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Wirksworth
Market Place, Wirksworth - geograph.org.uk - 1731474.jpg
Market Place
Wirksworth is located in Derbyshire
Wirksworth
Wirksworth
Population 5,038 (Parish, 2011)
OS grid reference SK2853
District
  • Derbyshire Dales
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town MATLOCK
Postcode district DE4
Dialling code 01629
Police Derbyshire
Fire Derbyshire
Ambulance East Midlands
EU Parliament East Midlands
UK Parliament
  • Derbyshire Dales
List of places
UK
England
Derbyshire
53°04′55″N 1°34′26″W / 53.082°N 1.574°W / 53.082; -1.574

Wirksworth is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population of 5,038 in the 2011 census was estimated at 5,180 in 2019. Wirksworth contains the source of the River Ecclesbourne. The town was granted a market charter by Edward I in 1306 and still holds a market on Tuesdays in the Memorial Gardens. The parish church of St Mary's is thought to date from 653. The town developed as a centre for lead mining and stone quarrying. Many lead mines were owned by the Gell family of nearby Hopton Hall.

History

Early history

During the Carboniferous period (between about 359 and 299 million years ago), Wirksworth was under tropical oceans, thus giving it vast quantities of limestone for quarrying. There is an extensive history of quarrying, which scars the surrounding of the town, whilst Dene Quarry is still operational in the neighbouring village of Cromford.

Close to Wirksworth in Carsington Pastures is the Dream Cave, where the remains of a woolly rhino were found in the late 19th century.

The area may well have been visited by Homo erectus as long as 150,000 years ago, during warm inter-glacial periods. An Acheulean handaxe from the Lower Paleolithic has been found at Hopton nearby. From other remains found in the county there would seem to have been human presence at least periodically until the Romans arrived and found a thriving lead industry.

Wirksworth is rumoured to be the ancient Roman town of Lutudarum, although there is speculation as to the whereabouts of this. In 2009 a team of volunteers excavated near the vicarage for a Roman fort, but failed to find it.

Wirksworth church interior
Interior of the church circa 1899

One of the rectors of Wirksworth was Anthony Draycot who served from 1535 until his imprisonment in 1560. Draycott was the judge at the heresy trial of Joan Waste.

The ancient Wirksworth wapentake or hundred was named after the town.

Lead mining

Lead mining was certainly flourishing in Roman times. A possible Roman road led to a ford between Duffield and Milford and thence to the garrison at Derventio (Derby) and to Rykneld Street and possibly but not certainly, to the ports on the Humber. In Anglo-Saxon times there were many mines owned by the abbey of Repton. Three lead mines are identified in the entry for Wirksworth in the Domesday Book.

Every man had the right to dig for ore wherever he chose, except in churchyards, gardens or roadways. All that was necessary to stake a claim was to place one's "stowce" or winch on the site and extract enough ore to pay tribute to the "barmaster." This right remains in theory.

Henry VIII granted a charter to hold a miners' court in the town called the Bar Moot. The present building of that name dates from 1814. Within it is a brass dish for measuring the levy which was due to the Crown. Even into the 20th century, the punishment for stealing from a mine was to have one's hand nailed to the stowce. One then had the choice of tearing oneself loose or starving to death. The Barmote Court is still held today, in the Bar Moot hall, Chapel Lane, Wirksworth, and controls all matters of lead mining.

There is a tiny carving in Wirksworth Church, taken from Bonsall Church during a restoration project and never returned, of a miner with his pick and "kibble" or basket. The carving is known as "th' Owd Man of Bonsall." The ore was washed out by means of a sieve, the iron wire for which had been drawn in Hathersage since the Middle Ages. Smelting was carried out in "boles", hence the name Bolehill. The lead industry, the miner, the ore and the waste, were known collectively as "t'owd man."

By the 18th century there were many thousands of mines, all worked individually. Defoe gives an eye-witness account of a lead miner's family and of the miner himself at work. At this time, the London Lead Company was formed which brought in the finance to dig deeper mines, with drainage channels, called soughs, and bring in Newcomen steam engine pumps.

There was a workhouse in Wirksworth from 1724 to 1829. Called Babington House, it was located on Green Hill and housed 60 inmates.

Textiles

In 1777, Richard Arkwright leased the land and premises of a corn mill from Philip Gell of Hopton and converted it to spin cotton, using his water frame. Haarlem Mill was the first cotton mill in the world to use a steam engine, which it used to replenish the millpond that drove the mill's waterwheel. This mill was adjacent to another, Speedwell Mill, owned by John Dalley, a local merchant. These mills still stand close together at Miller's Green next to the Derby road.

