UK Genealogy Archives logo
DISCLOSURE: This page may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we may receive a commission.

Peak Forest, Derbyshire

Historical Description

Peak Forest, a village and a parish in Derbyshire. The village lies 5 miles NE of Buxton, is very picturesque, and has a station on the M.R., and a post office under Stockport; money order office, Tideswell; telegraph office at railway station. The parish comprises 5299 acres; population, 502. There is a parish council consisting of six members. The manor belongs to the Duke of Devonshire. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value, £195 witli residence. Patron, the Duke of Devonshire. The church was built in 1657 by a lady member of the Devonshire family, for the use of the foresters in the king's forest, and though erected in Cromwell's lifetime it was dedicated to Charles, king and martyr. It was a peculiar, extra-parochial and extra-episcopal. The minister held a peculiar court for the proving of wills, making affidavits, creating bonds, &c., but it was as a church where what were locally called foreign marriages were solemnized that it was most widely known. The average number of these runaway marriages from 1657 to 1804 was about ninety a year, and the parties came from all parts of England. The new church, built by the seventh Duke of Devonshire and consecrated in 1877, is also dedicated to King Charles. There are extensive limeworks in the neighbourhood and a Wesleyan chapel.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyDerbyshire 
HundredHigh Peak 
Poor Law unionChapel-en-le-Frith 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in conjunction with the Derbyshire Record Office, have the Church of England Baptisms (1538-1916), Marriages and Banns (1538-1932), and Burials (1538-1991) online.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Peak Forest from the following:


Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Derbyshire is online.


Maps

Online maps of Peak Forest are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Derbyshire papers online:

DistrictHigh Peak
CountyDerbyshire
RegionEast Midlands
CountryEngland
Postal districtSK17
Post TownBuxton

Advertisement

Advertisement