ALFRETON, Derbyshire

Census

• The parish was the centre of the Alfreton sub-district of the Belper Registration District.
  
  
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
  
  

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Church History

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Martin.
  
  
• Portions of the church date back to 1200.
  
  
• There is a photo of Alfreton Church on Panoramio.

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Church Records

• We have a pop-up window of Alfreton burials in a text file for your review. Your additions are welcomed.
  
  
• The church was in the Alfreton Deanery.
  
• The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel here in Chaple Street in 1809.
  
  
• The Primitive Methosists took over the former Baptist chapel on Nesbit Road in 1851.
  
  
• The Independents built a chapel here in Church Street in 1850.
  
  
• There have been Catholic worshippers in the parish since the 1500s, but the numbers dwindled down to two families in the mid-1800s. The tiny Catholic Church of Saint Mary opened in 1883. The Catholic parish is now called "Christ the King Parish". The present Catholic Church opened in September, 1927.

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Civil Registration

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
  
  
• The parish was the centre of the Alfreton sub-district of the Belper Registration District.
  

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Description and Travel

"ALFRETON is a market town, and with Alfreton-outseats forms a parish in the hundred of Scarsdale; 141 miles from London, 51 S.E. from Manchester, 14 N. from Derby, 10 S. from Chesterfield, and 7 N. by E. from Belper. The town, which possesses no pretensions to uniformity in its arrangement, or beauty in its buildings, is seated upon a small eminence."

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]

Alfreton is in the Amber Valley of Derby, near the #28 junction on the M1 motorway. There is bus service from several towns and villages in the area. Passenger rail service ceased in the 1960s, but began again in 1973.

Visit the Alfreton web portal for additional information.

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Gazetteers

• The transcription of the section for Alfreton from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.
  
  
• The transcription of the section for Alfreton from the Imperial Gazetteer (1870-72) provided by Louis R. Mills.

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History

• Transcription of section of Lysons' Topographical and Historical Account of Derbyshire, 1817, for Alfreton by Barbarann Ayars.
  
  
• The Town Hall was built in 1856.
  
  

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Politics and Government

• This place was an ancient parish in Derby county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
  
• This parish was in the ancient Scarsdale Hundred (or Wapentake).
  
• The Civl Parish was enlarged by 550 acres in April, 1934, when Codnor Park Civil Parish was abolished.
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms, this parish became a member of the Belper Poorlaw Union.
  
  
• For information only - the "Parish Chest" for Alfreton contains no Settlement Certificates. My grateful thanks to Janet Kirk for this information.

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