chief
trades are cotton spinning, rope making, and cotton-band making.

Chelmorton (287). A parish five miles from Buxton and
eight from Bakewell. St John the Baptist's church contains traces
of Saxon and Norman work. It is the second highest village in
England (1218 feet above sea level), (pp. 107, 109.)

Chesterfield (27,185) is a market town, and the largest of
the three Derbyshire boroughs. It is noted for its church with
a twisted spire. The Stephenson Memorial Hall was built in
memory of George Stephenson, the railway engineer, who lived
near Chesterfield, (pp. ai, 84, 86, 88, 95, 104, 105, 107, in,
115, n6, 130, 138, 142, 143.)

160 DERBYSHIRE

Chinley (1223). Chinley, Bugsworth, and Brownside form
a township in the parish of Glossop, and together contained
1223 inhabitants in 1901. Chinley is an important junction on
the Midland Railway, which here passes over two fine viaducts,
(p. 94.)

Church Gresley (8618). A parish and township six miles
from Ashby-de-la-Zouch. A priory of Austin Canons was
founded here in 1135-40 by William de Gresley. Part of the
aisle, arcade and the tower of the existing church are all that
remain, though many fragments of Norman work have been found
in the churchyard. There are important coal-works, potteries,
fire-brick and encaustic tile works.

Clay Cross (8358). A town five miles south of Chesterfield
with a station on the Midland Railway. The Urban District
Council includes Clay Lane (7701), and Egstow (657). About
3000 hands are employed by the Clay Cross Company (Iron).

Clowne (3896). A village and parish with a station on a
branch of the Midland Railway and also on the Great Central
Railway about eight miles from Chesterfield.

Codnor and LOSCOC (3831). These are hamlets forming
a civil parish on the Heanor and Ripley branch of the Midland
Railway. A great number of men are employed in the extensive
collieries of the Butterley Company.

Crich (3063). An old town 600 feet above sea level on an
inlier of mountain limestone, and one mile from Whatstandwell
station on the Midland Railway. The church of St Michael is
partly Norman, but mixed in style. Crich Stand, 950 feet above
sea level, is a noted landmark — a circular tower built in 1851 ; it
is now closed to the public, as it is unsafe and is being allowed to
fall into decay. An extensive landslip occurred here in 1882.
A considerable number of people are employed in the limestone

CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 161

and gritstone quarries. A large covered service reservoir is being
constructed by the Derwent Valley Water Board from which
pipes are being laid to Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester, (pp. 37,
104, 109, 132.)

Cromford (1080). A town and parish with a station on the
Manchester line of the Midland Railway. Sir Richard Arkwright
established the first cotton factory here in 1771. (pp. 26, 28, 30,
33, 68, 71, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 149, 151.)

Darley Abbey (915). A parish and village one and a half
miles north of Derby and on the river Derwent. The ancient
abbey of St Mary was founded before 1112, by Hugh, dean of
Derby, (pp. 84, 113, 115.)

Darley Dale (2756) (or North Darley) has a station on
the Midland Railway about four miles from Matlock Bath. The
church dates from Norman times and contains a Norman font.
Here are the Whitworth Institute and Hospital, and sandstone
quarries are worked, (pp. 16, 17, 53, 77, 107, 109, 132.)

Denby (1731). A parish and village eight miles north of
Derby with large collieries, iron furnaces, and pottery and brick
tile-works, (p. 148.)

Derby (105,912), on the Derwent, 127 miles N.N.W. of
London, is the chief town of Derbyshire, a County Borough and
Parliamentary Borough, and the headquarters of the Midland
Railway. Owing to its position as an important railway centre
near the coalfields of the Midlands, it is essentially a manu-
facturing town, and many and varied industries are carried on in
it. It has a number of churches, the most interesting being All
Saints', with a beautiful tower. The Free Library, Museum and
Art Gallery, and Free Swimming Baths were built and presented
to the town by the late Michael Thomas Bass, M.P., and the
Arboretum by Joseph Strutt. St Helen's House has for many

B. D. II

162 DERBYSHIRE

years been used for Derby School, which is one of great antiquity.
(PP. 3, 2I» 25» 28» 57» 59, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 74, 83, 84, 85,
86, 87, 88, 107, in, 113. JI4> n5> Il8» I27» ^O) H1? J32> *35»
136, 138, 139, '42, 143, 147, 148, i49, 150.)

Dethick and Holloway (1311). This is a parish two and
a half miles from Matlock. The church dates from 1220. At
Holloway is situated Lea Hurst which was for many years the
home of Florence Nightingale.

