Foston and Scropton

The Etwall Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.

Alternatively, the Ashbourne Library is a little bigger and also has an excellent Local History section and a Family History section.

Jonathan CLITHEROE has a photograph of the Churchyard in Scropton on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2014.

• The parish was in the Tutbury sub-district of the Burton upon Trent Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Paul.
   
• The church was built in the village of Scropton.
   
• The church was rebuilt in 1856.
   
• The church seats 275.
   
• Michael PATTERSON provides a photograph of Saint Paul's Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2006.
   
• David KELLY also has an excellent photograph of Saint Paul's Church on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2018.

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1681.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Longford.
   
• Paul JONES provides a transcription of the Parish Records 1680-1812 on his website.

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Tutbury sub-district of the Burton upon Trent Registration District.
   

Wikipedia tells us that: "HM Prison Foston Hall is a women's closed category prison and Young Offenders Institution." It re-opened in 1997 after extensive remodeling.

"FOSTON, a township in the parish of Scropton, hundred of Appletree, county Derby, 6 miles N.W. of Burton. At Scropton is a railway station on the North Staffordshire line, about 1½ mile S.E. of this village. It is situated on the N. bank of the river Dove. Foston Hall is the principal residence. Here is a meet for the Hoar Cross hounds."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin HINSON ©2003]

Foston Brook is the small stream that flows through the parish.

J. THOMAS has a photograph of the Village Sign as you enter Scropton on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2016.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Foston entry under Scropton from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

• The transcription of the section for Foston & Scropton from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin HINSON.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Foston and Scropton to another place.

• Scropton was historically the larger of the two settlements, with Foston being more of a hamlet just to the north.
   
• The parish had an annual feast on the nearest Sunday to St. Paul's Day (25th of January).
   
• In 1953, the Ministry of Justice acquired Foston Hall and converted it into a closed female prison. It was closed in 1996 for remodeling and re-opened in July, 1997.
   
• In the 20th century the Dove Valley Business Park was established in Foston and a number of small industries have been encouraged to open there.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK189312 (Lat/Lon: 52.877939, -1.720618), Foston and Scropton 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.

• In 1891, Foston Hall was the property and sometimes residence of Admiral Sir Arthur CUMMING. The Admiral had been born in France in 1817. He is probably most noted for his anti-slavery operations in the Royal Navy. He retired from the navy in 1880.

Jane TAYLOR of Redcar provides this extract from the Derby Mercury of 4 January 1804: DIED: "A few days since as Thomas BLACKSHAW, aged ten years, servant to T.K. HALL, Esq. of Foston, in this county, was returning from the blacksmith's with a blind horse, he fell over the battlements of the bridge, and the water being high, was unfortunately drowned."

• Foston was an ancient Township on the Derby and Staffordshire county border. In December, 1866, Foston became a seperate, modern Civil Parish.
   
• In 1890 this Civil Parish was severed from Staffordshire and placed under Derby county administrative control.
   
• This parish was in the ancient Appletree Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• You may contact the Foston and Scropton Parish Council regarding civic or political issues, but they are NOT staffed to provide you with family history searches.
   
• District governance is provided by the South Derbyshire District Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Sudbury petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act, this parish became a member of the Burton upon Trent Poorlaw Union.