Rowton, Rowtor, or Birchover, Derbyshire
Historical Description
Rowton, Rowtor, or Birchover, a village prettily situated on the S side of Stanton Moor, Derbyshire, with about 300 inhabitants. Post town, Matlock Bath; money order and telegraph office, Winster: railway station, Rowsley. The church was built about 1700 by Thomas Eyre as a private chapel to Rowtor Hall. The vicarage for the combined parishes of Stanton-in-Peak and Birchover is built on the site of the old Rowtor Hall. Birchover Church is annexed to the living of Stanton as a chapel of ease, and has an endowment of £20. A chancel was added in 1869, and a porch with other restorations in 1877. At the W end of the village are the famous Rowtor Rocks, where are two logan or rocking stones-one of immense size. Row-tor means the Rons or Rocking Tor. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels in the village.
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.
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Derbyshire is online.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Derbyshire papers online: