THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
XCIVe—CENTRAL ENGLAND: STAFFORDSHIRE AND DERBYSHIRE.— (CONCLUDED.)
BAKEWELL deserves an especial mention on account of its antiquity. It is a small market town and watering-place, situated 24 miles north north-west from Derby, on a slope descending to the left bank of the Wye, "in a beautiful district of rich pastures and wood." There is no proof that it represents the site of any Roman station, though an altar dedicated (according to Camden) to Mars has been discovered in the meadows about a mile south of the town. It was probably, however, known to the Romans for its cold chalybe,ate spring, "which has for ages been used as a bath and medicine." From this bath it no doubt derived its name, which first appears in the Saxon Chronicle as Badecan!titian ; in Domesday Book, Badequelle and afterwards Bauquelle. According to the Chronicle, Edward the Elder in 924 marched with his army from Nottingham to this place, and then ordered a budi or fortification to be built and garrisoned. The castle hill, a
knoll on the right bank of the Wye, opposite the bridge, is said to retain traces of a fortified building.
The manor, which was part of the ancient demesnes of the Crown, was granted by William the Conqueror to his natural son, William Peverell, on the forfeiture of whose son in the reign of Henry H. it reverted to the Crown, and was given by King John to Ralph Gernon. Moor Hall, said to have been the seat of the Gernons, stood about a mile west of Bakewell, on the edge of the moors. In the 5th of John the fee of Bakewell was granted to William Briewere, and was one of those assigned by King Edward I. in 1282 to Katharine, mother of Queen Eleanor. In 1286, William Gernon, lord of Bakewell, granted certain privileges to the burgesses of the town. In the year 1330 John Gernon claimed a market on Monday at Bakewell, a fair for three days on the festival of the Assumption, and another for fifteen days on the vigil of St. Philip and St. James. The last-mentioned fair had been granted in 1251 to William Gernon. The coheiresses of Sir John Gernon, who died seised of the manor of Bakewell in 1383, carried the manor into different families, and it was sold to Sir Henry Vernon, of Haddon, in 1502. Haddon Hall is situated about two miles south of Bakewell, "overlooking the Wye (here crossed by a picturesque bridge), and with its towers and battlements peering out from the rich woods." The last of the Vernons of Haddon was Sir George, who, by the magnificence of his retinue and his great hospitality, is said to have acquired the name of 'King of the Peak.' A door, leading to the terrace of the Hall, is still shown, by which it is said Dorothy, the younger of Sir George's two coheiresses, eloped on a ball-night with her lover, Sir John Manners. On the death of Sir George, in 1565, the fine old Hall (well known from its frequent representation by painters and engravers), with the manor of Bakewell, passed to this pair of lovers—the ancestors of the present Duke of Rutland.
The church of Bakewell, a spacious building, "finely placed on the height above," was restored, somewhat unfortunately, in 1841, nearly the whole nave, which was Norman, being "ruthlessly destroyed." The most ancient part now remaining is the west end, which is Early Norman, with square piers. The chancel and south transept are Early English. Here lie, with tablets to their memory, Sir George Vernon, and his daughter Dorothy and unintended son-in-law Sir John Manners,—and their coffins were found in good preservation in 1841.
Bakewell is now dependent for its prosperity on the visitors to .its mineral waters. There is a cotton mill, originally set up by Arkwright, now only occasionally worked, and a grammar-school and hospital adjoining it, both founded by the Manners family is the seventeenth century. The population of the township, while in 1801 was 1,412, was in 1861, 2,704.
