Dronfield, Derbyshire
Historical Description
Dronfield, a town, a township, and a parish in Derbyshire. The town stands on a branch of the river Rother, 6 miles S of Sheffield,and 6 NNWof Chesterfield, is a neat place, was known at Domesday as Dranefield, has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Sheffield, a station on the M.R., a town-hall, and a cemetery opened in 1877. A cattle fair is held yearly on 25 April, and a hiring for servants on 3 Nov., and a flower show early in September; it was formerly a market-town. The township includes the town, and extends into the country, and is governed by a local board of nine members. Acreage, 2589; population, 4166. The parish comprises the townships of Dronfield, Unstone, and Coal-Aston, Acreage, 6128; population, 6387. There is an extensive iron foundry, where the manufacture of hardware is carried on, and the district is famous for its coal. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value, £326 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church stands on an elevation near the village, is in the Early Gothic style, has a fine tower and spire, had formerly a chantry, and contains a brass of two priests of 1399, and a handsome stained east window put up in 1886. There are Congregational, Baptist, Wes-leyan, Primitive and United Methodist chapels; a grammar school, founded and endowed by Henry Fanshawe in 1567, for which a new building, with master's residence, was erected in 1867; the school is free to 36 poor boys of the parish. There are several charities. There is also a post office at Dronfield Woodhouse.
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 | Dronfield St. John the Baptist | |
| Hundred | Scarsdale | |
| Poor Law union | Ecclesall-Bierlow |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Dronfield 1560-1837, 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.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Dronfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1848 (Dronfield (St. John the Baptist))
- Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, 1899
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Derbyshire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Dronfield are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- 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: