Elvaston is a small 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 ...

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 parish also includes two

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

, Ambaston and Thulston, and a modern housing estate, Boulton Moor. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 1,801. Located to the south-east of

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 ...

, Elvaston itself is dominated by

Elvaston Castle Elvaston Castle is a stately home in Elvaston, Derbyshire, England. The Gothic Revival castle and surrounding parkland is run and owned by Derbyshire County Council as a country park known as Elvaston Castle Country Park. The country park has ...

, a country house which is currently in the ownership of Derbyshire County Council, who plan to lease the site to a private company. The move has proved controversial, attracting a petition of 60,000 signatures against the proposals collected by the Elvaston Castle Estate Trust, who want to keep the site in public ownership. At the present time the Castle is rarely open to the public and has been somewhat neglected, while the grounds are open throughout the summer. St Bartholomew's Church, Elvaston is a Grade I listed building that dates from the 13th century.

History

In 1086, 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 ...

says:Open Domesday Online: Elvaston
accessed June 2017

”The land of
Geoffrey Alselin ''Geoffrey Alselin'' was an Anglo-Norman, who at some time after the Norman conquest of England received Elvaston, Derbyshire and Laxton, Nottinghamshire. Alselin began the construction of the motte-and-bailey castle that stood at Laxton, Nottingh ...

In
Alvaston Alvaston (/ˈɒlvəstən/ or /ˈælvəstən/) is a village and ward of Derby, England. Alvaston is situated on the A6, three miles south-east of Derby city centre and probably owes its name to Allwald. It is bordered to the north by the ...
and Ambaston Thulston and Elvaston Toki had ten
carucates 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 ...
of land to the geld. There Geoffrey AlselinGeoffrey Alselin held a considerable number of manors including several in Derbyshire given to him by the
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
. These included obviously Ambaston, Elvaston, Alvaston and Thulston, but also land in
Etwall Etwall () is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, southwest of Derby on the A50. The population at the 2011 Census was 2,906. Geography Etwall is located between the A516 bypass and the A50 in south Derbyshire. The A516 draws hea ...
, Ednaston, Hulland,
Egginton Egginton is a village and civil parish in the local government district of South Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 574. Location The village is located just off Ryknild Street, otherwise known as ...
,
Breaston Breaston ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Erewash district, in the south-east of Derbyshire and lies approximately east of the city of Derby and west of the city of Nottingham. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2 ...
and
Ockbrook Ockbrook is a village in Derbyshire, England. It is almost contiguous with the village of Borrowash, the two only separated by the A52. The civil parish is Ockbrook and Borrowash. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 Census was 7,335. ...
has now two ploughs in demesne; and a certain knight of his one plough. There 32 villans have 15 ploughs. There is one priest and a church and a mill rendering 12 shillings and one smith and of meadow and a little scrubland. TRETRE in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
is Tempore Regis Edwardi. This means in the time of King Edward before the
Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conque ...
. worth twelve pounds now ten pounds.''Domesday Book: A Complete Transliteration''. London: Penguin, 2003. p.750 “

Notable residents

* Anthony Blackwall was a vicar here *

William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, PC (c. 16838 December 1756) was a British statesman and diplomat. Life William Stanhope was born in 1683 at the family home in Elvaston, Derbyshire, third surviving son of John Stanhope and Doro ...

1683–1756 * John Buller (1823–1967), was born here * Geoffrey S. Dawes, physiologist lived in Thurleston Grange as a boy *

William Darwin Fox The Reverend William Darwin Fox (23 April 1805 – 8 April 1880) was an English clergyman, naturalist, and a second cousin of Charles Darwin. Early life Fox was born in 1805 and initially raised at Thurleston Grange near Elvaston, Derbys ...

, introduced his second cousin

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

to the study of insects, was born near here in 1805

Ambaston

The hamlet of Ambaston is located about one mile east of Elvaston close to the River Derwent.

Thulston

The hamlet of Thulston is immediately south of Elvaston on the B5010 road. The Harrington Arms is the only public house in the parish and is a local landmark in Thulston.

References

External links