Bolsover Derbyshire Family History Guide

Bolsover is an Ancient Parish in the county of Derbyshire.

Other places in the parish include: Shottlewood, Woodhouse, Whaley, Stanfree, Shuttlewood, Woodside, Oxcroft, Ockley, Glopwell, and Glapwell.

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1603
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1668

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

BOLSOVER, a small town and a subdistrict, in the district of Chesterfield, and a parish in the districts of Chesterfield and Mansfield, Derby.

The town occupies the summit of a steep hill, 5½ miles E of Chesterfield r. station. It commands a splendid view; retains traces of fortifications which once surrounded it; and was formerly a place of note; but is now straggling and decayed. It has a post office under Chesterfield, a nominal weekly market, and fairs on the last Friday of April and the first Friday of Oct. It formerly carried on a famous manufacture of steel buckles and spurs; and subsequently engaged in the making of tobacco-pipes and fire-bricks. Pop., 1,526. Houses, 350.

The parish includes also the hamlets of Ockley, Whaley, Oxcroft, Stanfree, Shuttlewood, Woodside, Woodhouse, and Glapwell. Acres, 6,060. Real property, £8,079. Pop., 1,629. Houses, 367. The property is divided among many.

The manor belonged at the Conquest to Peveril of the Peak; passed to the Earl of Morton, afterwards King John; went, in the time of Henry III., to the Earl of Chester, and afterwards to Lord Abergavenny; was resumed, in 1243, by the Crown; passed to Roger Lovetot, the Pipards, the Sturys, the Earl of Richmond, and the Duke of Norfolk; reverted again to the Crown; went, in the time of Edward VI., to Sir John Byron, and afterwards to Lord Talbot and Sir Charles Cavendish; descended from the last to the Dukes of Newcastle; and passed from them, by marriage, to the Dukes of Portland.

A Norman keep was built on it by the Peverils; and made a military figure in the troubles of the time of King John. A palatial castle superseded this under Sir Charles Cavendish; was besieged and partly demolished in the civil war; underwent partial reconstruction after the Restoration; was unroofed about the middle of last century; and is now a picturesque ruin. The Duke of Newcastle three times entertained Charles I. and his court here; and on one of these occasions, which was assisted by the genius of Ben Jonson, spent about £15,000. The riding-house is still in good order; and the Tudor restoration of the Norman keep is used as the parsonage.

A yellow magnesian limestone is quarried in the parish; and was used in the construction of the new houses of parliament.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £111. Patron, the Duke of Portland. The church is Norman, with later additions; has a fine early English spire; and contains splendid monuments of the Dukes of Newcastle and Portland, and a number of other monuments.

There are chapels for Independents and Methodists, and charities £103. One of the Dukes of Newcastle and his second duchess were noted for their writings; and the lady of the present vicar is known for a history of Etruria and several kindred works. The castle contains a fine collection of Etruscan and other antiquities.

The subdistrict contains three parishes, with the exception of one of the hamlets of Bolsover. Acres, 11,247. Pop., 2,402. Houses, 523.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Administration

County: Derbyshire
Civil Registration District: Chesterfield
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Lichfield (Episcopal Consistory)
Diocese: Lichfield
Rural Deanery: Chesterfield
Poor Law Union: Chesterfield
Hundred: Scarsdale
Province: Canterbury