Smalley is a village on the main A608
Heanor
Heanor (/ˈhiːnə/) is a town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England. It lies north-east of Derby and forms, with the adjacent village of Loscoe, the civil parish and town council-administered area of He ...
to
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 ...
road 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 ...
in the
East Midlands of
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 ...
. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 2,784.
Smalley is part of the borough of
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 exte ...
and has its own
parish council. Smalley village is central west within the wider parish area which contains other villages - Heanor Gate to the far north which merges into the town of Heanor, Smalley Green south of Smalley and Woodside to the far south. Facilities in the area include a primary school at Smalley, and a college and industrial estate at Heanor Gate.
History
Smalley's name came from the
Anglo-Saxon ''Smæl-lēah'' = "narrow woodland clearing". It was mentioned in a charter of 1009 by King
Æþelræd Unræd ("Ethelred the Unready") relating to a manor known as ''Westune'' (modern-day
Weston-on-Trent
Weston-on-Trent is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,239. It is to the north of the River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal. Nearby places i ...
)
[Aston on Trent Conservation Area History]
, South Derbyshire, accessed 25 November 2008 which land included the areas 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
Great Wilne is a small village in Derbyshire, England on the border with Leicestershire. It is south east of Derby. It is a village split from its church of St Chad's by the river. The church is at the very small hamlet of Church Wilne which can ...
,
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 ...
, Smalley,
Morley Morley may refer to:
Places England
* Morley, Norfolk, a civil parish
* Morley, Derbyshire, a civil parish
* Morley, Cheshire, a village
* Morley, County Durham, a village
* Morley, West Yorkshire, a suburban town of Leeds and civil parish
* M ...
, Weston and
Aston-on-Trent
Aston-on-Trent is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district, in the county of Derbyshire, England. The parish had a population of 1,682 at the 2011 Census. It is adjacent to Weston-on-Trent and near Chellaston, very close to th ...
. Under this charter Ethelred 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 ...
, some exemptions 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 ...
.
Smalley's Parish Church of St John the Baptist was built in the late 18th century on the site of a much earlier church. The transepts were added in 1844 and the unusual and almost detached tower was added some years later. A 7th-century Saxon cross is part of the porch. The bell tower was built to house five bells donated by Rev. Charles Kerry and the chime of five bells is said to be the heaviest in England, the largest bell weighing over 2 tons. The parish church hosts occasional street parties for the residents of Smalley.
Its pub, the Bell Inn, was voted "Best Derbyshire Pub of 2006".
Sport and leisure
Stainsby Hall Cricket Club have their ground at the end of St. John's Road in Smalley and have been playing in the Derbyshire County League first division since 2008. The name comes from the fact that they used to play their matches on a pitch in front of the now-demolished
Stainsby House, just over the parish border in
Horsley Woodhouse, but just a few hundred yards from their current ground.
Stainsby House
Retrieved on November 5, 2013
See also
* Listed buildings in Smalley, Derbyshire
References
External links
Page on Smalley's historySmalley location map
Villages in Derbyshire
Geography of Amber Valley
{{Derbyshire, state=expanded