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Kelly's Directory, Derbyshire, 1891> This page |
| Castleton, Derbyshire |
| 19th Century Derbyshire Directory Transcripts |
| From: Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland pub. London (May, 1891) - pp.73-75 |
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CASTLETON is a township, parish and well-built village, 12 miles north-west from Bakewell, 16 west from Sheffield, 6 North from Tideswell, 7 east from Chapel-en-le-Frith, which is the nearest railway station, in the High Peak division of the county, hundred of High Peak, Chapel-en-le-Frith union, petty sessional division and county court district, rural deanery of Eyam, archdeaconry of Derby, and diocese of Southwell. A small stream issues from the great cavern of Peak Hole here, and joins the river Derwent. In 1269 the church (then called "the church of Peak Castle") was given by Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I.) to the Abbey of Vale Royal, Cheshire : the present church of St. Edmund is an edifice of stone, in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled tower at the west end with crocketed pinnacles at the angles, and smaller pinnacles between these, and contains a clock and 8 bells, dating from 1803 to 1812 : the pews are of black oak, for the most part curiously carved, and some of them bear the names of their former owners and there is an ancient octagonal font : a fine Norman arch with enriched mouldings divides the nave from the chancel, in which is a memorial window of three lights, erected by the parishioners to the Rev. Charles Cecil Bates M.A. for 35 years vicar here, who died 4 Jan. 1853 : there is a marble monument to John Mawe, a native mineralogist of some celebrity, who is buried in St. Mary in the Strand, London; on the opposite side of the church is a tablet to Micah Hall, gent. attorney-at-law, d. 14 May, 1804, with this inscription, said to have been written by himself :-"Quid eram, nescitis ; quid sum, nescitis; ubi abii, nescitis; Valete :" the vestry, north of the chancel, contains a library of upwards of 1,000 volumes, embracing works on divinity, history, biography and other subjects, many of them being rare and valuable ; this library was first formed by the Rev. Frederick Farran, a former vicar, who died in 1819, and presented most of the books, although additions have been made by other generous donors; among them will be found copies of Archbishop Cranmer's, or the great Bible, in black letter, dated 1539 ; and the" Breeches Bible" of 1611 ; there is also a Genevan translation of the Bible by refugees driven thither from England during the Marian persecution : the exterior was partially restored about 1837 : in 1886 the chancel was modified and a portion of the vestry now forms the organ chamber and. a stone screen has been added: in 1887 a chiming clock was placed in the tower: there are 250 sittings : in the churchyard is an inscribed gravestone to Elias Hall, a local geologist of considerable eminence, who died 30th December, 1853, aged 89 years. The register dates from the year 1633. The living is a vicarage, average tithe rent-charge £97 with 47 acres of glebe, gross yearly value £300, in the gift of the bishop of Southwell, and held since 1879 by the Rev. Henry Smith Warleigh, of St. Bees, who resides at Fernleigh Heene, Worthing, Sussex ; the Rev. Robert Jocelyn Charles Orde L.L.M. of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, has been curate in charge since 1870. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels. There are numerous bequests for the poor and other purposes : - Bagshaw's Gift in 1649 devised a house (used as a school) and garden at Castleton, with lands at Edale, consisting of 65 acres of inclosure, with common rights, to trustees, who were to pay the rents accruing therefrom, towards the schooling of poor children in Castleton parish : Bennett's Charity of 1720 provides that the sum of £2 be distributed amongst the poor each year at Christmas, at the discretion of the vicar and churchwardens : in 1781, Alice Staveley gave the sum of £5 to be placed in the hands of the overseers of the poor who should pay the full interest thereof to such poor people as should have had no weekly pay from the town, on St. Thomas' day in each year : in 1785, Mary Staveley by will gave £5 in trust, to place the same out at interest at £5 per cent. yearly, to be divided amongst those poor who had received no relief from the town: in the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated that in 1706, Thomas Dakin gave £5 to the poor, then in the hands of the overseers of the poor, and producing the yearly sum of 5s. ; How's Charity, dated 1818, devises £40 on trust, the interest to be applied in payment of £1 annually amongst the poor of Castleton, on St. Thomas' day of each year at the discretion of the churchwardens, overseers and principal inhabitants of the town, and £1 yearly to the bell-rings of Castleton, for ringing a special peal on every 19th day of August : there are also Pott's and Tym's gifts ; Bray's, Needham's and Gisborne's Charities, to be applied to the relief of the poor in the parish. The Castle of the Peak, the ruins of which still remain, was erected by William Peveril, "a Norman adventurer," who, by the favour of the Conqueror, became one of the greatest landowners in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and held this place at the time of the Domesday survey. The castle stands on a precipitous and almost inaccessible eminence on the south side of the Vale of Hope, close to Mam Tor ; the position being