Dore (1305). Dore is a village which, since 1844, has
formed a separate parish with Totley. It has a station on the
Midland Railway five miles south-west of Sheffield. The Dore
and Chinley branch of the Midland Railway, 20 miles in length,
passes through five and a half miles of tunnels and the remainder
through Derwent Dale, Hope Dale and Edale. (p. 94.)

Dronfield (3809) is a manufacturing town six miles from
Chesterfield on the road between Chesterfield and Sheffield,
(pp. 84, 1 06, 109.)

Duffield (1959) is situated on the Derwent and Ecclesbourne
brook about four miles north of Derby. After the Conquest it
became the seat of the de Ferrers, Earls of Derby. The foundations
of Duffield Castle on Castle Hill have been laid bare, and the
site has been presented to the parish, (pp. 14, 68, 83, 116, 118,
I47-)

Eckington (12,895). A township and parish with a station
on the Midland Railway and is one mile from Renishaw station
on the Great Central Railway. The church dates from the time
of Stephen and has considerable Norman remains, (p. 103.)

Eyam (269). A township, village and parish five miles east
of Tideswell and six miles north of Bakewell. The village is
picturesque and interesting, and the churchyard contains a Saxon
Cross and the tomb of Catherine Mompesson, wife of the Derby-
shire hero of the Plague, (pp. 44, 85, 107, 125, 145.)

CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 163

Glossop or GlosSOp Dale (21,526), a municipal borough
and market town, is on the borders of Cheshire. It is the chief
seat of the cotton manufacture in Derbyshire, having extensive
factories besides woollen and_ paper mills, while calico printing is
also carried on in the neighbourhood, (pp. 68, 94, 142, 143.)

Hartington (3306) is a parish consisting of the four
townships called Middle, Upper, Nether, and Town Quarters.
Hartington Town Quarter has a station one and a half miles
away from the village on the Buxton and Ashbourne branch of
the L. & N. W. Railway. In the Upper Quarter is Axe Edge,
1756 feet above sea level, from which the rivers Dove, Wye,
Dane, and Goyt have their sources, (pp. 126, 131.)

Hartshorne (1375). A village between Derby and Ashby-
de-la-Zouch, two miles north-east from Woodville station, (pp.
68, 1 1 8.)

Hathersage (1135). A village with a station on the Dore
and Chinley branch of the Midland Railway, ten miles from
Sheffield. There are large gritstone quarries in the neighbour-
hood. Pins and steel wire are the chief manufactures. The
place is situated in the midst of beautiful moorland and river
scenery, (pp. 93, 104, 106.)

Hayfield (2614). A village about 600 feet above sea level.
It is a convenient starting point for Kinder Scout, and possesses
large calico-print works and paper and cotton mills, (p. 68.)

Heanor (12,418). A parish which includes Heanor, Langley
Mill, Langley Marlpool, and Aldercar and is situated on the road
from Derby to Mansfield, (pp. 17, 67, 145.)

Hope (382). A village with a station on the Dore and
Chinley branch of the Midland Railway two miles from Castleton.
(PP- 43, 94, 107, in, 115.)

II— 2

164 DERBYSHIRE

Ilkeston (25,384), on the Erewash, is a municipal borough,
with various manufactories, (pp. 67, 68, 83, 103, 104, 109, 143,
144.)

Killamarsh (3644). Called in Domesday "Chinewald-
marese" is a widely scattered parish on the borders of Yorkshire
and has a station on the branch of the Midland Railway and the
main line of the Great Central, and on the Lancashire, Derbyshire
and East Coast Railways The church is partly Norman. There
are collieries, a steel forge, and chemical works.

Long Eaton (13,045). On the Erewash, one mile from
Trent station. There are extensive railway carriage works; and
lace-making is the chief occupation, (pp. 67, 102.)

Longford (352). A village six miles from Ashbourne and
six miles from Tutbury. The church contains Norman piers and
a Norman font. (pp. 102, 107, 118.)

Marston Montgomery (341). A scattered village two
miles from Rocester station on the North Stafford Railway. The
chancel arch of the church is tenth or eleventh century work and
there is a south door, a priest's door in the chancel, and a circular
font all of Norman date. The churchyard contains a fine old
yew tree and some curious old tombs. The register up to 1660
was common to this place and Cubley and is still kept in the last
named parish, (p. 98.)

Matlock (5979) parish includes Matlock Town and Green,
Matlock Bank, and Matlock Bridge. The station is Matlock on
the Midland Railway. Matlock Bank, which is sheltered from
the east winds, is noted for its hydropathic establishments. Riber
Castle, built by the late Mr Smedley, is now used as a boarding
school for boys. (pp. 16, 17, 28, 39, 41, 46, 48, 95, 130, 131,
*32» J33-)

Matlock Bath (1819) is an inland watering-place in the
deep dale or gorge of the Derwent. It is situated amongst charming

166 DERBYSHIRE

limestone scenery, and is of world-wide repute for its medicinal
springs. Of these there are three, which issue from the limestone
at a temperature of 68 degrees Fahr. There are also petrifying
wells and several interesting caverns, (pp. 7, 8, 28, 37, 39, 47,
J34-)

Melbourne (3580) is a small town with manufactures about
eight miles south-east of Derby, noted for its Norman church and
the gardens of Melbourne Hall, once the seat of Lord Melbourne,
which were formed in 1720 in the Dutch style. The Castle was
dismantled in the fifteenth century, (pp. 81, 83, 86, 100, 109,
in, 117, 127, 144.)

Mellor (1218). A parish two miles from Marple station
on the Midland Railway, Wadding and surgical dressings are
manufactured in the neighbourhood, (pp. 102, 107.)

Mickleover (2084). A parish three miles from Derby with
a station on the Great Northern Railway. The County Lunatic
Asylum for 776 patients is located here. (pp. 109, 118.)

Middleton-Stoney (478). A picturesque and hilly town-
ship in the parish of Hathersage, five miles from Bakewell. It
has two springs, one with a temperature of 60 degrees and baths
have been erected upon the site of a supposed Roman bath. It
possesses manufactories for barytes, and has several lime kilns,
(pp. 131, 144.)

Milford (1096). The English Sewing Cotton Co. Limited,
have here a large factory for bleaching and dyeing, which was
originally founded by Messrs Strutt about 1780. (pp. 68, 149.)

Newbold-Cum-Dunston (5986), adjoins Chesterfield.
The ancient Norman and Perpendicular church was nearly
destroyed by a mob in the reign of William III, and was
desecrated and used as a cow-house. There are potteries for
manufacturing stone bottles and brown ware and a brick and tile
manufactory.

CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 167

New Mills (6253). A manufacturing town on the river
Goyt. (pp. 8, 10, 68.)

Norton (11,875). A. pleasant village two and a half miles
from Beauchief. The church has a few late Norman remains.
In the churchyard is the grave of Sir Francis Chantrey, R.A., the
eminent sculptor, (pp. 71, 149.)

Ockbrook (2567). A parish one mile from Borrowash
station on the Nottingham and Derby branch of the Midland
Railway. The tower and font of the church are Norman, though
the spire is later, and the finely carved oak screen is of the
sixteenth century, (p. 103.)

Peak Forest (476). A small village five miles from
Buxton, with a station on the Midland Railway nearly three
miles away and one on the L. & N. W. Railway. It was
originally a free chapelry in the King's forest and was extra-
episcopal and extra-parochial and up to 1804 there was an average
of 80 "Gretna" weddings annually. There are extensive lime
works near the Midland station, (pp. 14, 41, 44, 76.)

Pinxton (2994). A parish four miles from Alfreton noted
for its collieries, (p. 134.)

Pleasley (8448). A pleasant village nine miles from
Chesterfield. The church contains a highly ornamented Norman
arch. Pleasley Vale is the site of large cotton, silk, and merino
spinning mills near picturesque limestone ravines.

Repton (1695) is celebrated for its old priory and its school,
which was founded in 1556 by Sir John Port. It is about seven
and a half miles S.S.W. of Derby, (pp. 61, 68, ^ 107, in, 112,
1 1 8.)

Ripley (10,1 1 1) is a market and manufacturing town. The
ironworks and collieries of the Butterley Co. are in the immediate
neighbourhood, (pp. 17, 68.)

168 DERBYSHIRE

Rowsley (295). Has a station on the Midland Railway
and is five and a half miles from Matlock. The district is noted
for its manufacture of grindstones and for excellent building
stone, (pp. 132, 133.)

Sandiacre (2954). A large village. The church of
St Giles contains traces of Norman work. (pp. 35, 83, 102,
103, 104, 106, 107, 109.)

Sawley (1751), has a station one and a half miles south-east
of the village and another (Sawley Junction) half a mile south-
west on the Midland Railway. A church existed here previous
to 822, and the north wall of All Saints' church contains herring-
bone work and is supposed to be Saxon, (pp. 95, 98, 104, 107.)

Spondon (2544). A parish and township with a station on
the main line of the Midland Railway, large colour-works, and a
tar distillery, (pp. 107, 109.)

Stanley (1263). About a mile from the West Hallam
station on the Great Northern Railway. The small church
possesses a Norman south door. (p. 114.)

