Baslow

Contents & Site Map

Golden Gates for the Duke

or Baslow in the 1820s

Baslow is an ancient village in North Derbyshire about 3 miles east of Bakewell, appearing in Doomsday Book as Basselawe. The Manners family, later the Dukes of Rutland, became Lords of the Manor in 1565. Until the mid 1800s it was a Chapelry of the Parish of Bakewell and included the hamlets of Bubnell, Curbar and Froggatt.

Most of the village of Baslow is on the east bank of the river Derwent, while the hamlet Bubnell is on the west, north of the bridge. The land in the valley bottom is reasonable for arable and pasture. To the east the ground rises steeply to the rocky "Edges" and the extensive moorland beyond. Bubnell had a share of this moorland. All land in the valley, and some on the edges and on the open moorland had been enclosed before the nineteenth century. There had been Millstone production, Lead Smelting and Coal Mining on the Edges, but all three were of little significance by the 1820s, though some Quarrying continued.

In 1841 the population was 962 in Baslow and 128 in Bubnell.

Baslow had always been important for its bridge and relatively easy route over the hills to Chesterfield and the North Sea Ports. The first Turnpike was built in 1759 from Wardlow to Chesterfield passing through Little Longstone, Hassop and Baslow, up through "The Park" to Robin Hood and on to Old Brampton. An alternative route included Stoney Middleton, Curbar Gap and Clod Hall.

Baslow was well provided with Shops, Inns, Mills and a wide range of Craftsmen, and would have provided services to other villages, including Bubnell which had none of the above. The Duke of Rutland as Lord of the Manor owned most of Baslow and all of Bubnell. Freehold land accounted for perhaps 6% of the total in Baslow, much of which originally came from an estate at Nether End belonging to the Eyre family of Hassop.

Chatsworth House and Park, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, lie immediately to the south of the village. Before the exchange of Lands, the Park extended to the Baslow Parish Boundary which is approximately halfway between the House and Baslow village.

Three events affected Baslow in Derbyshire between 1822 and 1826. They were The Enclosure Act of 1824, the Construction of a new Turnpike road to Robin Hood and Chesterfield, and the Exchange of Lands of 1823 between the Dukes of Rutland and Devonshire. The Enclosure Act abolished various Rights and Taxes, and led to alterations in land ownership though no land was enclosed. The New Road gave better communications to the East. The Exchange allowed the Duke of Devonshire to extend his Park to the North with a new approach road running through it. The planning and execution of each were spread over the same few years.

This paper described these events, with an Appendix giving details of individual villagers and their property. Curbar and Froggatt are not included in the article.

The Enclosure Act 1824

The objective of Enclosure Acts was twofold. The first (irrelevant in Baslow) was to enclose the common agricultural land so the farmers could be more productive. The second was to abolish various Rights and simplify administration. The owners of the Rights were recompensed by portions of the Common and Waste Lands which then became the personal property of individuals. The Right of Access to these lands had been an important asset to villagers being used for grazing, the collection of wood and peat etc.

The Act was implemented in three stages. First all eligible persons were allocated "allotments on the Moor". Next all these Allotments were exchanged for assets elsewhere. Finally some land ownership was reorganise for the convenience of the Dukes.

Stage 1 - Allotments on the Moors

The value of all the Rights listed was calculated, and the Common & Waste Lands were divided up in proportion to their value. Most recipients got a neat rectangle of barren moor off the Turnpike from Curbar to Chesterfield. The Duke, much the largest Landowner in the village, received the biggest allocation, which included all of Big Moor and Gibbet Moors. Details of the Rights involved and the area of land allocated in exchange are listed in the Table 1.

Table 1
The Allocation of Common and Waste Lands

RECIPIENT	Area of Allotment on Moor BASLOW BUBNELL
D of R for Chief Rent	2 acre
The Vicar of Bakewell for Small Tithes	64 acre	52 acre
The Surveyor of Highways	1 acre	1 acre
D of R as Lord of the Manor	82 acre	85 acre
Villagers for Common Right	79 acre
D of R for Common Right	1271 acre	1553 acre
Other for Common right	21 perch
Total Area of common or Waste Land	1501 acre	1691 acre
Total Area of villages (Tithe Award)	3009 acre	2488 acre

Note - D of R = The Duke of Rutland.     Areas are rounded down

Chief Rent is defined as "A payment made on freehold Land to the original freeholder". This had been paid for generations by a number of villagers to the Duke of Rutland. It was abolished by the Award, with the Duke accepting Allotments on the Moor in compensation.

