BELPER, Derbyshire

Census

• The parish was the centre of the Belper sub-district of the Belper Registration District.
  
  
• There is a valuable resource at the Belper Derbyshire site, including some name indexes.
  
  
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
  
  

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Church History

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Peter.
  
  
• The church was built in 1824 to replace an earlier chapel.
  
  
• The church seats 1,804.
  
  
• The church has its own web site, but there is church history there.
  
  
• Christ Church, in Bridge Hill, was built in 1850.
  
  
• This church seats 600.
  

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Church Records

• We have a pop-up window of Belper burials in a text file for your review. Your additions are welcomed.
  
  
• A Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on Chapel Street was built in 1897.
  
  
• Another Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Pottery was built in 1816.
  
  
• A Wesleyan Reform Chapel on Market-street Lane was built circa 1857.
  
  
• A Primitive Methodist Chapel at Field Head was built in 1822 to replace a smaller chapel erected in 1817. This chapel was demolished in in 1966.
  
  
• A New Connection Methodist Chapel in Short Row burned down in 1843 and was rebuilt in 1849, but was disused by 1857.
  
  
• An Independent Chapel in Market-street Lane went up in 1799.
  
  
• The General Baptist Chapel in Bridge Street was built in 1820.
  
  
• The Unitarian Chapel in Field Row went up in 1788.
  

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Civil Registration

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

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Correctional Institutions

• A Lockup was built on Matlock Road in 1848.
  
  
• It is not known what records if any survive for this institution.
  

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Description and Travel

"BELPER is a market town and chapelry, in the parish of Duffield, and hundred of Appletree; 134 miles from London, 54 S.E. from Manchester, 16 S. from Chesterfield, 8 N. from Derby, and the like distance S.S.E. from Matlock. Beaurep'd and Beaureper, were modes of spelling, by which this town was designated in ancient documents; it was then an inconsiderable village, but has now become one of the most flourishing market towns in Derbyshire."

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

The town is on the eastern bank of the River Derwent, 7 miles north of Derby. The parish covers about 2,700 acres.

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Directories

• A Description of Belper has been transcribed by Heather Faulkes from Pigot's Directory of 1828-9.
  
  
• There are several Directories of Belper at the Belper Derbyshire site.

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Gazetteers

• The transcription of the section for Belper from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin HINSON.

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Military Records

• Herbert Strutt School has a memorial to men from the school who fell in World War I. See Herbert Strutt War Memorial.

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Politics and Government

• This parish was in the ancient Appletree Hundred (or Wapentake).
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms, Belper became the centre of a Poorlaw Union consisting of 35 parishes and townships.
  

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Schools

• A National School (later St. Peter's) was built in 1849 to accommodate 400 children.
  
  
• The Herbert Strutt School at Belper was established in 1909. In the few years prior to that, pupils from Belper were known to have attended the Lady Manners School, in Bakewell, following its reopening in 1896.

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