Alfreton

The Alfreton Library on Severn Square is normally open six days a week and they have a Local Studies and Family History section to help you in your search.

• JOHNSON, Reginald - A History of Alfreton. G.C. Brittain & Sons, Ripley, 1968. ISBN unknown.

Jane TAYLOR of Redcar offers this snippet from the Derby Mercury of 13 May 1802: "AUCTION: Stocking frames, household furniture, &c TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION By Mr. JACKSON Upon the premises of THOMAS HICKSON, at Four Lane ends, near Alfreton, in the county of Derby, on Wednesday the 26th May, 1802 Eighteen stocking frames, most of which are nearly new, and in work at the following places, where they may be seen:-

No. 1. 24 Gage at JENNING's Four Lane ends

No. 2. 24 ditto ditto

No.3. 40 ditto at D. TAYLOR's, Brackenfield

No.4. 24 ditto at Joseph DAY's, Bagthorp

No.5. 25 ditto at E. WATER's, Oakerthorp

No.6. 27 ditto at Samuel SELLOR's, Swanwick

No.7. 24 ditto at A. JENNING's, Wingfield

No.8. 33 ditto at R. COX's, Brackenfield

No.9. 36 ditto at Joseph DAVY's, Bagthorp

No. 10. 40 ditto at Samuel SELLOR's, Swanwick

No.11. 34 ditto at Samuel BRIDDEN's, Wingfield

No.12. 34 ditto at Joseph DAVY's, Bagthorp

No. 13. 26 Silk at Samuel SELLOR's, Swanwick

No. 14. 36 Gage at Joseph TURNER's, Pentridge

No. 15. 80 ditto at Thomas WITHER's, Selston

No, 16. 30 ditto at F. MATHER's, Swanwick

No 17. 24 ditto at -HILL's, Swanwick

No 18. 18 ditto at T. MARSDEN's, Linday Lane.

Also on the same day will be sold upon the said premises, all the neat and useful household furniture belonging the said Mr HICKSON; consisting of bedsteads and hangings, feather beds, blankets, sheets and coverlets, mahogany and elm chairs, mahogany chest of drawers, with comode front, mahogany Pembroke table, eight days clock by Smith in neat mahogany case, large brewing copper, tubs and barrels, with a great variety of useful kitchen requisites; also will be sold a nest of drawers, counter, flour bing, beams, scales and weights, &c.&c.

The sale of furniture to commence exactly at 10 o'clock in the morning, and the frames to be sold exactly at three o'clock in the afternoon."

• Alfreton Cemetery on Rogers Lane is under the control of the Amber Valley Borough Council in Ripley.
   
• The cemetery of 4.5 acres opened in 1891.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of the cemetery on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2010.

• The parish was the centre of the Alfreton sub-district of the Belper Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Martin.
   
• Portions of the church date back to 1200.
   
• The church tower was probably built at the beginning of the 15th century.
   
• The church was thoroughly restored and considerably enlarged in 1868-69.
   
• The church chncel was enlarged in 1901.
   
• The church seats 560.
   
• Alan HEARDMAN has a photograph of St. Martin's Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2008.
   
• There was an iron Mission Room on the Mansfield Road and another one at the south end of town, erected in 1894..

• The Anglican parish registers date only from 1706.
   
• Marriages at Alfreton, 1706-1837 are available in Nigel BATTY-SMITH's database of scanned images of Phillimore's Parish Registers.
   
• Mike SPENCER has provided a partial extract of burials found in the parish register. Your additions and corrections are welcomed.
   
• The church was in the Alfreton Deanery.
   
• The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel here in Chaple Street in 1809.
   
• The Primitive Methosists took over the former Baptist chapel on Nesbit Road in 1851.
   
• The Independents built a chapel here in Church Street in 1850. The webpage author thinks this is now Wycliffe Church.
   
• Trevor RICKARD has a photograph of the Wycliffe Church on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2010.
   
• There have been Catholic worshippers in the parish since the 1500s, but the numbers dwindled down to two families in the mid-1800s. The tiny Catholic Church of Saint Mary in Park Street opened in 1883. The Catholic parish is now called "Christ the King Parish". The present Catholic Church opened in September, 1927.

