Chapel en le Frith, Derbyshire
Historical Description
Chapel-en-le-Frith, a small market and union town and a parish in Derbyshire. The town stands on the slope of a high hill, near the High Peak, 5 miles N of Buxton, and has a station on the L. & N.W. and M.R. The Peak Forest tramway runs through the town. It sprang from an ancient church or chapel within the Peak " frith " or forest, and is now a centre of local trade, a seat of petty sessions, and a polling place. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Stockport, two chief inns, a town-hall, a church, two dissenting chapels, a workhouse, and a county police station. The town-hall is a neat stone building, erected in 1851, and enlarged in 1882. Manufacture is carried on in cotton and paper mills and calico printing works, and there are two iron foundries and engine-fitting shops. A considerable traffic exists in the tranStr of coal and limestone from neighbouring works to distant places. Cattle markets are held on the first Thursday in each month, and fairs on the Thursday before 14 Feb., 3 March, 29 March, 30 April, Holy Thursday, the third Thursday after Holy Thursday, 7 July, Thursday after 11 October, and Thursday before 23 November. The parish includes the hamlet of Cockyard and part of the hamlets of Dove Holes, Chapel Milton, and Sparrow Pit. Acreage of parish, 9752; population, 4647. Much of the surface is hill and moor. The manor belongs to the Duchy of Lancaster. Eccles House, Ford Hall, Hor-wich House, Bowden Hall, and The Ridge are chief residences. The canal reservoir is a fine sheet of water, and the Barmour-Clough well is an ebbing and flowing spring. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value, £274 with residence. The church is dedicated to St Thomas a Becket, and was thoroughly restored in 1893.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Derbyshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Chapel-En-Le-Frith St. Thomas à Becket | |
| Hundred | High Peak | |
| Poor Law union | Chapel-en-le-Frith |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Chapel-en-le-Frith 1621-1837, Derbyshire, is available to browse online.
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 Chapel en le Frith from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Chapel-En-Le-Frith (St. Thomas à Becket))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Derbyshire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Chapel en le Frith 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: