BEAUCHIEF (ex. par.), Derbyshire
Census
- The parish was in the Norton sub-district of the Eclesall Berlow Registration District.
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Church History
- The Abbey was built here between 1172 and 1176.
- The chapel of Saint Thomas was built in 1660 out of part of the ruins of the abbey.
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Church Records
- The Anglican parish register dates from 1812 for baptisms and from 1814 for burials.
- The Baptists have a chapel on Hutcliffe Wood Road, but the date of construction is unreported.
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Civil Registration
- Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
- The parish was in the Norton sub-district of the Eclesall Berlow Registration District.
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Description and Travel
"BEAUCHIEFF ABBEY, a village extra parochial, in the same hundred as Dronfield, is situate in a beautiful vale, about three miles and a half from that town. The abbey was founded between the years 1172 and 1176, for regular canons of the Premonstratensian order, by Robert Fitz-Ranulph, lord of Alfreton, in expiation for having conspired with the other knights who slew Thomas-a-Becket."
[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]
The parish borders on Yorkshire to the north and covers 745 acres. The city of Sheffield lies 4 miles to the north.
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Directories
- A Description of Beauchief has
been transcribed by Heather Faulkes from Pigot's Directory of 1828-9.
- Ann Andrews provides a transcription of the Beauchief entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).
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Gazetteers
- The transcription of the section for Beauchief Abbey from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.
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Military History
- The parish has a Cold War ROC underground. Photographs are at: 28 Days Later.
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Names, Geographical
- "This is a typical French name for a monastic site 'the beautiful
headland', from OFr. beau (v. bel) chef, cf. Beachy Head (Sussex).
The abbey was situated near a hill-spur."
(Ref: The Place-Names of Derbyshire, K. Cameron, Cambridge University Press, 1959) See also Dore. Note: 'Beauchief' is pronounced locally as 'Beech-iff' ('Beech' as in tree), and with emphasis on the first syllable. Typically, Derbyshire dialect swallows the last syllables of words!
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Politics and Government
- This place was an ancient extra-parochial area in Derbyshire until incorporated as a Civil Parish in 1858.
- This parish was in the ancient Scarsdale Hundred (or Wapentake).
- In April, 1934, this Civil Parish was abolished and the entire parish became a ward of Sheffield city. As such, it is now part of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.
- Bastardy cases would be heard in the Eckington petty sessional hearings.