DERBYSHIRE MI ELLANY lli rrtlr,:.s.o s,rn, r, JPm. n cl-n v, IDEIRttr\y s t{ The Local History Bulletin of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society Volume I Autumn lg7l Part 2 DERBY SH I RE li{l SCELLANY Vol. Vlll Pqrt 2 Autumn 1977 CONTENTS P age Early Settlement on the site of Chesterfield 39-46 by Philip Riden Gathokewell 46 by R.W.P. Cockerton The Ticknall parish documents 47-53 by J. IIYde Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust - an appeal 53 by D.J. Latham The Darleys of Wistow and Buttercrambe 54-60 by Ernest Paulson A Frenchrnan's visit to Derbyshire in 1785 61-65 by Marian Bell From the Journal of Francois de la Rochefoucauld - 65-68 An account of a visit to Mr. Swift's mill, Derby, 1785 by E.M. BettY Hughes Two lost footpaths on Combs Edge 69 -70 by Marguerite A. Bellhouse n<, naI L - Itinerant Lecturers 'A by John Heath no n, Ice llouse at Middleton Hall, Middleton'by-Youlgreave by J.F. Marsh 74 - 75 The Aston-on-Trent tramwaY by John Heath Book notes 76 by D.V. Fowkes E DITO R Mise J. Sinar, Derbyshire Becord Office, Coubty Offices, Matlock, DE4 3AG. Editorial Assistant: D.V. Fowkes Production Assistant: V.S. Smith Distribution SecretarY: Miss J. Allen Treasurer: Mr. T. Larimore, 43 Reginald Road South, Chaddesden, Derby, DE2 6NG.. All enquiries regarding new membership and distribution should be addressed to the Treasurer. EDITOR'S NOTE The subscription to Miscellany has been held steady through many years of inflation, ttrrough the hard work of our production team headed by Victor Smith' Over this p".ioI the standard of reproduction rose appreciably, culminating in the change to offset lithography in the last issue' The combined rising cost of paper, printing and postage now make it necessary to raise the subscription-to f,I.50 yearly for members of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society and f,l.75 yearly for others' There i's not enough material in hand for the next issue. Articles and notes on any aspect of Derbyshire's past life would be very welcome' point where the Rother was joined by tributaries EARLY SETTLEilENT ON THE SITE OF from both east and west (the River Hipper and S.ES'[EBE!EI9, Spital Brook), which gave access from the fort in all four directions. The spur on which the fort was PHILIP RIDEN built is one of the series of sandstone ridges which (Universiry Cordiff) Cotlege, stand up above the shales and clays of the coal measures characteristic of the Rother valley and wouldhaveofferedsettlersabetterdrainedsite, The Iast few years have seen a remarkable probably with less dense natural vegetation, than revival of interest in the history of Chesterf ield, the heavier land of the rivelvalley" largely stimulated by the aPpearance in 1974 of On the evidence of pottery, the fort was first the first volume of a new history of the town, laid out during the reign of Nero (AD 54-68) on from the earliest times describing its development the very edge of the steeply sloping hillside above Bestall's to the the middle ages.2 John the west bank of the Rother, close to the 300ft sadly"nJof published po"ihomoo"ly, brought book, contour" To the south the land fell awar/ more together many years' work and provides an admir- gently to the Hipper while to the west the fort was able basis for further research and discovery' actually overlooked by higher ground climbing Already a programme of excavation and fieldwork towards the gritstone moorlands east of the Derwent. has produc"d ,r"* evidence of Chesterfield's Excavation has shown that the fort was occupied Rorn.n origin, finally dispelling much earlier for only about fifty years but during that time was tp""ol.tiJo, and has revealed also something of rebuilt at least once on a slightly different align: the town's medieval history' 3 At the same time' ment. A date of abandonment early in the second fresh work has been done on a wide range of docu- ..rr.ry sources" a This research is still very much century conforms well with the general reduction in in progr""" and it woul<l be premature to offer a garrison strengths in the north of England obser- corplJtuly new synthesis' In any case' much of vable at the other forts about the same time. what Bestall wrote remains unchallengeil and need not be repeated. All that is proposed here is a Little is known of Chesterfield between the end of the town' ,econsideration of the early topography of the ftoman occupation and the eleventh.century. From a general knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon history now The Roman occuPation of what is of the region we may assume that an English of the first Derbyshire began about the middle settlement probably grew up on the site of the a fort at Strutt's with