Alderwasley ( ) is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

Amber Valley Amber Valley is a local government district and borough in the east of Derbyshire, England, taking its name from the River Amber. It covers a semi-rural zone with four main towns whose economy was based on coal mining and remains to some extent ...

district of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 469.

Alderwasley Hall Alderwasley Hall School is an independent residential special school. The school is for children and young people aged 5 to 20 with High-Functioning ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), Asperger's Syndrome, Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), and ...

is the home to one of the sites of

Alderwasley Hall School Alderwasley Hall School is an independent residential special school. The school is for children and young people aged 5 to 20 with High-Functioning ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), Asperger's Syndrome, Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), and ...

which is a special school for children and young people with Aspergers and/or Speech and Language Difficulties. It is about six miles north of

Belper Belper is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England, located about north of Derby on the River Derwent. As well as Belper itself, the parish also includes the village of Milford and the ha ...

. The village's name derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

for "clearing near alluvial land growing with alders". In the Middle Ages, it was a manor within

Duffield Frith Duffield Frith was, in medieval times, an area of Derbyshire in England, part of that bestowed upon Henry de Ferrers (or Ferrars) by King William, controlled from his seat at Duffield Castle. From 1266 it became part of the Duchy of Lancaster a ...

and contained the Royal Park of

Shining Cliff Woods Shining Cliff Woods are on the west bank of the River Derwent near to Ambergate Derbyshire. In medieval times "Schymynde-cliffe" was one of the seven royal parks within Duffield Frith and, as such, belonged to Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancas ...

and a later park was formed to the south called Bradley Laund. In 1284 the Shining Cliff was given to William Foun by Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster. Foun was given the job of maintaining the boundaries between the Pendleton and Peatpits Brooks. This passed to Thomas Lowe by marriage in 1471. His son Anthony Lowe, as

gentleman of the bedchamber Gentleman of the Bedchamber was a title in the royal household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain. A Lord of the Bedchamber was a courtier in the Royal Household; the term being fir ...

for

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

, was made a hereditary forester of Duffield Frith in 1523, and awarded the Manor of Alderwasley, with

Ashleyhay Ashleyhay (Old English ''Enclosure at the ash-tree wood or clearing'' ) is a village and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England, about five miles north-west of Belper. It is also situated one and three-quarters of a mi ...

, in 1528. In 1670 the whole estate passed, again by marriage, to Nicholas Hurt of Casterne in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, a direct descendant of William Foun, and in 1715 he formed a new park. In 1905 this contained a herd of eighty

fallow deer ''Dama'' is a genus of deer in the subfamily Cervinae, commonly referred to as fallow deer. Name The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes, ...

and what was considered to be the finest timber, especially

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

, to be found. However, the estate was sold and broken up in the 1920s. The village has a reputation for its findings of silver treasure, namely

coin clipping Coin debasement is the act of decreasing the amount of precious metal in a coin, while continuing to circulate it at face value. This was frequently done by governments in order to inflate the amount of currency in circulation; typically, some o ...

s. The church plate of Alderwasley (a

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. Re ...

paten A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium. Western usage In many Western liturgical denominations, the p ...

flagon A flagon () is a large leather, metal, glass, plastic or ceramic vessel, used for drink, whether this be water, ale, or another liquid. A flagon is typically of about in volume, and it has either a handle (when strictly it is a jug), or (more ...

, and

alms Alms (, ) are money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty. Providing alms is often considered an act of virtue or Charity (practice), charity. The act of providing alms is called almsgiving, and it is a widespread p ...

dish) were made from clippings of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

silver coins weighing 8lb, dug up in Bacon Meadow on 27 March 1846, according to a label on an

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...

jar in which the clippings had been hidden. Further clippings were uncovered by three brothers in their garden in the village, as recorded on a BBC ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

'' programme in 1971.

References

External links

BBC Domesday Reloaded: Alderwasley
Villages in Derbyshire Civil parishes in Derbyshire Geography of Amber Valley {{Derbyshire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links