Sheldon is a village and civil parish in the

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

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

, England, near

Bakewell Bakewell is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, known for Bakewell pudding. It lies on the River Wye, Derbyshire, River Wye, 15 miles (23 km) south-west of Sheffield. It is the largest se ...

. It is best known for being the closest village to Magpie Mine, a lead mine with an engine house built in the Cornish style. Lead mining flourished around here in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is now scheduled as an ancient monument, and is the most complete example of a lead mine remaining in the Peak District. It is about 1050 feet above sea level. The parish church of St Michael and All Angels was erected in the 19th century with material derived from dismantling the former

Chapel of Ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

Church

The parish church is dedicated to

Saint Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

and All Angels. Some sources give the dedication as just "All Angels" and many sources refer to the church as just a chapel. The present church, which seats 140, was built in 1864 near the site of the old chapel. The burial ground is to the east.

Governance

Sheldon is too small to have a parish council so administrative matters are dealt with by its

parish meeting A parish meeting is a meeting all the electors in a civil parish in England are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish council, with ...

, formed from village residents as well as the elected chairperson. Sheldon has a small population of approximately 80 people according to the 2001 census. Sheldon used to have its own monthly magazine but since 2010 the magazine has merged with the Ashford Parish church magazine.

The Sheldon Duck

The Sheldon Duck is a duck-like

pareidolia Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus (physiology), stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific bu ...

found in an

ash tree ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...

, which was felled at the beginning of the 20th century. According to local legend, in the early 1600s villagers saw a duck flying into an Ash tree, but they never observed it leaving the tree. When the same tree was felled, approximately 300 years later, a duck-like pattern with markings of the brain and lungs were found in the resultant timber boards. The boards were on display in

Ashford in the Water Ashford may refer to: Places Australia * Ashford, New South Wales * Ashford, South Australia * Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland * Ashford, County Wicklow * Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom *Ashford, Kent, a tow ...

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

for a while and postcards showing it were sold. Later, the timber merchant who felled the tree used these boards for making a mantlepiece at his home.

References

{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Civil parishes in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Derbyshire Dales

Church

Governance

The Sheldon Duck

See also

References