The rent could not have been large as the area allocated amounted in total to only 2 acres.

Small Tithes had been paid to the Vicar of Bakewell by the Duke of Rutland, who was reimbursed by the Tenants as part of their rent. In return for abolishing them, The Vicar received two Allotments, one each for Baslow and Bubnell. We do not know if the rents were reduced - probably not!

The Surveyors of the Highways got one acre for each village "for the getting of stone"

As Lord of the Manor the Duke of Rutland got 82 acres for Baslow and 85 acres for Bubnell.

For Common Right. All freeholders were entitled their share of the Common and Waste Ground in proportion to the value of their holdings. In Baslow the freeholders got 79 acres while the Duke got 1271 acres. It can be deduced that that the freeholders owned about 6% of the value of the village. The list of freeholders, the size of their allotments and the amount of Chief rent give an insight into the social structure of the village. This discussed later in the article.

There were no freeholders in Bubnell, so the Duke was allocated all the remaining Common and Waste Lands.

Stage 2 - The Exchange

These allotments on the moor were never intended to be enclosed or occupied. Each was exchanged for Rutland property elsewhere, mainly in Baslow, leaving the Duke as sole owner of all the Common and Waste Lands outside the village. The Schedule to the Act of Parliament gives full detail.

• The Vicar of Bakewell got property in Bakewell.

• The Surveyors of Highways would no doubt have got some other facility for getting stone.

• Baslow freeholders got land within the village conveniently close to their current property, with the few exceptions noted below.

• The Curate got an extension to his "Glebe" - a larger garden.

• No exchange was mentioned for the Society of Methodists' Allotment. Is it chance that the Methodists leased land for their new Schoolroom in School Lane in 1822?

• Thomas Gardom and William Kitchen got land outside Baslow.

• The only Allotment on the moor not accounted for in the Act belonged to The Duke of Devonshire. However the transaction did appear in the financial accounts for the subsequent Exchange of Lands, proof of the interconnection between the Enclosure Award and the Exchange of Lands.

Plan of Allocations on the Moor
(Enclosure Act 1824)

The diagonal road is the 1759 Turnpike between Curbar and Chesterfield, with the Baslow to Owler Bar and Totley road crossing it at the bottom left. Allotments to freeholders were within the subdivided rectangle south of the road.

Stage 3 - Further Exchange Details

The Duke of Rutland took advantage of the Act to reorganise his property in the Parish, partly to consolidate his ownership of all land outside the village itself, and partly to prepare for "The Exchange of Lands" with the Duke of Devonshire. Freeholders with land in the future Park were given plots nearby - to be subsequently purchased by the Duke of Devonshire. Thomas Gardom, who lived at Cliff House between Baslow and Curbar, exchanged his fields off the Bakewell Road (and his allotment on the moor) for Rutland land adjoining his house in Curbar. Nicholas Broomhead exchanged moorland near Cupola for building land in the village. Neither of the last two were relevant to the Enclosure, but both were listed in the Act of Parliament.

The Baslow Chesterfield Turnpike

Before the Turnpike era, travellers leaving Baslow towards the south and east would have used a route across the Bar Brook at Nether End, through "The Park" and up the deep hollow way then known as Coal Pit Lane to Dobb Edge and Parkgate Farm, and on to Holymoorside or Ashover. According to J B Ward, the route was known as the "Halifax Gate", and Parkgate Farm was "The Horns Inn".

The first Turnpike connecting Baslow to Chesterfield, built in 1759, passed up through The Park, crossed the Heathy Lea Brook just before reaching Robin Hood and continuing to Wigley and Old Brampton.

The eastern part of the Turnpike over the moors - the old road - must have become inadequate for the traffic which would have included heavy industrial goods. In 1812 a diversion was built starting from the bridge below the Robin Hood. It continued for a kilometre on the south bank of the Heathy Lea Brook, often at stream level, up the narrow steep sided valley until it reached open moorland at the junction of the Umberly and Blackleach Brooks. It then followed a new route (the present A619), across the moors to Wadshelf and Chesterfield.

