BOLSOVER, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"BOLSOVER, a parish in the hundred of Scarsdale, in the county of Derby, 6 miles to the E. of Chesterfield. Derby is its post town. It comprises the hamlets of Glapwell, Ockley, Oxcroft, Stanfree, Shuttlewood, Whaley, Woodhouse, and Woodside. In Saxon times Bolsover belonged to a thane of the name of Leuric. After the Conquest, it was one of the many lordships bestowed by the Conqueror upon William Feveril, who built Bolsover Castle in the reign of William Rufus or Henry I. The second baron, William Peveril, was a partisan of King Stephen, and was attainted by King Henry II., when his lordships, including Bolsover, were confiscated to the crown.

The Norman castle of Bolsover now became a government fortress, and sustained many sieges during the civil wars of the reigns of John and Henry III., and for many centuries it continued to be one of the strongest of the government fortresses in central England. King Henry VIII. conferred it upon the Earl of Shrewsbury, from whose family it passed, in the reign of Elizabeth, into that of Cavendish. The Norman castle was repaired in the end of the 16th century by Elizabeth Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury, and her son, Sir Charles Cavendish. It was completed in the beginning of the 17th century, and it has been ever since preserved in the state in which they left it, as a remarkable specimen of a Norman keep restored in Elizabethan times.

The eldest son of Sir Charles Cavendish, William, first Duke of Newcastle, built, in the reign of King Charles I., the magnificent building, now in ruins, situated on the terrace adjoining the old castle; and here he had the honour of frequently entertaining his sovereign before the breaking out of the Civil War. It was for one of these occasions, in 1633, that Bell Jenson composed his masque. He also built the Riding House.

Bolsover Castle belongs to the Duke of Portland, who is heir and representative of the Cavendishes, Dukes of Newcastle; and his grace preserves the ancient Norman keep in the exact state in which it was restored by his ancestors, Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, and Sir Charles Cavendish. It is at present inhabited by the Rev. John Hamilton Gray, who has furnished it in the Elizabethan style.

The village of Bolsover, formerly a market town, is pleasantly situated on a hillside, commanding a good prospect, and is partly surrounded by an entrenchment. Tobacco-pipes are made here which are in high repute. In the parish are quarries of magnesian limestone, which furnished part of the material for the Houses of Parliament. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Lichfield, of the value of £111, in the patronage of the Duke of Portland.

The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is very ancient, portions of it being Norman. The spire is a good specimen of early English. The arches are partly Norman and partly early English. It contains magnificent monuments, erected to the memory of Sir Charles Cavendish and Henry Cavendish, second Duke of Newcastle. The Independents and Wesleyans have chapels. The parochial charities, consisting of a bequest by Mrs. Smithson, for portioning girls, producing annually about £100 - and the endowment of a small free school, amount to £105 per annum. An annual fair is held on Midsummer-day."

"GLAPWELL, a township in the parish of Bolsover, hundred of Scarsdale, county Derby, 3 miles S. of Bolsover, and 6 S.E. of Chesterfield. There formerly was a chapel here belonging to Darley Abbey."

"OCKLEY, a hamlet in the parish of Bolsover, county Derby, 5 miles E. of Chesterfield."

"OXCROFT, a hamlet in the parish of Bolsover, county Derby, 6 miles N.E. of Chesterfield."

"SHUTTLEWOOD, a hamlet in the parish of Bolsover, county Derby, 5 miles E. of Chesterfield."

"STANFREE, a hamlet in the parish of Bolsover, county Derby, 6 miles N.E. of Chesterfield."

"WHALEY, a hamlet in the parish of Bolsover, county Derby, 9 miles E. of Chesterfield."

"WOODHOUSE, a hamlet in the parish of Bolsover, county Derby, 5 miles N.E. of Chesterfield."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin HINSON ©2003]