Holmesfield

Holmsfield is served by the Mobile Library on route N, which makes a stop in Park Rise every fourth Monday in the mid-morning.

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

Alan HEARDMAN has a photograph of St. Swithin's Churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2009.

• The parish was in the Dronfield sub-district of the Chesterfield Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• This place was an ancient Chapelry to the parish of Dronfield.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Swithin.
   
• The church was built in 1826 on the site of an earlier chapel.
   
• The ecclesiastical parish was formed from Dronfiel's church parish in 1857.
   
• The church chancel was built in 1898.
   
• This church seats 400.
   
• Andrew HILL has a photograph of the Church of St. Swithin on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2011.

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1720 for marriages and 1724 for burials and baptisms.
   
• We have a pop-up window of Holmesfield burials in a text file for your review. Your additions are welcomed.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Chesterfield.
   
• The parish had a Wesleyan chapel by 1868. At last report (Mike Spencer, 2012), this chapel was "in a sorry state."

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Dronfield sub-district of the Chesterfield Registration District.

"HOLMESFIELD township and village, in the parish of Dronfield, is very pleasantly situate, about one mile from that town, and between seven and eight miles north-west from Chesterfield: it cannot be marked as a place of trade, but the neighbourhood is highly respectable, and contains several very genteel habitations. The population of the township in 1831 was 499, being the exact number of inhabitants as returned at the preceding census."

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]

Nikki MAHADEVAN has a photograph of the village sign on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2006.

This parish included places called: Cartledge, Horseley Gate, Millthorpe and Lydgate.

Andrew HILL has a photograph of the Village scene, Holmesfield on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2011.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• A Description of Holmesfield has been transcribed by Heather FAULKES from Pigot's Directory of 1828-9.
   
• Rosemary LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Holmesfield entry under Dronfield from Pigot & Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire (1835).
   
• Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Holmesfield entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

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

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

At the time of the Domesday Survey (1068) the manor here was in the hands of the DEINCOURTS.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK321777 (Lat/Lon: 53.295292, -1.519864), Holmesfield 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.

• Alan HEARDMAN has a photograph of the War Memorial outside the church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2009.
   
• Neil THEASBY also has a photograph of the War Memorial outside the church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2018.

The names listed on the War Memorial (both wars) as given by the Imprerial War Museum are:

1. Beecroft, R. C.
2. Booker, E. T.
3. Booker, P. E.
4. Crofts, F.
5. Crookes, F.
6. Crookes, F.
7. Gregory, J. W.
8. Higginbottom, W.
9. Jagger, S.
10. Knight, F. J.
11. Shepley, C. R.
12. Shepley, D. C.
13. Shepley, Jeanne
14. Ward, C. H.
15. Wilson, W.
16. Woodward, V.

• This place was formed as an ecclesistical parish from Dronfield in 1857 and in 1866 it was incorporated as a modern Civil Parish.
   
• This parish was in the ancient Scarsdale Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• In 1934, Dronfield Woodhouse Civil Parish was abolished and 534 acres and 219 people were amalgamated with this Civil Parish.
   
• In 1934, Totley Civil Parish was abolished and 751 acres but no people were amalgamated with this Civil Parish.
   
• You may contact the Holmesfield Parish Council regarding civic or political matters, but they are NOT funded to help you with family history questions.
   
• District governance is provided by the North East Derbyshire District Council.
   

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Eckington petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment reforms, this parish became part of the Chesterfield Poor Law Union.

A Public Elementary School was built here in 1834 for 100 children.

• The Robin Hood Inn at Holmesfield has the typical outward appearance of several of the old inns in this area of the county - parts of the building are said to date back over 300 years. Its position on the B6054, between two major roads - the A61 (Sheffield to Chesterfield) and A621 (Sheffield to Baslow), would have made it readily accessible from both Sheffield and Chesterfield. Inside, the lounge retains its traditional open fireplaces and stone flagged floors.
   
• [The above information is left over from when there used to be a website, showing a nice photograph of the Inn. I so hate deleting all references to links!]