Wirksworth is a market town in the

Derbyshire Dales Derbyshire Dales ( ) is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 71,116. Much of it is in the Peak District, although most of its population lies along the River Derwent. The borough borders ...

district of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, 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 Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...

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 Hopton Hall is an 18th-century country house at Hopton, near Wirksworth, Derbyshire. It is a Grade II listed building. The Manor of Hopton, anciently the seat of the de Hopton family, was acquired by the Gell family in 1553 by Ralph Gell (1491� ...

History

The origins of Wirksworth are thought to have related to the presence of thermal warm water springs nearby, coupled with a sheltered site at the head of a glaciated valley, able to yield cereals such as oats and provide timber suitable for building. The Wirksworth area in the White Peak is known for Neolithic and Bronze Age remains. Wirksworth - Moot Hall - geograph

Woolly rhino The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a me ...

bones were found by lead miners in 1822 in Dream Cave, on private land between Wirksworth and present-day

Carsington Water Carsington Water is a reservoir operated by Severn Trent Water located between Wirksworth and Kniveton in Derbyshire, England. The reservoir takes water from the River Derwent at Ambergate during winter months, pumping up to the reservoir by ...

. A nearby cave at Carsington Pasture yielded prehistoric finds in the late 20th century. In

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

, the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

area of today's Derbyshire yielded

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

, the prime site probably being '' Lutudarum'' in the hills south and west of present-day Matlock. Wirksworth is a candidate for the site of ''Lutudarum''. Roman roads from Wirksworth lead to

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.The Street) and to

Brough-on-Noe Brough and Shatton is a civil parish in Hope Valley in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It is named for the two hamlets of Brough-on-Noe and Shatton. Brough is about 2 km, or just over 1 mile, west (upstream) of Shatton; bo ...

(The Portway). The town has the oldest charter of any in the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, whe ...

, dating from 835, when the Abbess of Wirksworth granted nearby land to Duke Humbert of Mercia. Wirksworth appears in the 1086

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

. Outlying farms (berwicks) were

Cromford Cromford is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, in the valley of the River Derwent between Wirksworth and Matlock. It is north of Derby, south of Matlock and south of Matlock Bath. It is first mentioned in the 11th-centur ...

, Middleton, Hopton, Wellesdene ic Carsington,

Kirk Ireton Kirk Ireton is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, southwest of Wirksworth on a hillside near Carsington Water, above sea level. The population at the 2011 Census was 518. Ireton is a corruption of the Saxon ''hyre-tun'', mean ...

and Callow. It gave its name to the earlier Wirksworth

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...

or hundred. Many lead mines in

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

times were owned by Repton Abbey. Three of these are identified in Wirksworth's Domesday Book entry. Scientists studying a Swiss glacial ice core have found that levels of lead in European air pollution between 1170 and 1216 were similar to those during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, pointing to the local lead and silver smelting around Wirksworth, Castleton etc. as the main source with a remarkable correlation. There is a tiny carving in Wirksworth Church of a miner with a pick and kibble (basket). The figure is known as "T'Owd Man of Bonsall." It stood in Bonsall Church for centuries, but was moved for safekeeping during a restoration project. It was later found in a Bonsall garden and moved to Wirksworth by the vicar of the time. The ore was washed out through a sieve, whose iron wire had been drawn in Hathersage since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Smelting took place in boles, hence the name Bolehill. The lead industry, the miner, the ore and the waste were also known collectively as "t'owd man".

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

granted a charter for a miners' court in the town, the Bar Moot. Anyone had a right to dig for ore wherever he chose, except in churchyards, gardens or roadways. All that was needed for a claim was to place one's stowce (winch) on the site and extract enough ore to pay tribute to the "barmaster". The present Bar Moot building dates from 1814. Within is a brass dish for measuring the levy due to the Crown. Even into the 20th century, the penalty for stealing from a mine was to have a hand nailed to the stowce, giving a miscreant the choice of tearing himself loose or starving to death. The

Barmote Court A barmote court (also written bergjisote, barghmote, bargemote and barmoot) is a court held in the lead mining districts of Derbyshire, England, for the purpose of determining the customs peculiar to the industry and also for the settlements of ...

is still held at the Bar Moot hall in Chapel Lane and controls all matters of lead mining. By the 18th century there were many thousand lead mines worked individually.

