Somersall Herbert

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

• Mike SPENCER has provided a partial extract of burials found in the parish register. Your additions and corrections are welcomed.

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

• This place originally had a small Chapel of Ease from Sudbury parish, but in the 15th century became its own ecclesiastical parish.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Peter.
   
• The old church was torn down and a new church was built in 1874.
   
• The church tower was added in 1912.
   
• Alan WALKER has a photograph of St Peter's Church on Geograph, taken in March, 2004.

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1538.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Longford.

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

"SOMERSALL is a small village, in the parish of Somersall-Herbert, in the same hundred as Doveridge, and adjoining thereto. It contains a small ancient church, dedicated to St. Peter: the living is a rectory, in the patronage of the Earl of Chesterfield. The inhabitants of this parish and that of Doveridge, are chiefly employed in agriculture, the number in Somersall-Herbert in 1831, was 117, being an increase, in thirty years, of twenty-nine persons."

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

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Rosemary LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Somersall entry under Doveridge from Pigot & Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire (1835).
   
• Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Somersall Herbert entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

• Mel LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Somersall Herbert entry from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England, 1831.
   
• Colin HINSON provides the transcription of the section for Somersall Herbert from the National Gazetteer (1868).

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

"Bikeboy" has a photograph of the 15th century village cross on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2015.

Somersal Hall is an ancient half-timbered mansion, built in 1564, that was the seat of Major Walter Hepburn M. FITZHERBERT in 1912.

Alan WALKER has a photograph of Somerset Herbert Hall on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2004.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK137351 (Lat/Lon: 52.913153, -1.797719), Somersall Herbert 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.

The War Memorial is a brass plaque located inside St. Peter's Church. There is also the Arthur Richard Fitzherbert memorial plaque mounted in St. Peter's Church.

There is also a Roll of Honour mounted inside the Lych Gate to St. Peter's Church.

Major Walter Hepburn Melitas Fitz-HERBERT of the Prince's Own Rifle Brigade, son of Richard Henry Fitz-HERBERT of Somerset-Herbert, was born in Tissington, DBY, in November, 1842, and died in June, 1930. He recorded his birthplace at Malta, but was baptized in Tissington.  He lived for some time in Somersal-Herbert.

"Somersall" is often rendered with one L, as in "Somersal", which appears to be the current official spelling. You will also see the name spelled as "Somershall" in older records.

In the 1086 Domesday Book, the name appears as "Somesale". It is from the Old English "nook of land of a man called 'Sumer'". The Herbert was appended in the 13th century from the FitzHerbert family.
A. D. MILLS, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names,"  publ. Oxford University Press, 1991.

• This place was an ancient parish in Derby county and it became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• This parish was in the ancient Appletree Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• The citizens of this parish have elected to forgo a formal Parish Council, but they hold periodic Parish Meetings to discuss civic and political matters.
   
• District governance is provided by the Derbyshire Dales District Council.

• Bastardy cases were heard in the Sudbury petty session hearings.
   
• With the passage of the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish became a member of the Uttoxeter Poorlaw Union in Staffordshire.

Children of this parish attended school in Sudbury parish.