Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ASHBORNE, or Ashbourne

ASHBORNE, or Ashbourne, a small town, a township, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Derby. The town stands on the river Henmore, 1¼ mile above its influx to the Dove, at the terminus of a branch of the North Stafford railway, 7½ miles NE of the junction with the main line at Rocester station, and 13½, by road, NW of Derby. It was formerly called Ashburn, and anciently Esseburn. It belonged to the Crown at the time of the Conquest; passed to the duchy of Lancaster; was taken by the Parliamentarian forces in 1644; retaken by the Royal forces, and visited by Charles I., in 1645; and occupied as head quarters by the Scottish army of Prince Charles Edward, on their march to Derby, in 1745. Its situation is pleasant, and its vicinity rich in romantic scenery; so as to occasion it to attract many visitors. Its houses, in general, are of red brick, roofed with slate; and its streets are tolerably neat. It has a head post office,‡ a telegraph office, a banking office, three chief inns, a town hall, news-rooms, a small-jail, a grammar school, a national school, a parish church, a Calvinist chapel restored in 1869, three other dissenting chapels, a R. Catholic chapel, a workhouse of 1864, several alms-houses, and large general charities; and is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place. The grammar school was founded in 1585; has estates yielding £214 a year; and is a substantial stone building. The house once inhabited by Dr. John Taylor, and visited by his intimate friend the great Dr. Johnson, stands opposite the grammar school. The parish church is a spacious, cruciform, early English edifice of 1241; is surmounted by a central square tower, with lofty, ornamented, octagonal spire; was renovated in 1845, at a cost of nearly £5,000, mostly raised by subscription; and contains brasses and tombs of the Cockaines, the Bradburns, and the Boothbys. The finest of the monuments is a statuary one, in white marble, from the chisel of Banks, to the memory of Penelope. the only child of Sir Brooke Boothby, who died, in 1791, in her sixth year; and this is supposed to have suggested to Chantrey his beautiful group of the two children in Lichfield cathedral. The town is in high repute as a mart for cattle, cheese, and other agricultural produce; and it has a weekly market on Saturday,-general fairs on the first Tuesday in Jan., 13 Feb., 3 April, the last Thursday in April, 21 May, 5 July, 16 Aug., 20 Oct., and 29 Nov., or on the preceding day if the 29th be a Sunday,-fairs for cheese on the second Tuesday in March and the third Tuesday in Sept.,and fairs for horned cattle, sheep, and horses on the days preceding each. Malt-making, lace-making, and cotton manufacture are carried on. Pop., 3,501. Houses, 760.

The township lies wholly in the town. Real property, £6,605. Pop., 2,120. Houses, 472.—The parish includes also the liberty of Offcote and Underwood, the townships of Sturston, Yeldersley, Hulland, Hulland-Ward, Hulland-Ward-Iudaks, and Clifton and Compton, the hamlet of Newton-Grange, and the chapelry of Alsop-le-Dale and Eaton. Acres, 7,932. Rated property, exclusive of Hulland chapelry, £26,342. Pop. of the whole, 5,078. Houses, 1,098. The property is much subdivided. Ashborne Hall was long the seat of the Boothbys; was the quarters of Prince Charles Edward on his march to Derby; and is now the residence of Captain Holland R. N. Ashborne-Green Hall belongs to the De Burghs, and is a meeting-place of sportsmen. Ashborne Grove belongs to the Dales. Mayfield Cottage, in the neighbourhood, was, for a considerable time, the residence of the poet Moore, and the place where he wrote great part of his "Lalla Rookh." The Henmore and the Dove, in their connexion with the parish, afford prime angling for trout and grayling, and were noted for it by Warton and Cotton. Thorp-Cloud Hill, 3 miles from the town, and 300 feet high, commands a fine view of the craggy flanks of the Dove. The living is a vicarage, united with the rectory of Mappleton, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £420.* Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The chapelries of Clifton, Hulland, and Alsop-le-Dale are separate charges. Sir Aston Cockaine, the Elizabethan poet, and Sir Brooke Boothby, the author of "Tables and Satires" and of other works, were natives.

The subdistrict comprises the parishes of Edlaston with-Wyaston, Osmaston, Bradley, and Kniveton, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne and Bradbourne. Acres, 11,442. Pop., 4,876. Houses, 1,041. The district consists of Asborne poor-law union and part of Allstonefield, Gilbert's incorporation; and comprehends, in addition to Ashborne subdistrict, the subdistrict of Brailsford, containing the parishes of Brailsford, Longford, and Shirley, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne, Mugginton, and Wirksworth,-the subdistrict of Hartington, containing the parish of Parwich, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne, Hartington, and Bradbourne,-the subdistrict of Brassington, containing the parishes of Carsington, Hognaston, and Bonsall, the extra-parochial tract of Griff-Grange, and parts of the parishes of Bradbourne, Kirk-Ireton, and Wirksworth,-the subdistrict of Mayfield, containing the parishes of Snelston and Ellastone, the latter electorally in Stafford, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne and Mayfield, the latter electorally in Stafford,-and the subdistrict of Calton, containing the parishes of Tissington, Fenny-Bentley, Thorpe, Mappleton, Okeover, Blore, Ilam, and Waterfall, the four last electorally in Stafford, the extra-parochial tract of Musden-Grange, electorally in Stafford, and parts of the parishes of Bradbourne, Mayfield, and Allstonefield, the two last in Stafford. Acres, 100,937. Poor-rates in 1866, £8,029. Pop. in 1841, 21,358; in 1861, 20,648. Houses, 4,384. Marriages in 1866, 163; births, 620,-of which 51 were illegitimate; deaths, 397,- of which 114 wereat ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,1,390 births, 6,252; deaths, 4,064. The places of worship in 1851 were 41 of the Church of England, with 9,921 sittings, 4 of Independents, with 440 s.; 1 of Lady Huntingdon's Connection, with 340 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 300 s.; 21 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 2,841 s.; 24 of Primitive Methodists, with 2,301 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 290 s.; and one undefined, with 90 s. The schools in 1851 were 60 public day schools, with 2,193 scholars; 40 private day schools, with 930 s.; 57 Sunday schools, with 3,112 s.; and 4 evening schools for adults, with 70 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a township, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Ashbourne CP/AP/Tn       Ashbourne SubD       Ashbourne RegD/PLU       Derbyshire AncC
Place names: ASHBORNE     |     ASHBORNE OR ASHBOURNE     |     ASHBOURNE     |     ASHBURN     |     ESSEBURN
Place: Ashbourne

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