Sheldon is a village in the
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 ...
Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
near
Bakewell. It is best known for being the closest village to
Magpie Mine
Magpie Mine is a well-preserved disused lead mine near the village of Sheldon in Derbyshire, England, in the parish of Ashford in the Water. The walled enclosure of five lead mines (Magpie Mine, Dirty Red Soil, Great Red Soil, Maypit and Horse ...
, a
lead mine with an engine house built in the
Cornish style. Lead mining flourished around here in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is now scheduled as an ancient monument, and is the most complete example of a lead mine remaining in the Peak District. It is about 1050 feet above sea level. Sheldon is home of the Church of St Michael and All Angels as well. The church was erected in the 19th century with material derived from dismantling the former
Chapel of Ease.
Church
The parish church is dedicated to
Saint Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
and All Angels. Some sources give the dedication as just "All Angels" and many sources refer to the church as just a chapel. The present church, which seats 140, was built in 1864 near the site of the old chapel. The burial ground is to the east.
Governance
Sheldon is too small to have a
parish council so administrative matters are dealt with by its
parish meeting
A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend.
In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...
, formed from village residents as well as the elected chairperson. Sheldon has a small population of approximately 80 people according to the 2001 census. Sheldon used to have its own monthly magazine but since 2010 the magazine has merged with the Ashford Parish church magazine.
The Sheldon Duck
The Sheldon Duck
is a duck-like
pareidolia
Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.
Common examples are perceived images of animals, ...
found in an
ash tree, which was felled at the beginning of the 20th century. According to local legend, in the early 1600s villagers saw a duck flying into an Ash tree, but they never observed it leaving the tree. When the same tree was felled, approximately 300 years later, a duck-like pattern with markings of the brain and lungs were found in the resultant timber boards. The boards were on display in
Ashford in the Water Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
for a while and postcards showing it were sold. Later, the timber merchant who felled the tree used these boards for making a mantlepiece at his home.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Sheldon, Derbyshire
References
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Villages in Derbyshire
Civil parishes in Derbyshire
Towns and villages of the Peak District
Derbyshire Dales