Bygone Derbyshire
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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com BYGONE DERBYSHIRE WILLIAM ANDREWS FRA S . Br 38 2200. Harvard College Library RVARD ECCLESIAE INNO TM ACADS 107719 STO NE CHRIS PNV : 10 Bought with Money received from Library Fines nza nha one seres BYGONE DERBYSHIRE . Of this book 750 copies have been printed , and this is No. 639 GETTA HALLHADDON. BYGONE DERBYSHIRE . EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS , F.R.H.S. , AUTHOR OF 2 “ OLD CHURCH LORE , CURIOSITIES OF THE CHURCH , " " OLD - TIME L'UNISHMENTS , " ETC. DERBY : FRANK MURRAY . ITULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO . , THIE HULL PRESS . LONDON : SIMPKIN , MARSHALL , HAMILTON , KENT , & CO . , LIMITED . 1892 . Br 3522,6 COLLECT HARVARD JUL 12 1915 LIBRARY Time money 1 WILLIAM . ANDREWS & THE - HULL PRESS Preface . HE editing of this volume has been a labour THE of love , recalling happy memories of the past . It is more than twenty - five years since I resided in Derbyshire , and made myself familiar with its historic byways and highways . I have continued my studies of its old - time lore since I left the county , never missing an opportunity of obtaining a local work , and making a note of matters I deemed of interest and importance . In the following pages will be found the result of some of my gleanings . In conclusion , I desire to tender my thanks to my contributors for assisting me to produce a book which I hope will not be regarded as an unwelcome addition to the literature of Derbyshire . WILLIAM ANDREWS . HULL LITERARY CLUB , June roth , 1892 . Contents . PAGE HISTORIC DERBYSHIRE . By Thomas Frost I ON AN EARLY CHRISTIAN TOMB AT WIRKSWORTII . By Rer . J. Charles Cox , LL.D. , F.S.A. 19 CURIOUS DERBYSHIRE LEAD ) - MINING CUSTOMS . By William Andrews , F.R.H.S. 33 THE PLACE - NAME DERBY . By Frederick Davis , F.S.A. 38 DUFFIELD CASTLE . By Jno . Ward 54 HADDON HALL 92 THE ROMANCE OF Habbox HALL . 106 THE ORDEAL OF TOUCH III THE MONUMENTAL BRASSES AT TIDESWELL . By James L. Thornely 115 BOLSOVER CASTLE . By Enid A. M. Cox 133 THE LAMP OF ST . HELEN . By T. Tindall Wildridge . 143 PEVERIL CASTLE . By James L. Thornely 155 SAMUEL SLATER , THE FATHER OF THE AMERICAN COTTON MANUFACTURE . By William E. A. Axon 170 THE BAKEWELL WITCHES . By ' T. Tindall Wildridge 180 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS IN DERBYSHIRE 185 THE BABINGTON CONSPIRACY . 193 EYAM AND ITS SAD MEMORIES . By W. G. Fretton , F.S. A. 199 WELL - DRESSING . By the Rev. Geo . S. Tyack , B. A. 208 OLD - TIME FOOTBALL . By Theo . Arthur 216 AFTER THIRTY YEARS : AN INCIDENT OF THE CIVIL War . By Edward Lamplough 224 DERBYSHIRE AND THE '45 . By the Rev. Geo . S. Tyack , B. A. 228 BESS OF HARDWICK . By Frederick Ross , F.R. H.S. 235 SHADOWS OF ROMANCE 244 INDEX 255 F BYGONE DERBYSHIRE . Thistoric Derbyshire . BY THOMAS FROST . HE earliest records of the county of Derby THI have to be gathered from writers of the period of the Roman occupation , and they are exceedingly scanty . When the Roman emperors formed the central portion of England into the province of Flavia Cæsariensis , Derbyshire was inhabited by a tribe called the Coritani , who also occupied the counties of Notts , Leicester ,, Lincoln , Rutland , and Northampton . The county was then very thinly populated , and remained so for several centuries . The towns , or rather villages , were few and far apart . Lead mines were worked , however , and pigs of the metal have been found in the neighbourhood of Matlock , one bearing the inscription , “ Socio Romæ . " ( “ To my partner at Rome . " ) One of these is B BYGONE DERBYSHIRE . now in the British Museum . Roman coins have been found near Chesterfield , and at Alfreton , Crich , Pleasley , and Burton Wood , near Ash bourne ; and an altar was , in the last century , dug up in the grounds of Haddon Hall , near Bake well , with the imperfect inscription , “ Deo Marti brasiacæ ositius Cæcilian pref . J . Aquitano , V . S . " One of the excellent roads made by the Romans entered the county from the south , and antiquaries have found traces of it at Egginton ; but it is now almost entirely obliterated by the present road , which it follows to Littleover , near Derby , there diverging in the direction of that town , and being continued over Nun ' s Green to Little Chester . Glover , in his history of the county , notes that in 1829 , traces of this road still existed near Breadsall , and on Morley Moor , a hundred yards eastward of Brackley - gate . It could also be traced close to Horsley Park , whence it was continued through the fields , cross ing the road from Wirksworth to Nottingham , to a bye - road leading from Heage to Ripley . Vestiges of its course were also discoverable near Pakerthorpe , along the road to Clay Cross ; but no traces of it could be found beyond Egstow . HISTORIC DERBYSHIRE . 