Chesterfield—a market town, situated near two rivulets, the Hyper and the Rother, twenty-four miles from Derby—probably represents, in its name and site, as we have seen, the vicinity of a Roman station at Topton Hill, where several Roman coins have been found. This may have been the LUTUDARUM of the Geographer of Ravenna. At any rate, there can be no doubt that Tupton Hill was on one of the great Roman roads. No town, however, seems to have existed in Saxon times, and in Domesday Book it is merely described as a hamlet of Newbold, which was an ancient demesne of the Crown. Like Bakewell, Chesterfield was given by the third Norman King to William Peverell, and it also reverted to the Crown when William Peverell the younger fled the kingdom, after the murder of the Earl of Chester, in the reign of Henry IL King John, in 1204, granted it, with the whole wapentake of Scarsdale, to William Briewere. The manor passed through various families till in 1442, Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, became possessed of it in right of his wife, one of the coheiresses of Edmund, Earl of Kent. From the Nevilles it passed to the Clarence branch of the York family, and was possessed by Margaret, Countess of Salisbury (Clarence's daughter), who gave it to George, Earl of Shrewsbury, in exchange for other lands. From the Talbots it was purchased by William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle. Thence it passed, with other Cavendish property, to the Bentincks, Dukes of Portland—and by them was given to the Cavenclishes, Dukes of Devonshire, in exchange for property in Nottinghamshire.
King John by his charter in 1204 granted to Chesterfield a weekly market, and a fair for eight days at the festival of the Holy Rood. Another fair on the eve of Palm Sunday is mentioned in 1330. A charter in 1631 grants four fairs. Three other fairs were established in 1750. King John's charter made Chesterfield a free borough, and granted to the burgesses the same privileges which were enjoyed by those of Nottingham. Queen Elizabeth in 1594, granted them a new charter of incorporation,—a mayor, six aldermen, six brethren, and twelve common council or capital burgesses, with a town clerk and other officers. Salt works were established in Chesterfield in 1715, but were abandoned ere long as an unprofitable concern. A large iron foundry adjoining the town had great contracts with Government during the war of the French Revolution. The district around Chesterfield is rich in coal and iron, and a number of persons are employed in the mines. Potters' and brick clay, &c., are also met with, and there used to be a manufacture of brown earthenware. The present manufactures are those of cotton-wicks, gingham, checks, cotton and worsted hosiery, and bobbins. The Chesterfield Canal (46 miles in length) opened a communication with the tideway of the Trent. The Church is a very fine edifice, which replaced one that existed in the eleventh century. It is a cruciform building of perpendicular date. It has a square tower, with octagonal pinnacles, surmounted by a spire 230 feet high, remarkable for deviating from the perpendicular 6 feet towards the south, and 4 feet four inches towards the west. In the reign of Henry Ill., Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, being defeated by Henry, son of the King of the Romans, near Chesterfield, in 1266, concealed himself in the church, but was betrayed by a woman and made prisoner. The Earl of Newcastle occupied the town twice with his forces during the Civil War of the reign of Charles I. In 1547 there were in the parish of Chesterfield about 2,000 persons above sixteen years of age. In December, 1788, the town had 3,626 inhabitants. In 1861 the population of the municipal borough was 9,826, of the parish 18,970.
Belper is a flourishing town, on the banks of the river Derwent, eight miles north from Derby, to which town alone in Derbyshire it now stands second. Although it existed as a village in the time of the Plantagenets, its great prosperity and growth are of entirely modern date. The manor of Beaurepa ire, of which name Belper is a corruption, belonged to Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, who died in 1296. The inquisition taken after his death describes a capital mansion as then belonging to the Earl, and the foundations of a large massive building have been discovered here, which may have been those of the Earl's house. The picturesque situation of the place sufficiently explains the origin of its name. From these Earls of Lancaster the manor passed to John of Gaunt, who was a great benefactor to the place, and built a chapel, "now incorporated with a modern school-house." Belper was a considerable village in the reign of Henry VIII., and 40 houses were destroyed or much damaged by a violent tempest on the 20th of June, 1545. I3elyer it was then called. Fifty-one persons died of the plague there in 1609. Its first great increase of population, however, dates from 1776, in which Mr. Jedediah Strutt erected a cotton mill. "These mills, which are at the north end of the town, employ about 2,000 persons, and the hosiery mills of Messrs. Ward and Co. and Messrs. Brettle are nearly the largest in the kingdom." The Dement is dammed up with a large weir near the bridge for the purpose of working the machinery. The present Belper is "a long straggling town, reaching for a considerable distance on both sides of the river, and extending on the left bank to the top of a wooded hill ; and the country to the west is full of beautiful scenery." The hosiery work is mostly carried on at the houses of the operatives. The manufacture of nails is carried on to some extent, and there is an extensive manufactory of brown earthenware near the town, and seams of coal are worked in the neighbourhood. The population in 1801 was 4,500; in 1861, 9,509. It has given its title to the present bead of the Strutt family.
