Snelston

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

Andrew ABBOTT has a photograph of the steps and gateway up to the parish churchyard, taken in August, 2008.

Andrew ABBOTT also has a photograph of the Churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2008.

• The parish was in the Mayfield sub-district of the Ashbourne Registration District prior to 1901.
   
• The parish was in the Ashbourne sub-district of the Ashbourne Registration District after 1901.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Peter.
   
• The church was almost completely rebuilt in 1825.
   
• David KELLY has a photograph of St. Peter's Church, taken in August, 2018.
   
• Andrew ABBOTT also has a photograph of the church interior, taken in August, 2008.
   
• Andrew ABBOTT has a photograph of St. Peter's Church, taken in August, 2008.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1572.
   
• 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 rural deanery of Ashborne.
   
• Mike SPENCER tells us:

"Once a parochial chapelry of Norbury, Snelston became a separate parish in 1871 although in keeping with parochial chapelries it has it's own registers from 1575. Unfortunately Snelston is one of those parishes where damage has occured to the registers, this time by floodwater. It may be worth checking Bishops Transcripts at Lichfield before looking at the originals at DRO."

Mike SPENCER has also provided a list of churchwarden accounts.

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Mayfield sub-district of the Ashbourne Registration District prior to 1901.
   
• The parish was in the Ashbourne sub-district of the Ashbourne Registration District after 1901.

"SNELSTON, a parish in the hundred of Appletree, county Derby, 3½ miles S.W. of Ashbourne, its post town, and 3 from Norbury railway station. The village is situated on the river Dove. A portion of the inhabitants are engaged in the coal mines. The living is a curacy annexed to the rectory of Norbury, in the diocese of Lichfield. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, has a square embattled tower. The Wesleyans have a place of worship. There are some charities, also a free school, which is supported by J. Harrison, Esq., the lord of the manor. Snelston Hall is the principal residence."

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

Colin PARK has a photograph of the Village Hall, Snelston, taken in September, 2012. Visitors should stop by and request a schedule of forth-coming events.

• Geograph
• Flickr

Francis WHITE's 1857 History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derby reports:

SNELSTON a township, parish, and village, pleasantly situated 14 miles W by N from Derby and three miles S.W. from Ashbourn contains 2,072A 1r 1p of rich land, mostly pasture; rateable value £3,112. In 1851, it had 81 houses and 389 inhabitants of whom 201 were males and 188 females. The North Staffordshire railway runs through the parish and occupies 9A 3r 2p of land. John Harrison Esq is the principal owner and lord of the manor. Lord Scarsdale, Thomas Fitzherbert, Esq., J. G. Copestake. Esq., and the Hon. and Rev. Augustus Duncombe, have also estates here. Many of the farm houses have been lately rebuilt, some of which are extensive dairy farms. The Church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient Gothic structure, covered with luxuriant ivy. It has nave, chancel, side aisles, and handsome tower, with a clock and three bells, and the interior is neatly fitted up.

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

• Mel LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Snelston entry from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England, 1831.

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

• In recent centuries, most of the parish was used for dairy pasturage.
   
• Ian CALDERWOOD has a photograph of the former Stanton Arms Inn on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2017. The Inn was built in 1828.

Snelston Hall was built in 1827 from designs by N. L. COTTINGHAM.

Malcolm NEAL has a photograph of Snelston Hall on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2016.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK155433 (Lat/Lon: 52.986816, -1.770563), Snelston 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.

• You will find the War Memorial at the junction of Littlefield Lane and Church Lane.
   
• The War Memorial is a sandstone monument surmounting a pedestal, plinth and base. It was most likely dedicated in the 1920s.
   
• Andrew ABBOTT has a photograph of the War Memorial on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2008.
   
• In August 1971 the Memorial was included in the newly-formed Snelston Conservation Area.

• Names for World War II were added after that war. The memorial is a Grade II structure with British Heritage.
   
• A photograph and names are listed at Derbyshire War Memorials site.
   
• You can also check the Derbyshire Roll of Honour site.

Jane TAYLOR in Redcar shares this notice from the Derby Mercury of 29 December, 1803: "DIED: On the 18th inst. Mrs Elizabeth WRIGHT, an infirm maiden lady, aged 59, who resided at Snelston, in this county, about 5 o'clock in the evening left her house with an intention of attending a religious meeting in the neighbourhood: she unfortunately missed the footway, and having got into a wheat field, which being very wet and heavy, she was unable to extricate herself, and there perished from the inclemency of the night."

• This place was both an ancient Chapelry and an ancient parish in Derby county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• This parish was in the ancient Appletree Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• The citizens of this parish do not have a formal parish council. Instead, they hold periodic Parish Meetings to decide civic and politcal issues.
   
• District governance is provided by the Derbyshire Dales District Council.

• Bastardy cases were heard at the Ashbourne petty session hearings every Saturday.
   
• There is a list of Bastardy Cases for Snelston at the Yesterday's Journey site.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms, this parish joined the Ashbourne Poorlaw Union.

There are a list of Wills and Administrations for Snelston at the Yesterday's Journey site.

In an 1574 Will by Agnes TORRE (of Snelston Parish), written on 19 October 1573, she mentions:

1. Thomas Bagshall & wife
2. Edward Bagshall
3. Grace Mylne
4. Richard B........?
5. Richard Eyam
6. Agnes Slater
7. Thurston Tunicliffe
8. Ellen Tunicliffe
9. Katherine Slake
10. Old Alsop's wife
11. Edward Dave
12. Thomas Tomlinson
13. Lawrence Low
14. Old Niclayson & wife
15. William Palmer
16. Constance Allen
17. Henry Walker
18. Thomas Tunicliffe
19. Thomas Elles
20. Margery Slater
21. Margaret Holme
22. Dorothy Holme
23. Jane Holme
24. Agnes Alsop
25. Ellen Phillips
26. Joan Tunicliffe
27. Gervase Torre
28. Joone Torre
29. Elizabeth Torre
30. Katherine Torre
31. Isabelle Torre

In 1847 a Public Elementary School (mixed) was built to hold 32 students.