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel '' Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

gives a first-hand account of such a family and the miner at work. At this time, the London Lead Company was formed to provide finance for deeper mines with drainage channels, called

sough A sough (pronounced /saʊ/ or /sʌf/) is an underground channel for draining water out of a mine. Ideally the bottom of the mine would be higher than the outlet, but where the mine sump is lower, water must be pumped up to the sough. Derbyshire ...

s, and introduce Newcomen steam-engine pumps. Wirksworth Town Hall (15137004376)

Many institutions in the area have ties with the Gell family of nearby

. One member, Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, fought on Parliament's side in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

. A predecessor, Anthony Gell, founded the local grammar school, and a successor, Phillip Gell, opened the Via Gellia (perhaps an allusion to the Roman Via Appia), a road from the family lead mines round Wirksworth to a smelter in

. More recently he has been remembered in the name of Anthony Gell School. The carboniferous limestone around Wirksworth has been much quarried over the town's history, resulting in several rock faces and cliffs surrounding the town. There was a

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

from 1724 to 1829 called Babington House standing on Green Hill () and housing 60 inmates. In 1777

Richard Arkwright Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...

leased land and premises for a corn mill from Philip Eyre Gell of Hopton and converted it to spin

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

, using his

water frame The water frame is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel. Water frames in general have existed since Ancient Egypt times. Richard Arkwright, who patented the technology in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread; ...

. It was the world's first cotton mill to use a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...

to replenish the millpond that drove its

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or bucke ...

. The mill was adjacent to another, Speedwell Mill, owned by John Dalley, a local merchant. Arkwright's mill was sublet in 1792, when Arkwright's son,

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

, began to sell off family property and move into banking. It was named Haarlem Mill in 1815, when converted to weaving tape by Madely, Hackett and Riley, who had set up Haarlem Tape Works in Derby in 1806. In 1879 the Wheatcroft family, which produced tape at Speedwell Mill, expanded into Haarlem. The two mills together employed 230; their weekly output was said to equal the circumference of the earth; Wirksworth was the main producer of

red tape Red tape is an idiom referring to regulations or conformity to formal rules or standards which are claimed to be excessive, rigid or redundant, or to bureaucracy claimed to hinder or prevent action or decision-making. It is usually applied to ...

for

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

. These mills were close together at Miller's Green next to the Derby road. Haarlem Mill now houses an art collective; Speedwell Mill has been replaced by private houses and a carpentry workshop. The growing prosperity of the town led to the development of Wirksworth Town Hall in 1871.

Geography

In the 2011 census Wirksworth civil parish had 2,416 dwellings, 2,256 households and a population of 5,038. 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 northerly part of the town, while Yokecliffe is a newer estate in the westerly area. Modern houses have been built in the Three Trees area and at the bottom of Steeple Grange (Spring Close).

Education

There are five schools in Wirksworth:

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

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 Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution". Wr ...

), Gell and Nightingale (

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War ...

). Its catchment area is the town and surrounding villages: Middleton, Carsington,

Brassington Brassington is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, 16 miles north west of Derby. The parish had a population of 573 at the 2011 census. The name, spelled ''Branzingtune'' in the Domesday Book, is thou ...

Turnditch Turnditch is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 301. It is around north of Derby on the A517 road from Belper to Ash ...

Matlock Bath Matlock Bath is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England. It lies in the Peak District, south of Matlock on the main A6 road, and approximately halfway between Buxton and Derby. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census wa ...

and Crich. The Anthony Gell School qualifies as a

Sports College Sports Colleges are senior secondary schools which promote sports alongside secondary education. United Kingdom Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The programme enabled sec ...

Culture and community

Events

*''Early April'' – The Wirksworth Book Festival, launched in 2016, is a sister event to the Wirksworth Festival, celebrating books and reading, particularly local writers. *''Early June'': The Wirksworth well dressing and carnival. This was adapted after the arrival of piped water, so that taps as well as wells are decorated.1860s picture
PictureThePast, Retrieved August 2009 *''First Sunday after 8 September'': Clipping the church is an ancient custom, where the congregation join hands to encircle the building. This occurs on the Sunday after the Feast of the Nativity, the church's dedication. *''September'': Since 1995 the Wirksworth Festival has celebrated and promoted arts in the town. It features crafts, exhibitions and street theatre. *''First Weekend in December'': The Glee Club holds an annual pantomime.

Community facilities

Fanny Shaw's Playing Field, just beyond the centre, is the main recreation area for the north of the town. It includes a play area. In the south is the "Rec", another children's play area, along with cricket and football pitches. There are public toilets in the car park alongside the United Reformed Church in Jubilee Court.

Cultural references

Haarlem Mill has been mentioned as the possible model for the mill in

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

's '' The Mill on the Floss''. The town of Snowfield in George Eliot's Adam Bede is also said to be based in Wirksworth; Dinah Morris, a character in that novel, is based on Eliot's aunt, who lived in Wirksworth and whose husband ran the silk mill, which used to house the Wirksworth Heritage Centre. Wirksworth was the main location of ITV's '' Sweet Medicine'' in 2003, having featured as an occasional location in its forerunner, ''

Peak Practice ''Peak Practice'' is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale—a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District—and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their m ...

''. More recently, some of '' Mobile'' was filmed on a train on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, and much of an episode of the BBC series '' Casualty'' was set in the town. Wirksworth features in the 2015 memoir ''The Long Road Out of Town'' by author and journalist Greg Watts, who grew up there. Middle Peak Quarry, on the outskirts of Wirksworth, featured in the 2010 music video "Unlikely Hero" by the Hoosiers.

Town twinning

Wirksworth is twinned with

Die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

in southern France and with Frankenau in the Kellerwald range south-west of the Talgang, Germany, through the Wirksworth Twinning Association.

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 Abraham Bennet FRS (baptised 20 December 1749 – buried 9 May 1799) was an English clergyman and physicist, the inventor of the gold-leaf electroscope and developer of an improved magnetometer. Though he was cited by Alessandro Volta as a key ...

(1749–1799) was

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy ...

of Wirksworth and did important early work in

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

, in association with

Erasmus Darwin Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor, and poet. His poems ...

. There is a memorial plaque to him in Wirksworth Church and a portrait by an unknown artist. *

Anthony Draycot Anthony Draycot (died 1571 in Draycott in the Moors) was an English Roman Catholic churchman and lawyer. During the reign of Queen Mary he held a diocesan position as chancellor; his role in condemning numerous Protestants to death is detailed ...

(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 Joan Waste or Wast (1534 – 1 August 1556) was a blind woman who was burned in Derby for refusing to renounce her Protestant faith.D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

(1885–1930) lived at Mountain Cottage with his wife Frieda in 1918–1919. It stands below the

B5023 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Gre ...

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 John Woodward or ''variant'', may refer to: Sports * John Woodward (English footballer) (born 1947), former footballer * John Woodward (Scottish footballer) (born 1949), former footballer * Johnny Woodward (1924–2002), English footballer * Jo ...

, naturalist (1665–1728), may have been born here.

Landmarks

Wirksworth civil parish contains 108 structures listed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

for their historic or architectural interest. The Parish Church of St Mary is listed Grade I and eight structures (15 Market Place, 35 Green Hill, 1 Coldwell Street, Haarlem Mill, Wigwell Grange, the Red Lion Hotel, Gate House and the former grammar school) are Grade II*. Wirksworth Heritage Centre is next to Walkers Butchers, down the lower end of Wirksworth. The display illustrates the history of Wirksworth from its prehistoric Dream Cave and

woolly rhino The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a me ...

s, through its Roman and lead mining histories, to modern times. Other nearby attractions include the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, the Steeple Grange Light Railway and Peak District National Park. The study ''Wirksworth and Five Miles Around'', written by Richard R Hackett (1843–1900), 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.

References

External links

Go Wirksworth - Community web siteThe Wirksworth Heritage CentreWirksworth Parish Records 1600-1900Lutudarum.com - It is thought that Wirksworth is the site of the lost Roman town of Lutudarum
{{authority control Market towns in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Towns in Derbyshire Lead mining in the United Kingdom Civil parishes in Derbyshire Derbyshire Dales