Bagshaw's 1846 Trade Directory of Derbyshire
CHURCH GRESLEY parish and township, contains also the townships of Castle Gresley, Donisthorpe, Drakelow, Linton, Oakthorpe, and Swadlincote, comprising together 6,700 acres of land, 2,764 inhabitants, and is partly situated in Leicestershire.
CHURCH GRESLEY, a township and considerable village on the Leicestershire border, 5 miles S.E. b. S. from Burton-on-Trent, and 5 miles W. b. N. from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, contains 1,165 acres of fertile land, 193 houses, and 993 inhabitants, of whom 531 were males and 462 females; rateable value £2,880. William Eaton Mousley, Esq., is lord of the manor. The other owners are - Marquis of Hastings, Lord Tynemouth, Court Granville, Esq., Thomas Brown, Esq., Thomas Gee, Esq., and S.P. Wolverstone, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Mary and St. George, is a perpetual curacy, valued in the king’s book at £5 16s. 8d., now £108, has been augmented with £200 benefactions, £800 Queen Anne’s bounty, and £1,300 parliamentary grant. Rev. George Wood Lloyd, D.D., is the patron and incumbent. The church is an ancient structure, built in the reign of Henry I. by Nigel de Gresley, who founded here a priory of Austin monks, and dedicated it to St. Mary and St. George. It was endowed with lands chiefly in this parish, valued at the dissolution at £39 13s. 8d. Of this building, which adjoined the parish church, there are no remains. In 1842, a gallery was erected in the church at a cost of £70, raised by subscription. Here are some ancient monuments to the Aleyne and Gresley families. King Henry VIII. granted the site in 1543 to Henry Criche ; in the year 1556, Sir Christopher Aleyne, Knt., purchased this estate, with the manor of Church Gresley, of the Seymours. It was afterwards in the Meynells, of whom it was purchased, about the year 1775, by Sir Nigel Gresley, Bart. A national school for boys and girls was erected in 1818, and enlarged in 1824, at a cost of £300, paid by the late Edward Smith, Esq., of Burton-on-Trent. Joseph Leedham left £10; the interest is applied to the use of the school; about 120 attend. Here are extensive collieries and considerable potteries, which give employment to a large number of persons. The clay is of excellent quality, and considerable quantities of it are sent to Sheffield and other places, for making casting pots for founders and steel refiners. The Hall, ¼ mile N.W. now a farm house, is subject to a payment to the incumbent of the church of £5 13s. 4d. The other scattered farms are the Cottage, ½ mile S.E. ; Earthcote, 1 mile N.W. ; Far Lees, 1½ miles N.W. ; Park Farms, 1 mile S.W. ; and Wood Farm, ¾ mile N.
CASTLE GRESLEY, township and small village on the Burton and Tamworth road, 4 miles S.E. by S. from Burton-on-Trent, contains 563 acres of fertile land, 35 houses, and 164 inhabitants - of whom 90 are males and 74 females. Rateable value, £1,026. The owners are Robert Beard, Henry Clay, Henry Allsop, and Morris Piddock, Esqrs. The parsonage, a handsome mansion, 1 mile west from the parish church, was erected in 1837, in this township, at a cost of £1,200, and conveyed to the governors of Queen Anne’s bounty, by the present patron and incumbent, for the use of all future incumbents. The manor of Castle Gresley belonged from a very early period to the ancient family of De Gresley, who had a castle at this place. This site is distinguished only by slight eminences and inequalities of the ground.
DONISTHORPE, a hamlet and joint township, with Oakthorpe, partly in Measham parish and partly in Seal parish, Leicestershire, forms a pleasant village, 3½ miles S.W. from Ashby de la Zouch. 1 mile W. from Oakthorpe, contains 25 houses and 103 inhabitants - of whom 49 were males and 54 females, but the whole hamlet contains 344 inhabitants. A district church was erected here in 1838, for the joint township and a part of Ashby Wolds, Leicestershire. It is a neat edifice, dedicated to St John, a perpetual curacy, value £120. Bishop of Lichfield, patron, and Rev. Francis Jickling, incumbent. The parsonage is a neat house, west of the church. The Misses Moore principally erected the church and endowed it, aided by a grant from the Incorporated Society, and a contribution from the Marquis of Hastings. It contains 400 sittings, of which 200 are unappropriated. A national school was erected in 1840. The inhabitants are principally employed at the collieries or lime works on Ashby Woulds.
