Pleasley, Derbyshire

Historical Description

Pleasley, a village, a township, and a parish in Derbyshire. The name is often used to include the adjacent village of Pleasley Hill in Notts, on the right bank of the river Meden and in the parish and borough of Mansfield, from which town it is distant 3 miles. The ruins of the old market cross of Pleasley proper still stand in the centre of that village, once a market town. It has stations on the M.R. and the G.N.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Mansfield. Cattle fairs are held on 6 May and 29 Oct. The parish contains the additional townships of Stoney Houghton, ecclesiastically attached to Pleasley, and of Shirebrook, a distinct ecclesiastical district including Stuffynwood, the Hall at which is the seat of the Paget family. Acreage, 3275; population of civil parish, 1499; of the ecclesiastical, 923. The parish council consists of seven members. Mr Frederick Verney is lord of the manor and chief landowner, having inherited from Lady Verney, who with her sister Miss Florence Nightingale were coheiresses. Pleasley Vale is a romantic spot 1½ mile from the village, with limestone cliffs and ravines, and factories for cotton, silk, and merino spinning. Pleasley Vale House is a chief residence. Roman coins and a Roman pavement have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of South-well; gross value, £630 with residence. The church is in the Early English style, and consists of chancel (with fine Norman arch), nave, porch, and tower. At Pleasley Hill there are a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1894, and a Methodist chapel.

Administration

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

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.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Pleasley from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Pleaseley (St. Michael))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Pleasley are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

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

• Derby Daily Telegraph
• Derby Mercury
• Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald
• Derbyshire Courier