Tissington is a village and former

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 ...

, now in the parish of Tissington and Lea Hall, in the

Derbyshire Dales Derbyshire Dales ( ) is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The district was created in 1974 as West Derbyshire; the name was changed to Derbyshire Dales in 1987. The council is based in the town of Matl ...

district of

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 ...

, England. In 2001 the parish had a population of 158. The population "Tissington and Lea Hall" at the 2011 census was 159. It is part of the estate of

Tissington Hall Tissington Hall is an early 17th-century Jacobean architecture, Jacobean mansion house in Tissington, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire, Ashbourne, Derbyshire. It is a Grade II* listed building. The Fitzherbert baronets, FitzHerberts, descended from th ...

, owned by the

FitzHerbert Fitzherbert is a suburb of Palmerston North, Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand. The Massey University Manawatu Campus is west and northwest of Fitzherbert. The Food HQ was established north of the Massey University campus in 1971, and incl ...

family since 1465. It is a popular tourist attraction, particularly during its

well dressing Well dressing, also known as well flowering, is a tradition practised in some parts of rural England in which wells, springs and other water sources are decorated with designs created from materials such as flower petals. The custom is most close ...

week. It also gives its name to the Tissington Trail, a walk and cycle path which passes nearby. The

Limestone Way The Limestone Way is a waymarked long-distance Rights of way in England and Wales, footpath in Derbyshire, England. It runs for through the White Peak of the Peak District National Park, from Castleton, Derbyshire, Castleton south to Rocester ...

, another long-distance path and

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider ...

, passes through the village itself.

History

Tissington (

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

"Tidsige's farm/settlement") is recorded 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 ...

of 1086 as ''Tizinctun'', having been given to

Henry de Ferrers Henry de Ferrers (died by 1100), magnate and administrator, was a Normans, Norman who after the 1066 Norman conquest of England, Norman conquest was awarded extensive lands in England. Origins He was the eldest son of Vauquelin de Ferrers and i ...

Henry was given a large number of manors throughout England, but particularly in Derbyshire. by the king,

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

"In Tizinctun Ulchel, Edric, Ganel, Uluiet, Wictric, Leuric, Godwin had 4
carucates The carucate or carrucate ( or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could tillage, till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax asse ...
of land for
geld Geld may refer to: * Gelding, equine castration * Danegeld, a tax paid to Viking raiders * Geld (surname) See also * Gel (disambiguation) * Gelt (disambiguation) Gelt may refer to: * Gelt, also known as Hanukkah gelt, chocolate coins given to Je ...
. Land for 4 ploughs. Now in the
demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land subinfeudation, sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. ...
there re3 ploughs: and 12 villanes, and 8
bordars Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed dur ...
having 4 ploughs, and 1 mill of 3 shillings alue and of meadow. Underwood in length and in breadth. In the time of
King Edward King Edward may refer to: Monarchs of England and the United Kingdom * Edward the Elder (–924) * Edward the Martyr (–978) * Edward the Confessor (–1066) * Edward I of England (1239–1307) * Edward II of England (1284–1327) * Edward III o ...
it was worth £4, now 40 shillings"

During the reign of

Henry I Henry I or Henri I may refer to: :''In chronological order'' * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry ...

the estate passed to the Savage family. After the death of the last male heir, William le Savage in 1259 it was split between the families of the joint heiresses, the Meynells and Edensors. The Meynell's part of the estate was acquired in marriage by Nicholas FitzHerbert in the 1460s. During the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

, Francis, the great-grandson of Nicholas, purchased the remainder from the heirs of Edensors. From then the village and estate has been wholly in the ownership of the FitzHerbert family. During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, 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 policies.J ...

a redoubt or siegework was constructed on the hill north of the church. The buried and earthwork remains are protected as a Scheduled Monument. Tissington Hall was garrisoned for the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

by its owner, Colonel Fitzherbert in December 1643. As of March 2021, and since 1989, the owner of the village was

Sir Richard FitzHerbert, 9th Baronet Sir Richard Ranulph FitzHerbert, 9th Baronet (born 2 November 1963), is a British landowner and holds the Fitzherbert baronets, FitzHerbert baronetcy, which he inherited in 1989 along with the family home, Tissington Hall, on the death of his un ...

who resides at Tissington Hall. In an interview, he said that 45 of the properties were rented out and that tenants farmed the 2,000 acres around the Hall which operates some corporate events and weddings. On 1 April 2009 the parish was abolished and merged with Lea Hall to form "Tissington & Lea Hall".

Notable buildings

In the centre of the village is

, the seat of the FitzHerberts. A Jacobean building built in 1609 by Francis FitzHerbert, replacing an earlier moated manor house, it is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The owner was awarded the Bledisloe Gold Medal "for estate management by the Royal Agricultural Society" in 2006. The parish church of St Mary opposite the hall has a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

. The font is thought to depict a scene from the legend of Saint Beorhthelm of Stafford.. The majority of the other buildings in the village are built in the local

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

style, of which around 70% are listed buildings.

Well dressings

An estimated 50,000 people visit the village to view its

s each year. Six wells (Children's Well, Coffin Well, Hall Well, Hands Well, Town Well and Yew Tree Well) are decorated during the week of Ascension Sunday with pictures formed by pressing flower petals and other organic materials into a clay substrate. The pictures are usually on a

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

theme reflecting current events or anniversaries. This tradition is often cited to date back at least to 1348, following the village’s escape from the

Black Death The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...

, which the villagers attributed to the purity of the water in its wells. Well Dressing Tissington Derbyshire UK 2007

Literary connections

Richard Graves Richard Graves (4 May 1715 – 23 November 1804) was an English cleric, poet, and novelist. He is remembered especially for his picaresque novel ''The Spiritual Quixote'' (1773). Early life Graves was born at Mickleton Manor, Mickleton, Glouce ...

wrote some of his novel ''The Spiritual Quixote'' whilst staying in Tissington.IGEW
- Wilson, John Marius (1870)

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes h ...

References

External links

Tissington Hall & Fitzherbert family websiteTissington - Peak District On Line
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Tourist attractions of the Peak District Former civil parishes in Derbyshire Derbyshire Dales