Staveley (11,420). A large village with two stations on
the Midland Railway and two on the Great Central. The church
contains some interesting tombs and incised slabs, and a fine font
of twelfth century date. The land yields rich minerals and an
abundant supply of coal, and there are also corn-mills, a brush
manufactory, and one for spades and shovels.

Swadlincote (4017). Noted for the manufacture of
earthenware and fire-bricks. It has a station on the Burton
and Ashby branch of the Midland Railway and is six miles
from Burton-on-Trent. (p. 68.)

Swarkestone (146), a parish and village three miles south-
east of Derby. It is remarkable for its ancient bridge and
raised causeway nearly a mile in length, the oldest remaining

CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 169

portions being of thirteenth century date. There once stood a
midway chantry or chapel upon it. There are some slight
Norman remains in the church and a probable Norman font.
Near the site of the A<Old Hall" is a balcony and enclosure
supposed to have been used for bull-baiting, (pp. 87, 88, 125.)

Tideswell (1938) is a market town two and a half miles
from Miller's Dale Station. It is noted for its fine church with
an unusually large chancel. The Grammar School was founded
in 1560 by Robert Pursglove, Bishop of Hull. (pp. 14, 39, 84,
104, 107, in, 131, 145.)

Tissington (367). A parish and village with a station on
the Buxton and Ashbourne section of the L. & N. W. Railway, is
four miles from Ashbourne. The church dates from Norman
times and the Hall is a fine Elizabethan building. Tissington is
remarkable for its ancient custom of well-dressing. The five
wells which supply the village with water are elaborately decorated
with flowers on Holy Thursday and a special service is held in
the church.

Wensley (or South Darley) (788). An ecclesiastical
parish separated from North Darley or Darley Dale by the river
Derwent. It contains the celebrated lead-mine called Mill Close,
(p. 131.)

Whitwell (3380). An agricultural and mining village and
parish in the extreme north-east of the county, with a station on
the Mansfield and Worksop branch of the Midland Railway.
The church dates from 1150 and contains a Norman font. At
Steetley, a farm one and a half miles north of Whitwell, is the
small Norman church of All Saints. Whitwell Wood extends
over 440 acres, (pp. 8, 101, 109.)

Wilne and Draycott (1504). Wilne is a parish about
one and a half miles south from Draycott station on the Midland
Railway, (pp. 99, 104, 106, 109.)

170 DERBYSHIRE

, North (2973). A township and parish four
miles south of Chesterfield celebrated for its extensive coal, lime,
and ironstone beds. There are some few remains of the late
Norman church surviving, (p. 107.)

Wingfield, South (1571), contains the old Manor House,
an interesting ruin known as Wingfield Manor, built in Henry VI's
time, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned, (pp. 7, 86, 87,
122, 132.)

Wirksworth (3807), 13 miles north-west of Derby, is
situate in a valley at the southern extremity of the lead-mining
district. An ancient brass dish is kept at the Moot Hall as a
standard for dishes for measuring lead, and the barmote courts
for swearing in the Grand Jury and settling mining disputes are
held here. (pp. 12, 17, 48, 76, 78, 80, 83, 89, 95, 103, 106, 107,
in, 131.)

Youlgreave (1077) Five miles from Bakewell. The church
of All Saints is of mixed styles and includes some Norman work.
(pp. 79, 102, 107, 109, 126.)

DIAGRAMS

171

England & Wales

37,327>479 acres

Fig. i. The Area of Derbyshire (658,885 acres) compared
with that of England and Wales

Fig. 2. The Population of
Derbyshire(62o,322) compared
with that of England and
Wales, 1901

I .i i f I

Fig. 3. Increase in the
Population of Derbyshire from
1861 to 1901

172

DERBYSHIRE

England and Wales 558

Derbyshire 600

Lancashire 2347

Fig. 4. Average Population to the sq. m. in England and
Wales, in Derbyshire, and in Lancashire in 1901

(Each dot represents ten persons)

Area under crops
other than corn 489,322 acres

Fig. 5. Proportionate area of Corn Crops to area of Crops
other than Corn in Derbyshire in 1906

DIAGRAMS

173

Oats and Rye
25,663 acres

Fig. 6. Proportionate area of Wheat, Barley, Oats, and
Rye in Derbyshire in 1906

Fig. 7. Proportion of Permanent Pasture to other
Areas in Derbyshire in 1906

174

DERBYSHIRE

Permanent Pasture
402,857 acres

Fig. 8. Proportion of Permanent Pasture to Arable Land
in Derbyshire in 1906

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