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was the centre of the Alfreton sub-district of the Belper Registration District.

• The town gaol was a small lock-up built in 1820 as a "House of Confinement."
   
• Any public records would likely be in the petty session hearing records.
   
• Nikki MAHADEVAN has a photograph of the House of Confinement on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2006.

Alfreton, 139.5 miles north of the City of London, is in the Amber Valley of Derby, near the #28 junction on the M1 motorway. There is bus service from several towns and villages in the area. Passenger rail service ceased in the 1960s, but began again in 1973.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Rosemary LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Alfreton entry from Pigot & Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire (1835).

• The transcription of the section for Alfreton from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin HINSON.
   
• The transcription of the section for Alfreton from the Imperial Gazetteer (1870-72) provided by Louis R. MILLS.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Alfreton to another place.

Benjamin OUTRAM was born in Alfreton on 1 April 1764 to Joseph OUTRAM. In 1803 Benjamin had a son, James OUTRAM, who became a general in the Indian Army and was later knighted. Benjamin died of a "brain fever" (stroke) while visiting London in May 1805. After his death, and some considerable litigation, in 1807 Benjamin Outram and Company was renamed the Butterley Company. Benjamin OUTRAM is noted for his invention of the "Little Eaton Tramway Wagon" which was a standardized size and used on the the L-shaped rails (often called Outram Rails) on the Little Eaton Tramway. The standardized size of the wagons improved coal shipping efficiency and handling.

• Transcription of section of Lysons' Topographical and Historical Account of Derbyshire, 1817, for Alfreton by Barbarann AYARS.
   
• The Town Hall was built in 1856.
   
• Godfrey COX tells the story of the two BINGHAM brothers, Raymond Glendore and Sidney Oliphant, who shared a medical practice in Alfreton in the early 20th Century. He also mentions a third brother (Tom Herring BINGHAM), who died on 12 Aug 1892 trying to rescue a little girl from drowning in a local reservoir, and to whom there are memorials in Alfreton Church. Godfrey states that D. H. Lawrence actually witnessed the drowning incident and was inspired to adapt and incorporate it in his book "Women in Love." Diana CRICH is the girl who drowned in the novel. She was Mary Lilian BERESFORD, age 10 in real life. Another source gives the girl's real name as Cecilie BARBER.
   
• Alan HEARDMAN has a photograph of the Robin Hood Public House on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2008.
   
• Alfreton used to hold a cattle and horse fair on each July 31st, October 7th and November 24th.
   
• Ben BROOKSBANK tkes us back in time to a 1961 Diesel-hauled Down express photograph on Geo-graph, taken in June 1961.

Alfreton Park, built in 1750, the seat of Rowland Charles Arthur PALMER-MOORWOOD, is a stone mansion near the town.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK423541 (Lat/Lon: 53.082247, -1.370251), Alfreton which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• According to an 1895, a 1910 and a 1912 Directories, Captain Rowland Charles Arthur PALMER-MOREWOOD (MOORWOOD) J.P. resided here in the Alfreton Park area. He was an owner of Swanwick Colliery.
   
• Retired Major Reginald Pemberton LEACH (R.A.) resided here 1910-1912 in Nethermoor House. He was born in 1866 and died in 1929.
   
• Lieut.-Col. Chambers DIDHAM of the Notts Militia resided here in 1910-1912 in The Cottage, Walton. Chambers was born in Tibshelf, DBY, circa 1863, the son of Charles and Mary DIDHAM. Chambers married Constance Violet HEYMANN from West Bridgeford, NTT, in Basford in 1900. Chambers DIDHAM died in Bidefor, Devon, in the second quarter of 1938.
   
• Lieut.-Col. Geoffrey M. JACKSON resided here in 1910-1912 in Clay Cross Hall near Chesterfield.
   
