Hathersage, Derbyshire

Historical Description

Hathersage, a village, a township, and a parish in Derbyshire. The village stands on the river Derwent, in the midst of a mountainous tract, 2 miles S of the boundary with Yorkshire, 7¼ from Hassop station on the M.R., and 9 N of Bakewell, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Sheffield, and a fair on the Friday after Old Michaelmas Day. The township includes the village, and extends far into the country. Acreage of the township, 3419; population, 1210; of the ecclesiastical parish, 1396. The inhabitants are employed in the making of needles, pins, hackles, gills, millstones, and cast-steel wire. A Danish camp is supposed to have been at Camp Green, near the village. On Hathersage Mountain there is a fine British fortification called Carl's Wark. The vallum is 17 feet thick, and, has a gateway on the S, the fourth side being defended by a wall of large blocks. There are some possibly Druidical stones on Higgar Tor, and magnificent views can be had over Rin-derscout. Lose and Wind Hills, Tray Cliff, and Mam Tor. The parish contains also the chapelry of Stoney Middleton, and the townships of Outseats, Bamford, and Derwent. Long-shaw is a shooting-box of the Duke of Rutland, Hathersage Hall is a seat of the Shuttleworths. Rocking stones are on the moors. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of South-well; net value, £847 with residence. Patron, the Duke of Devonshire. The church is Later English, was well restored in 1851, consists of nave, chancel, aisles, and Lady chapely with tower and handsome spire, and contains an ancient tomb of the Eyres. A spot in the churchyard said to be the grave of Little John, the companion of Robin Hood, is now marked by two upright stones 9 feet apart, and remains of a human body were long ago exhumed from it in a state of petrifaction. There are Roman Catholic and Wesleyan chapels.

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.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Hathersage from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hathersage, formerly Heather-Edge (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 Hathersage 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