Sturston is a small area of settlement 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 located on the A517 road, east of Ashbourne. It is in the

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 ...

Offcote and Underwood Offcote and Underwood is a civil parish within the Derbyshire Dales district, in the county of Derbyshire, England. Largely rural, in 2011 the parish had a population of 526. It is north west of London, north west of the county city of Derby, ...

. Sturston Hall is mentioned in the Domesday Book as one of two manors held by Ulfkell and Wodi, each manor being of half a

carucate The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

(a Danish land measure) each. The two manors were given 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 ...

after the Norman Conquest. By 1348 Sir Ralf Rochfort had inherited Sturston, with Grendon and Shenstone. He died childless, and in 1386 the estates passed to Sir William Chetwynd, 1st Lord Grendon of

Ingestre Ingestre is a village and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 194. It is four miles to the north-east of the county town of Stafford. Ing ...

in Staffordshire. Chetwynd sold the manor of Sturston to John Kniveton of Bradley, son of Sir John Kniveton and the hall stayed in the ownership of the Kniveton family for several hundred years. By 1630 Sir Gilbert Kniveton, 2nd Baronet

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 t ...

had inherited the Bradley and Sturston estates which were sold by 1655 to Francis Meynell a citizen and goldsmith of London. The estates passed to Hugh Charles Meynell who sold Sturston to a Stoddart in about 1847. Mrs Elizabeth Stoddart was

Lady of the Manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

in 1857 with around . During most of its time the Hall was let to tenants, who farmed the land.

References

External links

Villages in Derbyshire Derbyshire Dales {{Derbyshire-geo-stub