3 There was another Roman road from Brough to Braxton , which could be traced on the Brough side of Bathom Edge , and thence to a stone wall dividing the Bradwell and Tideswell Moors , “ sweeping , ” says Whittaker , “ in a long straight streak of vivid green over the purple surface of the heath . ” A third road of the Roman period entered the county from Cheshire , and joined that just described ; while traces of a fourth , from Buxton to Ashbourne , were formerly visible on Brassington Moor . Penny Long Lane is also believed to have been a Roman road , entering the county on the Staffordshire side . It seems to have crossed the Dove a little below Rocester , and the road from Ashbourne to Derby between the second and third mile - stones , from which spot it was continued to Little Chester , where traces of Roman buildings were found by Stukely , in 1721 . conquest When the tide of Anglo - Saxon and the rolled over the country , Derbyshire Kingdom adjoining counties were formed into the of the seven of Mercia , the largest and most powerful Heptarchy . petty monarchies known as the Saxon , there being , The county was still sparsely inhabited families according to Bede , only seven thousand 4 BYGONE DERBYSHIRE . in Derbyshire and Notts . It was the scene of many internecine wars before the seven kingdoms were united under Egbert . Repton appears to have been the Mercian capital , and several of the kings were buried in the abbey church there , in cluding Ethelbald , killed in battle with the West Saxons , in 753 , at Sekinton , in Warwickshire , and Withlaffe , who died there shortly after the final defeat of the Mercians by Egbert . The abbey was demolished by the Danes in one of their irruptions , during the reign of Alfred . The invaders were allowed to hold that part of the county on the condition of acknowledging Alfred as king . But in 912 , in the reign of Edward the Elder , they rebelled , threw off their allegiance , and invited the Welsh to aid them in maintaining that position . The invaders were defeated , how ever , and took refuge in Derby , then a very small town , though , according to Camden , it existed in the time of the Roman occupation , when it was called Derventio . Edward's sister , the widowed Countess of Mercia , marched against the town , and took it by assault . The Welsh Prince was killed , the Danish leader fled northward , and the castle was entirely destroyed . This fortress , of which no trace now remains , appears to have been HISTORIC DERBYSHIRE . 5 situated in what was then the south - eastern quarter of the town , and has given its name to one of the municipal divisions of the borough . Under the Saxon kings , Derby had the privilege of a mint , and coins struck there in the reigns of Athelstan and Edgar have at various times been discovered . Yet there were only one hundred and forty - three burgesses in the town in the reign of Edward the Confessor , and this number had diminished to one hundred when the Domesday Book was compiled . We learn from that record of the Conqueror's survey that these were under an obligation to pay to the King twelve thraves of corn annually on the feast of St. Martin . The county was thriving as badly at this time as its principal towns , and the abortive revolts of the Derbyshire men against the Nor man rule were not conducive to its prosperity . The possessions of most of the landowners became forfeited to the King , and were conferred by him upon the nobles and knights who had followed him from Normandy . Twenty Derby shire manors rewarded his illegitimate son , William de Peveril , who wielded almost as much power in the county as the Earls of Mercia had done under the old order of things . Twenty BYGONE DERBYSHIRE . manors were given to Ralph Fitzherbert , and one hundred and twelve others , with the town of Derby , were reserved by William for himself . Few events of importance occurred during the century following the Norman conquest . Henry I . bestowed upon Derby its first charter , and from this circumstance it may be inferred that the town was then growing and prospering more than it had done during the three preceding reigns . The county did not , however , pass unscathed through the turmoil and strife of the civil wars which , at a later period , arose out of the resolve of the barons to curb the arbitrary power of the monarchs of the Plantagenet dynasty . When Henry III . threw off the restraints which had been imposed upon the Crown by the Great Charter of the preceding reign , and the nobles resorted to the arbitration of the sword in defence of their rights , Robert Ferrers , Earl of Derby , joined the baronial league .