Blackwell (St. Werburgh)

BLACKWELL (St. Werburgh), a parish, in the union of Mansfield, hundred of Scarsdale, N. division of the county of Derby, 3¼ miles (N. E. by E.) from Alfreton; containing 477 inhabitants. It comprises by measurement 1675 acres, and abounds in coal, which is close to the surface; two mines are at present worked, affording employment to a part of the population, and about 50 persons are engaged in the stocking manufacture. Stone is quarried for road-making. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £5. 4. 2.; patron and impropriator, the Duke of Devonshire: the great tithes have been commuted for £170, and the vicarial for £101; the glebe consists of an acre and a half. The church was rebuilt in 1824; its site is a bed of coal, which, a short distance from it, has a peculiar appearance, jutting out four or five yards above the turnpike-road: the churchyard contains one of the oldest yew-trees in England. There is a place of worship for dissenters.