DRAKELOW, township and scattered district of farms, extending 2 to 4 miles S.S.W. from Burton-on-Trent, and about the same distance N. by W. from Church Gresley, contains 1,287 acres of fertile sandy land, 9 houses, and 62 inhabitants - of whom 33 were males and 29 females. Rateable value, £1,933. The Hall, a handsome stone mansion, pleasantly situated in a fine park of 120 acres, was erected by the late Sir Nigel Gresley, but is now the seat and property of Henry William Des Voeux, Esq., who is the sole owner and lord of the manor. This manor, in the Domesday book, is described as belonging to Nigel De Stafford, ancestor of the Gresley family, by the service of rendering a bow, a quiver, and twelve arrows, which in 1200 was due to William Earl Ferrers. Geoffrey de Gresley in 1330 claimed the right of having a gallows at Gresley and at Drakelow. The Gresley family have at various times, from the reign of Edward I., represented the county in parliament. Geo. Gresley was installed a knight of the bath at the coronation of Anne Boleyne, in 1534. His grandson, of the same name was created a baronet in 1611. Sir George Gresley was an active officer during the civil war, and was lieutenant-colonel to Sir John Gell.
LINTON, a township and neat retired village, 5 miles E.S.E. from Burton-on-Trent, contains 745 acres of fertile land, with 53 acres of roads and waste lands, including Linton Heath, 59 houses, and 253 inhabitants, of whom 125 were males and 128 females ; rateable value £1,776. Henry Brown, Esq., is lord of the manor. The other owners are - John Hamp, Henry Clay, and John Burton, Esqs. Rev. Sir Nigel Gresley is the impropriator. The tithes have been commuted. The Methodists and Primitive Methodists have neat brick chapels, the latter erected in 1845.
OAKTHORPE, a hamlet, partly situated in the parishes of Measham and of Stretton-in-the-Fields, forms a joint township with Donisthorpe in Church Gresley parish, 4 miles S.S.W. from Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The joint township contains 1,112 acres of fertile land, of which the tithe commissioners, in 1845, allotted and valued 325 acres to Measham and Stretton-in-the-Field parishes, and 787 to Church Gresley ; rateable value £1,458. Principal owners are - Sir John Robert Cave Browne Cave, Bart. ; Sir Charles Abney Hastings, Bart. ; Rev. Sir Nigel Gresley ; Charles S. Greaves, Esq. ; Robert Choyce, Esq. ; executors of the Marquis of Hastings ; Edward Stevenson, Esq. ; and Repton school. This hamlet contains 139 houses, of which 75 are in Church Gresley, 7 in Measham parish, and 57 in Stretton-in-the-Field parish, and total population 607, of which 331 were in Gresley, 32 in Measham, and 244 in Stretton. Here is a national school, and the Methodists and Primitive Methodists each have chapels.
SWADLINCOTE, a township and considerable village 4¾ miles S.E. b. E. from Burton-on-Trent, contains 180 houses, of which 22 were unoccupied in 1841, and 858 inhabitants, of whom 432 were males and 426 females. In 1801, the population was 216 ; in 1831, 645. The principal owners are - the Earl of Chesterfield, Court Granville, Esq., Thomas Francis, Esq., Samuel Bucknell, John Bodell, Hugh Brookes, James Turner, Charles Brunt, John Cartwright, and others. Here are collieries and extensive potteries for the manufacture of yellow ware, and the clay is excellent for making fire bricks, of which many are made. A church is about to be erected, for which considerable subscriptions have been obtained. The Methodists have a chapel. Court Granville, Esq., and Moses Cartwright, Esq., are the colliery owners.
CHARITIES. - John Adams, by will, 1682, gave 40s. a year, to be paid out of his lands in Gresley Park, to various places, but it does not appear any such payments were ever made. The greater part of these lands now belong to Miss Worthington, whose agent states that the testator was tenant in tail only, that the estate had become the subject of partition in 1737 and in 1767. Under the circumstances above stated, it would be extremely difficult to substantiate a claim in behalf of the charity.
GRESLEY TOWNSHIP. - In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated, that the sum of £10 then vested in Richard Smith, and producing 8s. per annum, had been given to the poor of Gresley, by some person unknown. In 1819 it was expended, with the addition of £1 advanced by the township, in the purchase of a piece of land called the Bottom Croft, containing 400 square yards or thereabouts. The land is let for 8s. a year, the overseer receives the rent and distributes it to the poor ; at the time of our inquiry, August, 1826, he had 16s. in hand, but it was proposed to distribute this sum, with another year’s rent which had not been paid, at Christmas.
LINTON TOWNSHIP. - In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is mentioned under the head of Gresley, a donation of £16 to the poor, then vested in Joseph and Thomas Wilkes, and producing 13s. per annum - donor unknown. This sum, which was supposed to be given to this township, is now in the hands of Edward Smith, of Burton, the owner of an estate in this township, but it does not appear he has given any security for it. The sum of 16s. is paid as interest by the tenant amongst the poor of Linton, at his own discretion, not annually or at any fixed period. It appears desirable that Mr. Edward Smith should give some acknowledgment for the money, and that the distribution should take place at stated periods and publicly. There was formerly a further sum of £10 for the poor, but it appears to have been lost by the insolvency of a farmer in whose hands it was placed.
Swadlincote township. - Dorothy Taylor, in 1760, gave £10, the
interest to be paid to the poor. The sum of £10 is in the hands
of Mr John Brown, who has given to the overseers a promissory note for
the amount, and pays 10s. a year interest, which is distributed at Christmas.
Brown Joseph, joiner
Buckley Geo. jun. parish clerk
Buckley Thomas, bookkeeper
Cliff James, china dealer
Colliery Compy, coalmstrs & colliery owners
Eyley Thomas, coal agent
Nixon James, draper and grocer
Percival Wm. sexton and gardener
Poynton John, sawyer
Satchwell James, tailor
Spencer James, saddler
Stewardson Thomas, baker
Talbot Michael & Mary, National school
Warren Joseph, blacksmith
Wilcox John, engineer
Wright Edmund, wheelwright
INNS AND TAVERNS
Boot, James Cooper
Gresley Arms, James Satchwell
New Inn, Joice Cooper
Potter’s Arms, John Simpson
William IV, Joseph Brown
BEERHOUSES
Archer James
Archer Thomas
Lowe Ann
BOOT & SHOE MAKER
Adams John
BRICKMAKERS
Archer James
Chapman John
Chapman, Robert
Ensor Edward
Woodward Thomas
BUTCHERS
Simpson John, jun
Wood Thomas
CLAY DEALERS
Ensor Edward
Grey Thos
Woodward Thos
EARTHENWARE MFRS.
Collins Thomas
Cooper & Massey
Cooper John
Grey Thos. (and steam composition mill)
Jones Mrs.
Sankey Matthew
Winfield Stephen
FARMERS
Beard James, Wood
Buckley Geo. Cottage
Burton Ths. Earthcote
Eaton Wm. Green
Hufton John
Leedham Edwd. Park
Rowley James, Hall
Staley John, Farlees
Winterton John Park
FARRIERS
Chapman James
Chapman John
SHOPKEEPERS
Heafield Thomas
Hollingworth John
Mansfield Thos. (and crate maker)
Massey Thos.
