Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Fenny Bentley Old Hall

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Field House, Spondon

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Stretton House

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Willington House

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Stretton-in-Shirland

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Norton House, Norton

January 7, 2020 VickyP

‭‬For any reader who missed my description of Greenhill Hall‭, ‬I ought to repeat that although Norton is today a fully integrated suburb of Sheffield‭, ‬this has only been the case since 1936‭, ‬when the Sheffield Council‭, ‬greedy to boost rate income‭, ‬managed‭ ‬to obtain a large chunk of NE Derbyshire during the local government […]

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Measham Hall

November 25, 2019 VickyP

‭W‬ell informed readers might be tempted to say‭, ‬on seeing the subject of this article‭, ‬that Measham is not in Derbyshire at all‭, ‬which seems all wrong in view of the fact that we try to present histories of lost‭ ‬Derbyshire‭ ‬houses‭. ‬All it not quite as it seems‭, ‬however‭, ‬as Measham was until 1897‭ […]

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Glapwell Hall

November 4, 2019 VickyP

Glapwell Hall was a rather rambling stone house of later seventeenth century date, made more rambling by Georgian and Victorian additions, producing, as one former owner put it, ‘a house of comfort rather than conformity’. The rooves were a right jumble from above. It was built of coursed rubble with Permian magnesian Limestone/coal measures sandstone […]

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Greenhill Hall, Norton

September 26, 2019 VickyP

When I write about Derbyshire, I do tend to stick to the historic borders of the County, the land of which has been eroded (and less generously replenished) ever since County Councils were first formed in 1888. Although we have gained the Seals (Over and Nether) in the south and Fernilee to the north west, […]

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbshire – West House, Chesterfield

September 2, 2019 VickyP

About seven years ago I found myself sat next to Sir Nicholas Soames at lunch, which put me on my conversational mettle. What does one say to a grandson of Sir Winston Churchill and the son of a Tory Grandee (the last governor of Southern Rhodesia inter alia) and a man who himself is a […]

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Old Saint Helen’s House, Derby

July 29, 2019 VickyP

One often comes across houses – not always ancient ones – which have names carrying the suffix ‘Priory’ or similar. Very often, such houses were built on former monastic land or even adapted from monastic buildings, although it has to be admitted that sometimes the connection is spurious and the nomenclature arrived at quite vicariously. […]

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Chesshyre’s House, Derby

July 1, 2019 VickyP

The Chesshyre family has been amongst the elite tradesmen of Derby since the beginning of the seventeenth century, when brothers Robert and John Cheshire, sons of a Breadsall farmer, set up in business in the town. John (1613-1689) was Mayor in 1680 and left descendants in the town, as did Robert (1602-1673) who was a […]

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Green Hall, Belper

June 4, 2019 VickyP

The story of the Strutt family and that of modern Belper, which they more or less created, are intertwined. They built the mills and the workers’ housing (to a very high standard for the period) and over several generations endowed the town with numerous benisons, leaving the built environment the better for it; today it […]

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Brailsford Hall

March 26, 2019 VickyP

The manorial history of Brailsford is a long and distinguished one going back to the period of the Norman conquest. Then the manorial estate was held by one Elfin (as Domesday Book renders his name) or Aelfwine, clearly a man of Saxon descent. In 1086 he held not only Brailsford but also Thurvaston, Osmaston-by-Ashbourne, Culland […]

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Breadsall Mount

February 27, 2019 VickyP

Breadsall was one of the villages immediately surrounding Derby that so far has escaped being absorbed by the ever-expanding city below it and to the south, although a considerable amount of land on the southern edge of the parish was absorbed in 1921 and is now host to the Breadsall Hill Top estate, created through […]