We must not conclude our notice of the towns of Derbyshire without referring again to Buxton, the capital of the wateringplaces of the district. The older form of the name was Bawkestanes, —not improbably a corruption of Badestanes—the stone baths (as in the case of Bakewell). It stands about thirty-four miles from Derby, "in a high upland valley, 1,100 feet above the sea, surrounded by round grit-stone hills, whose natural bareness is gradually being covered by the dark foliage of fir plantations." It is on the Wye, but the small stream has been hidden from view by being arched over.
We have spoken of its Roman origin. There have been several Roman baths discovered there, and remains have been found of what is supposed to have been a Roman temple. It was at the intersection of at least two great Roman roadways, and the Roman station is supposed by Weston to have been on the hill above the Hall, which is known by the name of the Stone or Stane Cliffs. It may have been the MLLE of the Geographer of Ravenna. It appears, from a treatise on the Buxton waters, published in 1572, that the waters were then in high repute, and that it was a place of considerable resort. The great Old Hall, for the accommodation of visitors, had been erected not long before by the Earl I of Shrewsbury, and "a part of it -still exists, incorporated into the hotel of the same name." Here Mary Queen of Scots was brought four times by her custodians the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury. Hither came also the Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth's favourite, and Lord Burghley, her great minister, exciting somewhat the mistrust of his watchful mistress. The principal feature of the modern town is the Cre.qeent, erected in 1781, where the principal public buildings are concentrated. The population of the township (1,877), of course, gives no proper idea of its variable and transient inhabitants.
Among the celebrated natives of Staffordshire we may mention Cardinal Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was born in the castle of Stourton (or Stoverton, as Fuller calls it) in the year 1500. Edmund Dudley, the celebrated minister of henry VII., was a Staffordshire man, as was also his son, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland, who played so important a part in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. Izaak Walton was born at Stafford in August, 1593. The celebrated antiquary, Elias Ashmole, was born at Lichfield in 1617. Bishop George Smallridge and Bishop 'Thomas Newton were also natives of this city, the great boast of which is, however, Dr. Samuel Johnson. Mr. Thomas Allen, a celebrated mathematician in the sixteenth century, was born at Bucknall, a village in Staffordshire, in 1542. Dr. John Lightfoot, the celebrated llebrew and Rabbinical scholar, was a native of Staffordshire. Shugborough, the seat of the Ansons, was the birthplace of George, Lord Anson, the celebrated navigator. Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, was born at Congreve, near Penkridye. Charles Cotton, the poet, was born at Beresford in 1630.
Major-General Thomas Harrison and John Goodwin, the Puritan divine, were natives of Newcastle-under-Lyme ; William Wollaston, the " free-thinking " writer of the beginning of the eighteenth century, was born at Coton-Clanford, a small village in Staffordshire ; Josiah Wedgwood was born at Burslem.
Derbyshire has not the average quota of distinguished natives. John Flamsteed, the astronomer, was one ; Sir Hugh Willoughby, the celebrated voyager ; Joseph Wright, the painter, is well known as "Wright of Derby." Elizabeth Hardwicke, "Bess of Hardwicke," also deserves mention as the founder of the fortunes of the Cavendishes ; Samuel Richardson, the novelist, was a native of Derby ; Anna Seward the writer was also a native of Derbyshire, though she went at so early an age to Lichfield as to belong almost to that city.
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