Smalley is a village on the main A608
Heanor to
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 ...
road in
Derbyshire in the
East Midlands of
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. 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 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 ...
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
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 ...
''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)
[Aston on Trent Conservation Area History]
, South Derbyshire, accessed 25 November 2008 which land included the areas now known as
Shardlow,
Great Wilne,
Church Wilne,
Crich, Smalley,
Morley, Weston and
Aston-on-Trent. Under this charter Ethelred gave his minister,
Morcar, some exemptions from
tax.
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 being added later in 1844. A seventh century Saxon cross forms part of the porch. The bell tower was built in 1911, to the designs of
Currey and Thompson, housing five bells donated by the Rev. Charles Kerry. 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
Cricket
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 since the mid-1930s. The club takes its name from the now-demolished
Stainsby House just over the parish border in
Horsley Woodhouse
Horsley Woodhouse is a village and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 1,219. It is situated on the A609 road between the neigh ...
a few hundred yards from their current ground, and records show that the club played in front of the old house from as early as 1863.
Stainsby Hall Cricket Club currently have three senior teams competing in the
Derbyshire County Cricket League and a long-established junior training section that play competitive cricket in the
Erewash Young Cricketers League.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Smalley, Derbyshire
References
External links
Page on Smalley's historySmalley location map
{{Derbyshire, state=expanded
Villages in Derbyshire
Geography of Amber Valley