Ault Hucknall, Derbyshire Family History Guide

Ault Hucknall is an Ancient Parish in the county of Derbyshire.

Alternative names: Hault Hucknall

Other places in the parish include: Stainsby and Rowthorne.

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1662
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1663

Nonconformists include: Methodist New Connexion

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

AULT-HUCKNALL, or Hault-Hucknall, a parish in the district of Mansfield and county of Derby; on the verge of the county, adjacent to Hardwick Park, 5 miles ENE of Claycross r. station, and 6½ SE of Chesterfield. It contains the hamlets of Rowthorne and Stainsby; and its Post Town is Heath under Chesterfield. Acres, 3,730. Rated property, £3,191. Pop., 686. Houses, 134. The property is not much divided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £168. Patron, the Duke of Devonshire. The church is good, and contains monuments to the first Countess of Devonshire and to the philosopher Hobbes.

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

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Ault-Hucknall, 6 miles S.E. Chesterfield. P. 678

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

Hardwick Hall The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

HARDWICK HALL, a seat of the Duke of Devonshire, in Ault-Hucknall parish, Derby; near the boundary with Notts, 4½ miles E of Wingfield r. station, and 6½ SE of Chesterfield.

A previous hall, now a ruin, stands adjacent; retains several rooms in a tolerably good state, adorned with very interesting specimens of pargetting; and was the birth-place of Elizabeth Hardwick, heiress of the Hardwick family, and commonly known as “Bess of Hardwick.” That lady married, first, Robert Bailey of Bailey; then Sir William Cavendish. ancestor of the present Duke of Devonshire; then Sir William St. Loe; then George, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom she survived seventeen years; and she was one of the most remarkable characters in the entire female peerage.

The present hall was founded by her, in 1590; and it is surmounted by a curious open-work parapet, embracing frequent repetitions of her initials E. S., and having her arms pierced in the stone-work. It stands on a bold height, overlooking a fine park, and commanding a rich view over portions of Derbyshire and Notts; it presents a most imposing appearance, from at once its magnitude, its loftiness, and its symmetry; it has windows so numerous and large as to have occasioned a popular saying, “Hardwick Hall, more window than wall;” it is surmounted by six towers; and, both as to its architecture and as to the furniture which it contains, it is a perfect specimen of a Tudor mansion.

Mary Queen of Scots is commonly said to have been imprisoned in it; but though she may have been occasionally in the old hall, and though she used furniture at Chatsworth which was removed hither, and is preserved in what are called her apartments, she could not have been in the present mansion, for the good reason that it was not founded till three years after her death.

The great hall in it, however, has a beautiful statue of her, by Westmacott; the picture gallery, occupying most of the E front, and measuring 170 feet in length, 22 in width, and 26 in height, contains portraits of her and of Queen Elizabeth, and upwards of 170 other portraits, chiefly of the Devonshire family and its connections; and the other rooms, together with the chapel, are fitted up in a costly and antique style, and hung with curiously-wrought tapestry.

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