Bonsall 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Derbyshire Dales Derbyshire Dales ( ) is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The district was created in 1974 as West Derbyshire; the name was changed to Derbyshire Dales in 1987. The council is based in the town of Matl ...

on the edge of the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...

. The civil parish population, including Brightgate and Horse Dale, was 775 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 803 at the 2011 Census.

Geography

Bonsall is about from Matlock and about from

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

. Bonsall has a long history of lead mining, along with its neighbouring town of

Wirksworth Wirksworth is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population was 4,902 in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census.Area E04002820 (Wirksworth parish) in Table PP002 - Sex, from Wirkswor ...

, probably going back to

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

times, and is recorded 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. Bonsall Leys, to the west of Bonsall, is grassland that has been designated as a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. The

Diocese of Derby The Diocese of Derby is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, roughly covering the same area as the County of Derbyshire. Its diocesan bishop is the Bishop of Derby whose seat (cathedra) is at Derby Cathedral. The dioces ...

own some of the land included within Bonsall Leys SSSI. The approach to the village is via a steep hill leading up from

Via Gellia The A5012 road is a main road in the south of the English county of Derbyshire. Route Around in length, it connects two primary north–south routes; the A6 at Cromford and the A515 between Buxton and Ashbourne. It passes through Pikeha ...

(now the A5012 road) and nearby Cromford. The road is called the Clatterway, or occasionally the ''Col du Bonsall''. The village lies on the edge of the

Peak District National Park Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-d ...

, the border of which bisects the 'Uppertown' suburb. The village is on the Limestone Way, at the head of its branch to Matlock, and on the Peak District Boundary Walk. Parts of St James the Apostle's Church, Bonsall date from the 13th century, including the north side of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and the arcade of the south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

. The arcade of the north aisle is later and so is the

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

tower. The outer walls of the church were rebuilt in 1861–62 under the direction of the Gothic Revival architect

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery (London), National Portrait Gallery. He was Arch ...

. There is a

market cross A market cross, or in Scots, a mercat cross, is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. History Market crosses ...

in the village centre that may date from the Middle Ages. The ball on top was added in 1671. Bonsall applied for a market charter some three hundred years ago, but was rejected. The

Manor House A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

was built in about 1670 and the Kings Head

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

was established in 1677.

Textiles and lead mines

Bonsall inhabitants have been involved in the textile industry, before and after

Richard Arkwright Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...

. Around 1850 Bonsall was a farming village surrounded by lead mines and busy outworker frame-knitting workshops. A few 18th- and 19th-century frame-knitting workshop buildings survive. Many people also worked in the cotton spinning mills at Cromford and the Via Gellia. In early modern times Bonsall was on an important salters' route, and was a staging post on the road between Derby and

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Economy and amenities

Bonsall remains a working village that is involved in agriculture, heavy goods transport and a range of forms of information technology. However, most people in the village travel to cities such as Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield for work. The village supports two public houses, the Barley Mow and the Kings Head. The parish has a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

primary school.

Bonsall Camp

Bonsall Camp in Uppertown is a Christian youth camp, owned by the Christian Youth Foundation, a charity that runs several residential children's and youth weeks in the summer holidays. Camps have been run here for more than 60 years. The Christian author Selwyn Hughes recalls in his biography the time he was sent home from the camp for bad behaviour.

Events

Attractions include the Annual "World Championship Hen Race" held annually in August at the Barley Mow public house. This event was run for the first time in 1992.

Discovery of horse skulls

During a renovation of a house in 'upper town' in 1866, builders lifted the ground-floor floorboards, only to discover 29 horse skulls with all of their lower jaws missing. They hypothesised that these skulls were remains from a legendary battle that took place on Bonsall Moor.

UFO sightings

For two years from October 2000, there were 19 sightings of UFOs in the area. On 5 October 2000, Sharon Rowlands photographed a circular object. The circular object showed a similarity to a circular object seen on the STS-75 Columbia

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

mission in early 1996.

References

External links

The Bonsall History Project
* {{authority control Towns and villages of the Peak District Villages in Derbyshire Derbyshire Dales