Ticknall
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Ticknall is a small village and
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in
South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The district covers the towns of Melbourne, Derbyshire, Melbourne and Swadlincote as well as numerous villages and hamlets such as Hilton, Derbys ...
, England. The population of the civil parish (including Calke) at the 2011 Census was 642. Situated on the A514 road, close to
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, it has three pubs, several small businesses, and a primary school. Two hundred years ago it was considerably larger and noisier with lime quarries, tramways and potteries.
Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
was also dug close to the village. Close to the village is
Calke Abbey Calke Abbey is a Grade I listed building, Grade I listed English country house, country house near Ticknall, Derbyshire, England, in the care of the charitable National Trust. The site was an Augustinians, Augustinian priory from the 12th centu ...
, now a
National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
property.


History

The old village of ''Tichenhalle'' is mentioned in the
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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
in the
Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
of Walecros in the county of Derbyshire. Ticknall was an estate village to Calke Abbey until late in the 20th century and reached its heyday in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the limeyards and the brickmaking, tile and pottery industries were operating at maximum capacity. The census of 1851 returned a population of 1,241, double the present number of around 650. St George's Church, Ticknall, is the Grade II listed
Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...
. It was built in 1842, replacing a medieval building. Dame Catherine Harpur, wife of Sir John Harpur, founded a village school in 1744, to provide free education for the boys and girls of Ticknall and the surrounding parishes. From 1903 to 1987, the school was a
voluntary controlled A voluntary controlled school (VC school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a Christian denomination) has some formal influence in the running of the school. Such schools have less autonomy th ...
Church of England primary school. The school is now operated as an independent charitable school. Since the neighbouring Calke Abbey changed its status in 1984 from long-standing private occupation by the Harpur-Crewe family to semi-public administration by the National Trust, much of the village has changed. The break-up of the former estate has meant the sale of cottages and building land, altering not only the randomness of the architecture, but also the dilution of the former feudal relationship between the villagers and their somewhat reclusive
lords of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...
. The village has developed with examples of new buildings and renovations. Near the entrance to Calke Abbey is Tramway Bridge, which is now a Grade II listed structure. There is also a tramway tunnel, almost 140 yards in length, under the drive to Calke Abbey. The National Trust restored it in the 1990s and it can be traversed on foot. It was built in 1802 by the Derbyshire engineer Benjamin Outram to carry the former Ticknall Tramway and subsequently connect the brickyards and limeyards around the village to the Ashby canal at Willesley Basin. It was too costly to build the expensive locks that would have been required to bring the canal to Ticknall, so the tramway was constructed as a cheaper alternative. Although abandoned in 1915, the tramway can still be traced intermittently along its route, which passed through the estate of Calke Abbey where two tunnels were needed. At the start of the 19th century the Ticknall Limeyards were operated by two different classes of people, namely freeholders and tenants. Some of the freeholders in the parish had their own limeyards while others were worked by tenants for the Harpur-Crewe and Burdett families. As the century progressed the freeholders went bankrupt for various reasons while the tenants of the Harpur-Crewe family gave up because of the high rents charged and general mismanagement of the limeyards. The village has three pubs: The Wheel, The Staff of Life and the Chequers Inn. The latter dates from the 17th century. On the lanes throughout the village are several water pumps. These sturdy and attractive cast-iron devices were introduced into the village around 1914 by Sir Harper Crewe to what was then the estate village to provide fresh water. Several of these unusual pumps still work and are still used by walkers. In June 2023 the rare hazel dormouse was reintroduced to woodland in the National Forest near Calke Abbey. Thirty-eight dormice were released by wildlife charity People's Trust for Endangered Species.


Sport and Leisure


Cricket

Ticknall Cricket Club is an English amateur
cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
club with a history of cricket in the village dating back to the 1850s. The club ground is on The Grange, Repton Road. Ticknall field three senior teams in the Derbyshire County Cricket League and run a junior training section that plays competitive cricket in the South Derbyshire Development Group.


Notable residents

* Ted Moult, TV personality, farmed here. * John Smith, who was awarded the VC, was born here in 1814. * Henry Dennis, hymnist and composer, was born here in 1818.


See also

* Listed buildings in Ticknall


Gallery

File:St George Ticknall with remains of old church.jpg, St George's, Ticknall with remains of old church File:Ticknall Methodist Chapel.JPG, Ticknall Methodist Chapel File:Ticknall Water Pump.JPG, One of several Water Pumps File:Staff of Life Ticknall.jpg, Staff of Life File:Chequers Inn Ticknall.jpg, Chequers Inn


References


External links


Ticknall Parish CouncilTicknall - Community websiteTicknall Tramway and Calke Abbey
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Civil parishes in Derbyshire South Derbyshire District