Duffield () is a village in the

Amber Valley Amber Valley is a local government district with borough status in the east of Derbyshire, England, taking its name from the River Amber. Its council is based in Ripley. The district covers a semi-rural area lying to the north of the city of ...

district of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, north of

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 ...

. It is centred on the western bank of the

River Derwent River Derwent or Derwent River may refer to: Rivers in England *River Derwent, Derbyshire *River Derwent, North East England, on the border between County Durham and Northumberland *River Derwent, Cumbria in the Lake District *River Derwent, Yorks ...

at the mouth of the

River Ecclesbourne The River Ecclesbourne is a small river in Derbyshire, England, which starts in the upper part of the town of Wirksworth, flows for 9 miles to Duffield, and then enters the River Derwent just outside the village. Course The River Ecclesbo ...

. It is within the

Derwent Valley Mills Derwent Valley Mills is a World Heritage Site along the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England, designated in December 2001. It is administered by the Derwent Valley Mills Partnership. The modern factory, or 'mill', fact ...

World Heritage Area and the southern foothills of the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...

History

Early history

There have been humans in the area, probably, from the Iron Age. A

palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

hand axe has been discovered near the head of the

at Hopton. In the Duffield area itself, settlement by the

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

occurred in 400BCE. Although it has been suggested that, once farming began, they would have inhabited the plains of the Derwent and Ecclesbourne, they would most likely have retreated to higher ground during the winter floods. The

Romans 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 ...

arrived in the area in 43CE. It has been suggested that they built a fort to protect the ford across which the caravans of lead from Wirksworth joined Rykneld Street at Derby, en route for the North Sea ports, though this is disputed.

Anglo Saxon settlement

A few remains have, however, been found of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

occupation by a person, or persons, of some substance. The

Domesday Survey 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 ...

records "Duvelle" as being within the

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of ...

or hundred of Morleystone. In

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

times, Duffield Castle was built to protect the hunting grounds of

Duffield Frith Duffield Frith was, in medieval times, an area of Derbyshire in England, part of that bestowed upon Henry de Ferrers (or Ferrars) by King William, controlled from his seat at Duffield Castle. From 1266 it became part of the Duchy of Lancaster ...

, awarded to

Henry de Ferrers Henry de Ferrers (died by 1100), magnate and administrator, was a Normans, Norman who after the 1066 Norman conquest of England, Norman conquest was awarded extensive lands in England. Origins He was the eldest son of Vauquelin de Ferrers and i ...

(or de Ferrars) by

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

. Most of this became the ancient parish of Duffield, which contained the townships of

Hazlewood Hazelwood or Hazlewood may refer to: Places Australia *Hazelwood, Victoria, an area in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria; now known as Churchill *Hazelwood Power Station, in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria * Hazelwood North, a town in the Latrobe Valley, ...

, Holbrook, Makeney, Milford,

Shottle Shottle is a village approximately south of the market town of Wirksworth in Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish ( Shottle and Postern) at the 2011 Census was 266. In Norman times, the manor of Shottle, referred to as ''Sothille'' ...

, and

Windley Windley is a small village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, around north of Derby, adjacent to the B5023 Duffield to Wirksworth road. The civil parish population as taken at the 2011 Census was 148. It was formerly part of the pari ...

, and the chapelries of

Belper Belper () is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England, located about north of Derby on the River Derwent. Along with Belper, the parish includes the village of Milford and the hamlets ...

Heage Heage is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ripley, in the Amber Valley district, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It is situated midway between Belper and Ripley. The village is in the Heage and Ambergate ward, whic ...

, and

Turnditch Turnditch is a village and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 301. It is around north of Derby on the A517 road from Belper to Ashbourne. It is built on b ...

. Meanwhile, St Alkmunds Church was built some quarter of a mile south. Its position, so far from the village, it is thought, arose from its purpose, in Anglo-Saxon times, of serving travellers crossing the river on their way from Ashbourne to

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

. The original part of the present building, however, is Norman. Duffield Bridge was built across the river, next to the present Bridge Inn, in the thirteenth century and widened in the eighteenth. This later became the main road to the north and, in the eighteenth century the road along Duffield Bank was improved, as the 'New Chesterfield Turnpike'.

Norman invasion

Meanwhile, there was a growing community next to Duffield Castle built by Henri de Ferrers. For many centuries, Duffield was by far the largest centre of population in the parish. Following the rebellion by

Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby (1239–1279) was an English nobleman. He was born at Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire, England, the son of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, by his second wife Margaret de Quincy (born 1218), a daug ...

his lands became part of the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is an estate of the British sovereign. The estate has its origins in the lands held by the medieval Dukes of Lancaster, which came under the direct control of the monarch when Henry Bolingbroke, the then duke of Lancast ...

until the reign of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. These included the manor of Duffield and seven parks in

namely, Ravensdale, Schethull (

Postern A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often placed in concealed locations, allowing inconspicuous entrance and exit. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a s ...

, Bureper (

), Morley, and Schymynde-cliffe, (

Shining Cliff Shining Cliff Woods are on the west bank of the River Derwent near to Ambergate in Derbyshire, England. In medieval times "Schymynde-cliffe" was one of the seven royal parks within Duffield Frith and, as such, belonged to Edmund Crouchback, ...

) In the Parliamentary Commissioners' report of 1650 respecting Duffield and its chapelries, Belper is described as "a hamlet appertaining to Duffield." One other near Duffield was Champain Park to the South West, in the area of what is now Champion Farm on Cumberhills. Some idea of Duffield's prosperity can be gained from the size of the Church and its later additions. In the forest, there had been plentiful game, and a supply of timber, particularly oak, while the farmland was exceedingly fertile, though prone to flooding. Even with the controls on the rivers with the various weirs and dams in the eighteenth century, the centre of the village was subject to regular floods until the middle of the twentieth century.

Medieval

A notable resident in the sixteenth century was Anthony Bradshaw who erected a monument in the Church to himself and his large family. He was distantly related to John Bradshaw, who condemned

to death. Sir Roger Mynor was High Sheriff in 1514, Sergeant of the King's Cellar, an official of Duffield Frith under the

and a

Commissioner of Peace A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

for the County of Derby. He, with his lady, has a magnificent table-tomb in St. Alkmunds Church, Duffield. The first school in Duffield was Duffield Boys' Endowed School, now known as the William Gilbert School, originally in the centre of the village next to the Ecclesbourne. On 21 June 1565, we read that "at a court of the Manor of Duffield Frith, William Gilbert surrendered a cottage and lands and closes for providing and sustaining an honest and learned man within Duffield Frith, to teach and instruct boys in honest and pious discipline and literature." The schoolmaster's wages were settled at 12d. a quarter for every scholar being a grammarian, and 8d. for everyone inferior to a grammarian; but he might take other private pupils. The medieval manor was replaced in about 1620 when

Duffield Hall Duffield Hall is a 17th-century country house situated in the Amber Valley, Derbyshire and the former headquarters of the Derbyshire Building Society. It is a Grade II* listed building. The manor of Duffield was granted by King Charles I to t ...

was built.

Nineteenth century

The major activity up to the nineteenth century was agriculture. There were two cattle-fairs; the Thursday after New Year's Day, and 1 March. Ironstone is associated with coal deposits in Derbyshire, which outcropped in the

and Duffield areas. It is thought that these were what attracted the de Ferrars family to the area, and there are frequent references to iron-working in historical records, with a forge near to the present Baptist Chapel. There were also several corn mills and quarries. Flax, for linen, had been grown in Flaxholme, from the fifteenth century, on the instructions from

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement w ...

. Silk thread began to be produced in quantity by

John Lombe John Lombe (1693 in Norwich – 20 November 1722 in Derby) was a silk spinner in the 18th century Derby, England. Biography Lombe was born in Norwich in approximately 1693, the son of a worsted weaver. He was a younger half-brother of Tho ...

, likewise cotton thread in Belper. By the nineteenth century, the major occupation in the village itself was

framework knitting A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechanis ...

, encouraged by

Jedediah Strutt Jedediah Strutt (1726 – 7 May 1797) or Jedidiah Strutt – as he spelled it – was a hosier and cotton spinner from Belper, England. Strutt and his brother-in-law William Woollat developed an attachment to the stocking frame that allowed ...

's famous 'Derby Rib', while a paper mill opened at Peckwash. The biggest change came with the coming of the

North Midland Railway The North Midland Railway was a railway line and Great Britain, British railway company, which opened a line from the city of Derby in Derbyshire to the city of Leeds in Yorkshire in 1840. At Derby, it connected with the Birmingham and Derby J ...

which passed through from 1840, with the opening of

Duffield railway station Duffield railway station serves the village of Duffield in Derbyshire, England. The station is located on the Midland Main Line, between Derby and Leeds, north of London St Pancras. The unstaffed station is served by East Midlands Railway, wh ...

. Initially, this was a short way further north the present one, and probably little more than a halt. The line also cut the lane to the church with a footbridge provided at a later date. North of the village, the main road had been previously realigned on the west side of the cottages known as Castle Orchard, with a slice out of the castle mound, leading to a new road north called New Mills Road. The railway northwards followed the alignment of the old road, passing under the new one with a magnificent stone-built

skew arch A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and it ...

bridge. A permanent station was opened in 1841 in its present position, as the village expanded with homes for the Midland Railway workers and management, the former settling in the village around the end of King Street, the managers in larger houses further along the main road and further up King Street and Hazlewood Road. When the new station was extended with the Wirksworth branch, it created a good deal more upheaval, since the line cut across the road north out of the village. This was along the side of the Kings Head joining the present Chapel Street and in front of the station. It already had been rebuilt in 1835, raised to a higher level because of the frequency of flooding. A new road was built on the other side of the King's Head with a bridge over the branch. In addition, a tunnel was driven under King Street. Around this time a new boys' school was built in Vicarage Lane, with a girls' school lower down King Street, with the Infants' School opposite. Less well-remembered, though revered by narrow, '

minimum gauge Minimum-gauge railways are railways with track gauges smaller than those of narrow-gauge railways, primarily designed for light, industrial, or tourist transportation. The most common gauges for minimum-gauge railways include: * * * * * * ...