CARRIER
Thos. Gilberts, Van to Ashby, Sat., to Burton Thursday, Derby Tuesday
& Friday
Kirk Adam, beerhouse
Lloyd Rev. George Wood, D.D. Parsonage
Lloyd Rev. George, incumbent of Willesley
Orme John, blacksmith
Orme Thomas, saddler
Swain Thomas, butcher
Stretton Thomas, wheelwright
FARMERS
Miles Wm
Mousley Thomas
Peace Wm
Timms Wm. Cadley hill
Tooly Reginald
Wilson Wm
Cartwright John, corn miller & farmer, Ryle
Insley Francis, farmer, Grove house
Milnes John, corn miller & farmer, Mill farm
Patrick Samuel, farmer, Warren
Riley Wm. gamekeeper and farmer, Park
Smith Wm. farmer, Ryle
Bates Robert, boot and shoe maker
Birch John, blacksmith
Clamp John, vict. Holly Bush
Fletcher John, joiner
Fletcher Luke, wheelwright
Fletcher Wm. blacksmith
Fletcher Wm. boot and shoe maker
Peace Valentine, boot and shoe maker
Pearson George, schoolmaster
Smalley Thos. vict. Red Lion, and butcher
Titley Charles, grocer and publican
Wood Joseph, mole catcher
FARMERS
Allen Richard
Broadhurst George
Brown Henry
Burton Wm
Campion Wm
Clamp John, junr
Farmer John
Pott Joseph
Smalley Wm
Whetton John
1 Collier Amelia, National school
1 Collier John, No Man’s Heath school
Draper John, wheelwright
3 Ironmonger Robert, surveyor
INNS AND TAVERNS
2 Bricklayer’s Arms, Sarah Cooper
1 Bull’s Head, Thomas Gilbert
2 Engine, Mary Bradley
Gate, Wm. Gocher
1 Malt Shovel, Robert Newbold
3 Shoulder of Mutton, Thomas Booth
Steam Mill, John Baxter
BEERHOUSES
1 Burton Hannah
Kirkland James
Wainwright Joseph
BLACKSMITHS
1 Talbot Matthew, and parish clerk
3 Talbot Wm.
BOOT & SHOEMAKERS
Christian Thomas
3 Hutchinson Daniel
2 Riley Wm
BUTCHERS
3 Booth Charles
1 Turner Wm
FARMERS
3 Booth Thomas
Blastock Wm
3 Brookhouse Nathl
2 Brown John
Elton Joseph
Fowler George, gent
3 Ironmonger John
Kirkland James
Merryman Wm
1 Newbold Robert
1 Sale Geo. The hall
2 Smith Thomas
1 Turner Wm
Upton John
JOINERS
2 Handley Wm
Merryman James
SHOPKEEPERS
1 Burton Hannah
3 Collyer Edwd. tailor and seedsman
Draper John
2 Handley Wm.
Hastelow Joseph
Rowland Jph. & baker
Brunt Francis Henry, Steam corn mill
Bucknall Samuel, gent
Dooley Joseph, underground bailiff
Douglas George, draper
Granville Court, Esq. colliery owner
Harrison Henry, hair dresser and bazaar
Morris Joseph, engineer
Outram George, coal agent
Rowley Joseph Benson, pottery agent
Sabine Thomas, blacksmith
Shakespeare Thomas, watch and clock maker
Simpson John Henry, surgeon
Turner James, plumber, glazier, and painter
Turner Joseph, boot and shoe maker
Whetton Wm. crate maker
Woodhouse John, steward
Wootten John, wheelwright
1 Yardley James, joiner
INNS & TAVERNS
Engine, Thomas Bucknall
Granville Arms, John Brunt
Nag’s Head, James Turner
BEERHOUSES
Massey Wm
1 Staley Thomas
BAKERS
Burton John
Orgill Mary
BRICK MAKERS
Brunt John
Redfern Thomas
Rowley John F.
BUTCHERS
Bucknall Thomas
Morriss Thomas
COAL MASTERS
Cartwright Moses
Granville Court, Esq.
Wilkinson Charles, Whitehouse
EARTHENWARE MFRS.
Sharpe Brothers & Co.
Staley James
Watts and Stanley
FARMERS
Carver Elith, Gipsy barn
Cooper Thomas
Harrison Henry
GROCERS
Bodell Elith
Burton John
Cooke John
Palmer Ann
Rowley John Fletcher
TAILORS
1 Dooley -
1 Gretton Wm
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