Haarlem Mill was sublet in 1792, when Arkwright's son, Richard, began to sell off the family's property assets in his move towards banking. It was given that name in 1815, when it was converted to weaving tape, by Madely, Hackett and Riley, who had established Haarlem Tape Works in Derby in 1806. In 1879 the Wheatcroft family, who were producing tape at Speedwell Mill, expanded into Haarlem.

The two mills together employed 230 people, and it was said that their weekly output equalled the circumference of the earth, and that Wirksworth was the primary producer of red tape for Whitehall.

Both mills still exist. Haarlem Mill produces narrow fabrics, while Speedwell Mill produces cavity wall and roof insulation.

Notable residents

In alphabetical order:

  • Lawrence Beesley (1877–1967) was an English science teacher, journalist and author who was a survivor of the sinking of Titanic.
  • Abraham Bennet (1749–1799) was curate of Wirksworth and did important early work in electricity, in association with Erasmus Darwin. There is a memorial plaque to him in Wirksworth Church and a portrait by an unknown artist.
  • Anthony Draycot (died 1571) was rector of the parish from 1535 until his imprisonment in 1560. He was the judge at the heresy trial where Joan Waste was condemned to be burnt.
  • D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) lived at Mountain Cottage with his wife Frieda in 1918–1919. It stands below the B5023 road on the edge of Middleton-by-Wirksworth, about 1½ miles (2.4 km) north-west of Wirksworth. Lawrence reputedly spent time also at Woodland Cottage on the far side of New Road. While in Middleton in the bitter winter of 1918–1919, he wrote the short story "A Wintry Peacock", published in 1921.
  • Frederick Treves (1853–1923), surgeon and author, was in practice in the town in 1877–1879. A house in Coldwell Street is named after him.
  • John Woodward, naturalist (1665–1728), may have been born here.

Wirksworth today

Well Dressing Wirksworth 1860s
Well or tap dressing in Wirksworth in the 1860s

Districts of Wirksworth include Yokecliffe, Gorsey Bank, Bolehill, Mountford and Miller's Green. Bolehill, although technically a hamlet in its own right in Wirksworth's suburbs, is the oldest and most northern part of the town, while Yokecliffe is a fairly new estate in the western area of the town. Modern houses have recently been built in the Three Trees area and at the bottom of Steeple Grange, this housing estate is called Spring Close.

Fanny Shaw's Playing Field, just out of the centre of town, is the principal recreation area for the north of the town. It houses a new skate park and play area. In the south of the town, there is the "Rec", where there is another children's play area, along with cricket and football pitches.

Wirksworth Stone
Wirksworth Stone in St Mary's Church, an early stone carving depicting scenes from the life of Christ

The town is a popular location from which to explore the Derbyshire Peak District and offers a range of accommodation for visitors, some of it in historic buildings, such 18th century Old Manor House on Coldwell Street and the Old Lock-Up guest house, which dates from 1842. The town also has a grand coach house originally built for Sir Richard Arkwright, but now converted into a holiday cottage. Wirksworth Heritage Centre is just off Market Place in Crown Yard. The exhibition shows the history of Wirksworth from its prehistoric Dream Cave and woolly rhinos, through its Roman and lead mining histories, to the modern era. Other nearby attractions include the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, the Steeple Grange Light Railway and Peak District National Park.

Wirksworth's well dressing was adapted after the arrival of piped water so that not only wells but also taps were decorated. and carnival

The study Wirksworth and Five Miles Around includes census information, notes on church monuments, accounts of crimes, church wardens' accounts, maps, a transcription of "Ince's pedigrees", monument inscriptions and old photographs, parish registers and wills.

Events

Early April - The Wirksworth Book Festival is held over the first two weeks in April, and is a celebration of books and reading, featuring mainly local writers, and showcasing venues across the town.

  • Early June: The Wirksworth well dressing and carnival.
  • First Sunday after 8 September: The clipping or clypping of the church is an ancient custom where the congregation joins hands to encircle the building. This takes place on the Sunday after the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - the church's dedication.
  • September: Wirksworth Festival of arts and architecture is held over three weeks in September.
  • First Weekend in December: Glee Club's Annual Pantomime


Education

There are five schools in Wirksworth: Church of England and county infants, and regularly combined but on two sites, Wirksworth Junior School, the Anthony Gell School and Callow Park College. Anthony Gell was a local, requested by Agnes Fearne to build a grammar school on her death. The original site is now a private house on the edge of the churchyard. The current school is an 11–18 comprehensive on a larger site by the Hannage Brook with about 800 pupils. The school's five houses are named after Fearne, Arkwright (Sir Richard Arkwright), Wright (Joseph Wright of Derby), Gell and Nightingale (Florence Nightingale). Its catchment area is the town and surrounding villages: Middleton, Carsington, Brassington, Kirk Ireton, Turnditch, Matlock Bath, Cromford and Crich. The Anthony Gell School qualifies as a Sports College.

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Wirksworth para niños

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