• Colonel William Langton COKE, 3rd Derbyshire Regt., resided here in 1910 - 1912 in Bookhill Hall. William was born in Nottinghamshire in 1843 and died in this county in 1913. The Derby Daily Telegram's obituary tells he had three male children.
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of the War Memorial on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2005. This memorial was dedicated on 31 July 1927.
   
• Ian S. also has a photograph of the War Memorial on King Street on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2015.
   
• Likewise, Alf BEARD has a photograph of the War Memorial on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2010.

For a photograph of the Alfreton War Memorial and the list of names on it, see the Roll of Honour site.

The Traces of War website shows us that the Alfreton, United Methodist Sunday School had a memorial with a list of names.

These service people are buried in Commonwealth War Graves in the Alfreton Cemetery:

1. Gray BLACKBURN, captain, Royal Army Svc. Corps, age 49, died 10 Nov. 1942.
2. Elias C. BREARLEY, srgt., RAF Vol. Rsv., age 29, died 7 Sept. 1941.
3. W. HAYNES, sapper, Ryl. Eng., died 22 Sept. 1916.
4. Ernest W. LINEKER, pri., Leics. Rgt., age 19, died 3 Mar. 1918.
5. Alfred PATRICK, driver, Royal Army Svc. Corps, age 41, died 1 April 1919.
6. James POWELL, corporal, Royal Army Svc. Corps, age 25, died 25 July 1944.
7. Henry A. REEVES, musician, Royal Marine Band, age 21, died 27 Mar. 1919.
8. Dorothy May ROBINSON, pri., Auxiliary Terr. Svcs., age 26, died 12 Oct. 1942.
9. Raymond SEARSTON, srgt., RAF Vol. Rsv., age 20, died 6 Aug. 1943.

• The Alfreton & Belper Journal and the Mid-Derbyshire Advertiser, established in 1870, were published every Friday by Samuel ROWBOTTOM and Son on King Street. They were still in publication in 1912.
   
• Jane TAYLOR in Redcar offers this announcement from the Derby Mercury of 6 September, 1804: "MARRIED: On Wednesday last at Alfreton, in this county, Mr. SMITH, of that place, watch-maker, to Miss WILSON, of Wirksworth."
   
• Jane TAYLOR in Redcar has this announcement from the Derby Mercury of 13 September, 1804: "MARRIED: On Sunday last, at Alfreton, in this county, Mr. SIDDALL, grocer, to Miss PARKES, daughter of Mr. PARKES, of Manchester, chandler."

Jane TAYLOR in Redcar contributes this snippet from the Derby Mercury of December 1, 1803: DIED: "On Wednesday last, at Alfreton, in this county, Mr. James WILSON, plumber and glazier."

• This place was an ancient parish in Derby county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• This parish was in the ancient Scarsdale Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• The Civil Parish was enlarged by 550 acres in April, 1934, when Codnor Park Civil Parish was abolished.
   
• You may contact the Alfreton Town Council regarding civic or political issues, but they are NOT staffed to assist with family history searches.
   
• The parish is a member of the Amber Valley Borough Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Alfreton petty session hearings held at the Town Hall every other Wednesday.
   
• There is a partial list of over 120 Alfreton Bastardy Papers held at the DRO on the Yesterdays Journey website. Select "Bastardy Papers" on the left side, then "Alfreton" from the list displayed.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms, this parish became a member of the Belper Poorlaw Union.
   
• For information only - the "Parish Chest" for Alfreton contains no Settlement Certificates. My grateful thanks to Janet KIRK for this information.

In an 1866 Will, Samuel HEWITT of Swanwick Lane, coal miner, mentions:

1. son Samuel
2. son Joseph
3. housekeeper Maria WILSON
4. Geo. WHITNEY Golden Valley
5. T. T. CUTLER witness
6. John TAGG Green Hill Lane witness
7. daughter Mary Emma TURNER

The Chesterfield Road (mixed senior) School was built in 1846 and enlarged four times:  1874, 1888, 1896 & 1905.

The Junior (mixed) School on Institute Lane was erected in 1893 and enlarged in 1907 for up to 280 children.

The Infants' (council) School on Marshall Street was erected in 1907 for 412 children.