The narrow section must have been difficult, especially in times of flood so an alternative route would have been welcome. Also lower part of the Turnpike near the village crossed land which the Duke of Devonshire was planning to include in his new Park extension. This would not have suited the Duke. The solution was simple, and The Dukes would have had no difficulty in arranging for their Turnpike Trust to build another diversion, this time from The Wheatsheaf Inn in Baslow, north of the Heathy Lea Brook, through Robin Hood and on the join the 1812 road at the start of the open moorland. The Toll Bar was at Robin Hood, now the triangle of grass opposite the Inn where the Old and New roads to Chesterfield diverge.

The section of the new road in Baslow Parish then became the new boundary between the Rutland and Devonshire Estates. The photograph shows the route of the Turnpike up Heathy Lea Brook between 1812 and 1824. The road is next to the stream.

The Exchange of Lands between the Dukes of Rutland and Devonshire

William Spencer Cavendish became the 6th Duke of Devonshire In 1811. The next three decades saw major changes both in the Gardens and the Park. At Edensor, houses and roads were moved and the Park extended, achieving among other objectives a much better approach to the house from the west. The north end of the Park remained a challenge. Though a minor road connected the House to the Turnpike, this did not provide the gracious entrance that the Duke desired.

In his early years, some improvements were made, but the breakthrough came around 1820 when the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland decided to exchange several estates in North Derbyshire. In all the Duke of Devonshire acquired 3366 acres, including 1002 acres in Baslow, 1273 acres in Hathersage and 409 acres in Aldwark.

Unfortunately there are no records of the land acquired by the Duke of Rutland. It is perhaps relevant that his temporary sporting Headquarters were in Baslow at the time, and that he built his new Hunting Lodge at Longshaw a few years later.

Map of Baslow
Showing Land acquired by the Duke of Devonshire

The exchanged land is shaded. The extension to the Park is coloured green Dotted lines represent brooks

The boundaries of the newly acquired Devonshire land in were

• the Bar Brook in the west,
• the newly proposed Turnpike diversion to the north
• the existing Baslow Chatsworth Parish Boundary to the east.

The area was surveyed and valued in detail by Mr Rob Wyatt (who was responsible for the Enclosure Act) and Mr J Dowland. The Schedule of the Exchange and the accompanying Map gave exact detail of the farms, fields and tenants involved. It also showed the precise route of the proposed new Turnpike diversion with the area, and value of each field which the Turnpike Trust would have to buy from the Duke of Rutland

The exchanged land can be divided into three sections.

The lowland section, destined to become The Park - coloured green on the map - was occupied by farms, fields, houses, and the old turnpike road. Contemporary Notes in the Exchange Documents describe the Farmland as

".. of a stiff, cold nature, the sub-stratum a coarse Grit-stone Rock. Many of the better kind of Fields have been within the last years cleared of large fragments of Rock commonly called Self Stones, and protrusions of the solid Rock, which has left the surface in many places, mere rock, and in other places so thin of Soil as to make it dangerous to the plough."

"The Buildings are numerous, - many of them in bad condition, - it may be right to observe, that probably they will be of little or no use to the Duke of Devonshire who is to receive them."

"It may not be improper to remark that there are several Freeholds within this district, which will probably be a lasting inconvenience, as they cannot be obtained by purchase or Exchange, but on the most disadvantageous terms".

The middle section, which remained as farmland, occupied the shelf above Dobb edge between Robin Hood and Park Gate Farm but included a few fields below the Edge near Robin Hood. This area was still being farmed by the same tenants 20 years later. The area had previously been mined for Coal, but as this is not mentioned in the documents and it is likely that mining had ceased before 1824.

The third and largest section was Gibbet Moor, 652 acres of open moorland east of the original Chatsworth estate. The Duke of Rutland had only just acquired full ownership with the passing of the 1824 Enclosure Act, and thus the right to sell it. It is interesting to note that the Exchange of Lands is dated 1823.