tf,e establishment of fort towards the end of the sixth century or the ""ntory century by a Park, Derby, superseded later in the beginning of the seventh. The coal measures of the opposite Iarger and more permanent fort on eastern Derbyshire were not an arsa of primary as Derventio (today burit of the Derwent known settlement but were passed by for the more open suburb of Derby)' Little Chester, a northern country of the limestone plateau west of the l4th Century as A roail, known since the Derwent. In any case, the settlement of north-east was built to link Derventio with Ryknilil Street, Derbyshire should possibly be associated with at Templeborough, near Rotherham' .rroth", fort that of the adjacent part of south Yorkshire, rather about forty miles to the north' At roughly equ-al than the other parts of Derbyshire settled from the distances between Derby and Templeborough lie Trent valley, as English colonists progressed up the small camp at Pentrich, where fragmentary the the valleys the and excavation h.. i.,di"uted occupation during of Don Rother.0 Chesterfield latter part of the first century, 'and the modern does not feature in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ,o*n of Chesterfield, whose name has long been nor, except occasionally, does north-east taken to refer to the site of a Roman fort' Derbyshire, and none of the references contrib- utes much to the history of the region.T The only The main achievement of the recent excava- pre-Conquest Iand charter to refer"to Chesterfield in Chesterfield has been to identify for the- is one of the difficult group of tenth-century tions s first time a Roman fort beneath the town centre' Burton Abbey charters, of which a new discussion stray finds Although there have been a number of has recently appeared but a full edition is still least of eoin"s and pottery in the area-since.at awaited.s The document, a royal grant of 955 to the 18th century, siructural evidence for Roman Uhtred'Cild' of 'Chesterfield' (which could is settlement was discovered only in 1973' It conceivably refer to the small Staffordshire now clear that the {ort built to guard this village of the same name), survives only as an of Ryknild Street was placed at the abbreviated cartulary abstract with the bounds extreme"""tio., eastern end of a sPur oI high ground omitted. Chesterfield was not a Burton estate and north and the Rother valley to both the provenance of the charter cannot definitely be ""*...ai"gsouth. In Jddition the ridge was situated at a 39 established" It helps little in a discussion of the The general history of the town from Domesday history of the town. Book to the end of the fifteenth century has been well summarised by Bestall and need not be repeated here. The second part of this paper There is a similar lack of arehitectural focuses attention on the topography of early med- evidence. The present parish chuich, standing in ieval Chesterfield in the light of recent the heart of the medieval built-up area within the archaeological discoveries and reinterPretation boundaries of the Roman fort, dates mostly from of other evidence. the l4th century, with a much defaced Norman e font as the oldest identifiable feature. The Any topographical reconstruction must begin earliest reference to the church is in a writ of with what is clearly the oldest fixed point in the which the 1093 in William Rufus notifies town, the parish church, built in the north-east Archbishop of York and others of his gilt to eomer of the Roman Fort. North of the church Lincoln Cathedral of two churches in Nottingham- was a market place, acting as a focus for routes shire together with the churches of Ashbourne and from all four points of the compass. To the south Chesterfield in De rbyshire.l 0 The christianisation a road from Derby and the Midlands was joined by of Mercia began about AD 650 and since another from Mansfield and Nottingham, crossed Chesterfield has all the characteristics of a the Hipper and ran up the hill towards the church minster church for the region of Derbyshire of along [-ordsmill Street and St" Mary's Gate. which it is the natural centre, it was probably, the a road followeil the Rother valley from if not the oldest, among the older churches in the To north along Lane. north-east of the county. I I It remained the mother Rotherham to enter Chesterfield Tapton from the north, linking. the town church for an extensive parish until the 19th A second route was joined near Chesterfield by century, was situated on royal demesne in 1086 with Sheffield, and ran into the market (and probably 1066 also), and was built on the others from the north-west along Several early roads and site of a Roman settlement" This evidence is Holywell Street.