one of great natural strength ; on the west side is a frightful precipice, at the foot of which is the cavern called "the Devil's Hole ;" the south side, though less steep, is equally insurmountable and the end and side towards the valley are both very toilsome of ascent. The actual site of the castle forms a triangular-shaped area 200 feet in length from east to west and 100 feet and 60 feet wide at the east and west ends respectively: and the whole area is encircled by a curtain wall of masonry, a portion of which exhibits rude herring-bone work, and probably formed part of the Norman fortress built about 1068 ; the entrance to the court was through a gateway at the south-east corner, part of which yet remains. The keep tower, built in 1176, at a cost of £135, a sum equal at least to £3,000 in the present day, has all the characteristics of a Late Norman rectangular keep, and is about 60 feet high ; 21 ft. 3 in. by 19 ft. 2 in. measured internally, and has walls 8 feet thick; at the base is a high plinth of two stages, and the faces of the tower are relieved by broad flat pilaster buttresses at each side, rising into the parapet, and by a third in the middle, but on the north and east sides the whole of the ashlar facing has been removed ; the interior had four storeys, and the entrance was on the south side. William Peveril, the builder of the castle, died about 1114; and in 1155, his son, of the same name, was disinherited by the king for murder, and his estates forfeited to the crown: and in 1157 Henry II. came here, and received in the castle the submission of Malcolm (the Maiden) King of Scotland, and he again visited it in 1158 and 1164. The castle is still the property of the crown and is held under lease by the Duke of Devonshire K.G. from the Duchy of Lancaster, to which it was granted in the person of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in the 14th century. The mine from which the Blue Derbyshire spar is obtained, and the lofty hill called " Mam Tor," or the Shivering Mountain, are situate here, and are visited by large numbers of persons. The natural caverns in the limestone hills here are very interesting and attract large numbers of visitors : of these the most famous is the Peak cavern, situated close to the village and beneath the ruins of William Peveril's castle ; the rocks at the entrance are 261 feet high and a large cave 114 feet wide is used as a rope-walk; within are a series of caves the largest of which is 270 feet long, 210 wide and 150 high; the stream called "the Noe" flows through this cavern : about half-a-mile from the village is the Speedwell cavern, discovered during a search for lead ore; it is said that £14,000 were expended in 11 years in blasting out the level, which is 750 yards in length, and being now partially filled by a stream of water forms a subterranean canal through which visitors are taken in a boat to inspect the natural cavern, a gigantic fissure 280 yards below the surface of the mountain, and containing an abyss into whose unfathomable depths there plunges a rushing torrent. About a mile from the village are the Blue John mine and caverns, where alone the fluor spar of that name is obtained ; there are 14 varieties of this spar which is coloured by oxides of manganese and iron and is worked into many ornamental articles. The mine workings branch off at different points from the natural cavern in the limestone, some of which are of immense dimensions, varying in height from 90 to 250 feet, and contain stalactites, stalagmites, marine shells, carrolloids, madreportes and lily encrinite. Visitors are usually shown to a distance of 500 yards from the entrance, but the ramifications of caves, natural passages and mine workings would amount to 4 miles in length. Fairs for cattle are held on the 3rd Wednesday in March, the 21st of April, the 1st Wednesday in Octtober and 3rd Wednesday, in November. The manor forms part of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Duke of Devonshire K.G. being the lessee. The principal landowners are Francis Beresford Champion esq. of Heather, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Samuel Needham esq. of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Robert How Ashton esq. James Ball esq. Isaac Hall esq. of Wood Bank, Macclesfield and the trustees of the late Joseph Hall esq. and Messrs. John and Ellis Eyre. The soil is clay and gravel on limestone; the land is mostly in pasture, the chief crop is hay. The area is 2,910 acres ; rateable value, £3,267. The population in 1881 was 650 in the township. Parish Clerk, John Nail. POST, M. O. & T. O., S. B. & Annuity & Insurance Office.-John Hall, sub-postmaster. Letters are received through Sheffield ; arrive at 8.5 a.m. ; dispatched at 5.30 p.m National School (mixed), erected in 1863, for 80 children ; average attendance, 65 ; the school has a yearly endowment of £28; Frederick Henry Eyre, master CONVEYANCE.-An omnibus goes to Sheffield every tuesday, thursday & saturday, returning same days ; an omnibus also starts from Sheffield, returning same day, monday, wednesday & friday during the summer months ; Thomas Jackson, of the George hotel, runs a conveyance to Chapel-en-le-Frith every monday, thursday & saturday, leaving at 9 a.m. & returning same day at I from the 'King's Arms' CARRIERS TO SHEFFIELD.-French. Hall, fri. returning same day & Joseph
Beverley, thursday, returning same day COMMERCIAL. [End of transcript. Spelling, case and punctuation
are as they appear in the Directory.]
 An Ann Andrews historical directory transcript |
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