Not included in the exchange was about 20 acres of freehold land strategically situated near the present Park Entrance. Originally it had been part of an estate owed by Rowland Eyre of Hassop, but was sold in 1701. By 1826 it was in the hands of four Baslow Villagers

The Duke's first task was to buy this freehold land. It must had been negotiated well before the exchange, as the Enclosure Award had ensured that all the property was in convenient parcels ready for sale. There is no record of any objections by the owners.

The next task was to clear "The Park" of tenants. There were seven tenant farmers with 9 to 72 acres. They included Park Lane Farm, Heathy Lea House, Heathy Lea Corn Mill and two farmhouses near the Turnpike. Two farmers lived in Baslow village. Later none of them could be traced in the Baslow 1841 census or the 1848 Tithe Award, so they all must have left the area. Chatsworth Estate records locate three of them 20 years later as Devonshire tenants in Dore and Edensor. The others may have been accommodated on Estates further afield or helped in other ways.

There were eight dwelling houses without land. Six were situated near the Bar Brook on land that remained outside Park so the tenants were not affected One tenant moved into its own freehold property in Nether End, and the last, who had relatives in Baslow, probably moved into the village.

A number of Baslow residents had a few acres in the park. They all had further land or occupation, so the loss would not have been disastrous.

A list of all the tenants in the land acquired by the Duke of Devonshire is provided as one of the separate web pages listed in the Appendix below.

Once the Land had been cleared of people and the turnpike road diverted, the Duke of Devonshire had the major task of landscaping his Park. Obviously this took many years. All buildings and field walls were meticulously removed, though some of the hedgerow trees were left to become the mature specimens still standing today. New plantations were made to extend the "Capability Brown" type landscapes, hiding Baslow and the new road in the process. The Drive was moved to its present route, and the new Grand Entrance constructed, complete with approach, Lodges and Golden Gates.

The Photograph shows Bubnell and Baslow villages in the foreground. The land which became the extension to Chatsworth Park is below the lower scarp in the upper right quadrant. The rest of the Exchanged Land is at the top and extends to the horizon on the right and beyond. The modern A619 road runs through the trees to the left of the picture to Robin Hood which is hidden from view. The 1759 Turnpike went straight up the middle of the Park and can just be discerned.

Summary - Losers and Winners

Losers

• Most Baslow and Bubnell villagers lost their Rights to Common and Waste Lands.
• Tenant farmers from the new Park were evicted: some may have been resettled elsewhere.

Winners

• Derbyshire got a better road between Baslow and Chesterfield.
• Baslow Villagers were relieved of paying Small Tithes and Chief Rent.
• Baslow freeholders gained property in the Village or nearby.
• The Duke of Rutland got complete control of the Baslow moor lands, and with minimal exceptions became the sole owner of all agricultural land outside Baslow village itself.
• Duke of Devonshire was the main Winner. He got a large private Grouse Moor within walking distance of his home. He got a big extension to his already outstanding Park.
• And he got an imposing new northern entrance to Chatsworth House through his new Golden Gates:

Personally I think the last is the main reason why the Enclosure Act was passed, the Chesterfield Road was diverted and the Dukes Exchanged Lands.

CHATSWORTH PARK A view of Baslow and Chatsworth from Gardoms Edge near Robin Hood. The 1824 Turnpike is across the centre with the shelter belt and the New Park behind it. Baslow is on the right. Chatsworth house is just out of sight in the upper left corner.

Appendix

The following documents were part of the original account as published in Bakewell Historical Society Journal in 2007, but are here presented as separate web pages.

Exchange of Lands in 1823 - tenants of land acquired by the Duke of Devonshire from the Duke of Rutland.

Freeholders and Freehold Land in Baslow - the Size of the Allotments on the Moor, 1824.

Freeholders in 1824 - property owned by Villagers immediately before & after the Enclosure Award.

Notes

Most of the facts in this study come from the Enclosure Awards of 1824, the Tithe Award of 1848 and the Census returns for 1841 and 1851. I am indebted to The Chatsworth archivists for further detail about the Land Exchange of 1823.

Modern Names are in italics. The "The Park" refers to the part of the land acquired by the Duke of Devonshire in 1823 used for the extension to his park.

Further information with names, properties and locations is available from the author, David Dalrymple-Smith.

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[This information was kindly contributed by David Dalrymple-Smith in May 2007.
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