Morley 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 authorit ...

within the Borough of Erewash in

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. It is on the eastern side of Morley Moor, with Morley Smithy to the north. The parish church of St Matthew is a grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and stands near the (converted) Tithe Barn and dovecote of Morley Hall. The church features a wall of stained glass depicting the story of Robert of Knaresborough along the north aisle which came from

Dale Abbey Dale Abbey is a village and civil parish in the borough of Erewash in Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England, 6 miles north east of Derby. The population of the civil parish on the 2011 census was 1,351. Formerly known as Depedale or Deepda ...

in 1539, home of the fine Sacheverell tombs.

History

Morley is first certainly mentioned in 1009, as ''(in) Moreleage'', though later copies of a 1002 document in which it appears as ''(æt) Morlege'' may be genuine. The name probably means "open ground by a moor", from

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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''mōr'' " moor, clearing, pasture" + lẽah "open ground, clearing". In 1009 Æþelræd Unræd (King Ethelred the Unready) signed a charter at the Great Council which recognised the position and boundaries of Westune.Aston on Trent Conservation Area History
, South Derbyshire, accessed 25 November 2008 The land described in that charter included the lands now known as

Shardlow Shardlow is a village in Derbyshire, England about southeast of Derby and southwest of Nottingham. Part of the civil parish of Shardlow and Great Wilne, and the district of South Derbyshire, it is also very close to the border with Leice ...

, Great Wilne,

Church Wilne Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

Crich Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census (including Fritchley and Whatstandwell). It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway V ...

, Morley, Smalley, Weston and Aston-on-Trent. Under this charter Æþelræd gave his minister,

Morcar Morcar (or Morkere) ( ang, Mōrcǣr) (died after 1087) was the son of Ælfgār (earl of Mercia) and brother of Ēadwine. He was the earl of Northumbria from 1065 to 1066, when he was replaced by William the Conqueror with Copsi. Dispute with t ...

, a number of rights that made him free from

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

and to his own rule within the manor. Morley was mentioned in the

Domesday book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

as belonging to

Henry de Ferrers Henry de Ferrers (died by 1100), magnate and administrator, was a Norman who after the 1066 Norman conquest was awarded extensive lands in England. Origins He was the eldest son of Vauquelin de Ferrers and in about 1040 inherited his father's ...

Henry was given a large number of manors in Derbyshire including Doveridge, Swarkestone,

Sinfin Sinfin is a suburb of Derby, England, southwest of the city centre on its southern outskirts. The ward, which includes Osmaston as well as Sinfin itself, had a population of 15,128 in 2011. Historically, Sinfin and Osmaston were separate vill ...

and

Breadsall Breadsall is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire, . The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 773. Breadsall Priory is nearby. History Breadsall was mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Henry ...

. and having woodland pasture that was four furlongs by three.''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. p.745 Morley Park was one of the seven royal parks 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 ...

and is about five miles north in the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of Ripley.

Education

Broomfield Hall of

Derby College Derby College is a further education provider with sites located within Derbyshire (Derby and South East Derbyshire – Ilkeston, Morley). It delivers training in workplace locations across England. The College is a member of the Collab Group ...

is located in Morley.ダービー日本人補習校（Derby Japanese School）
." Derby Japanese School. Retrieved on February 14, 2015. " c/o Derby College Broomfield Hall, Morley Ilkeston, Derby DE7 6DN UK"

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

Japanese School (ダービー日本人補習校 ''Dābī Nihonjin Hoshūkō''), a Japanese weekend school, holds its classes in Broomfield Hall.

Notable residents

Sir

Streynsham Master Sir Streynsham Master (28 October 1640 – 28 April 1724) was an English colonial administrator who was one of the 17th-century pioneers of the English East India Company. He served as the Agent of Madras from 27 January 1678 to 3 July 1681, a ...

who was involved in the early East India Company and who was

High Sheriff of Derbyshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

in 1712, resided with his wife at Stanley Grange in Morley. Joseph Whittaker (1815–1892), botanist, lived and died here. Edward FitzWalter Wright, vice-Chairman of the

Butterley Company The Butterley Company was an English manufacturing firm founded as Benjamin Outram and Company in 1790. Its subsidiaries existed until 2009. Origins This area of Derbyshire had been known for its outcrops of iron ore which had been exploited at ...

and High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1942 lived at Morley Manor.Who's Who 1951

References

{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Civil parishes in Derbyshire Borough of Erewash