', railway enthusiasts, was the

Duffield Bank Railway The Duffield Bank Railway was built by Sir Arthur Heywood, 3rd Baronet, Sir Arthur Percival Heywood in the grounds of his house on a hillside overlooking Duffield, Derbyshire in 1874. Although the Ordnance Survey map circa 1880 does not show th ...

, built by

Sir Arthur Heywood Sir Arthur Percival Heywood, 3rd Baronet (25 December 1849 – 19 April 1916) is best known today as the innovator of the fifteen-inch minimum-gauge railway, for estate use. Early life He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Percival Heywood ...

at his house to the east of the village.

Twentieth century

The coming of

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

in the 1910s brought further expansion, with even bigger houses up Hazlewood Road, and council-provided housing along Holloway Road. Throughout the 'thirties and 'forties, middle-class housing was appearing in the old Wirksworth Road, and in Flaxholme. The semi-detached houses to the west of Cumberhills Road are something of a mystery. Clearly, they were a speculative middle-class project, but in 1910 they were isolated among fields half a mile from the village – hardly attractive, one would have thought, to prospective purchasers. For such a small village, Duffield seems to have been well served with public houses. Near the church was the White Lion and nearby on the main road at the south, there was the Noah's Ark, a coaching inn. Still in existence is the White Hart, which is not the original building, and a little further up, was the Nag's Head. Next is the King's Head, probably the oldest still in existence. When the Commissioners appointed by Parliament to divide up the common and waste lands of Duffield Parish sat in 1787, they held their meetings at the King's Head. At the top of Crown Street used to be the Crown Inn, and still existing up Hazlewood Road is the New Inn, although this is now been converted to a private dwelling. Outside it are broad flat-topped walls. In the days before Hazelwood had its own cemetery, it is said that funeral parties would stop for refreshment before completing their journey to the church, and would leave the coffin resting on that wall. There was also a Railway Inn near the station and a Castle Inn, near the Parish Room. The Patten Makers' Arms is in Crown Street, named after the pattens which were a type of clog that people made there. In 1957 The Ecclesbourne School was founded, when

George Wimpey George Wimpey Limited was a British construction firm that typically worked in the civil engineering and housebuilding markets. It was, during the 1970s, the largest homebuilder active in the UK. Established in 1880 and originally based in H ...

, the building developer, built new estates, raising the population to around 5000. One was between Wirksworth Road and the River Ecclesbourne. The other was to the south of Wirksworth Road, extending New Zealand Lane and the previously privately maintained Broadway. The intention was for the latter to meet the Wirksworth Road at Cumberhills Road, but where it crossed New Zealand Lane, the landowner refused to sell and it was several years before there was a right of way. The attraction of the village for housebuyers centres on the successful secondary school, Ecclesbourne and good transport links.

Education

Primary schools

* William Gilbert Endowed School * Duffield Meadows Primary School

Secondary schools

Ecclesbourne School The Ecclesbourne School is a secondary school with academy status situated in Duffield, Derbyshire, England. History Since opening in 1957 as a small county school in the grounds of Duffield Hall, The Ecclesbourne School has had a varied orga ...

Sports

* Duffield Squash Team won the English Premier Squash League (PSL) in 2015. Former world champions

Nick Matthew Nicholas Matthew (born 25 July 1980 in Sheffield) is a former English professional squash player who has won the two most prestigious tournaments in the professional game, the British Open and the World Open, three times each. He reached a ...

and

Laura Massaro Laura Jane Massaro (née Lengthorn; born 2 November 1983) is an English retired professional squash player. She was ranked number 1 in the world. Biography She was born in Great Yarmouth and attended Albany High School, Chorley, which is ...

are members of the Duffield squad. * Duffield Cricket Club * Duffield Dynamos Junior Football * Duffield Rangers FC Eyes Meadow is the home of the cricket and football teams.

Demography

References

Bibliography

* Watson, W.R. (1986), ''An Illustrated History of Duffield,'' * Watson, W.R. (1991), ''The Derbyshire Village of Duffield Past and Present'' . * Bland, J. (1922), ''Duffield: Village, Church and Castle'', Derby: Harpur and Son

External links

Duffield Derbyshire village website
*
Duffield news from the Derby TelegraphDuffield CC
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Civil parishes in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Geography of Amber Valley