BONSALL, Derbyshire

Bibliography

• Bonsall - A Village and its History. The Bonsall History Project, 2006.

  Chapters are on: 1 Geology of the Bonsall Area; 2 Archaeology, Prehistory and Early History of Bonsall and its Region; 3 A Thousand Years of Growth; 4 Running Bonsall; 5 Bonsall at School; 6 Bonsall at Prayer; 7 Roads and Transport; 8 Architecture and Building; 9 Farming; 10 Lead mining, fluorspar and opencast mining; 11 Other Extractive Industries; 12 Working with Renewable Materials; 13 Food and Drink; 14 Textiles; 15 Bonsall at War; 16 Bonsall at Play; 17 The Bonsall Factor; Index of family names.

  This is by far the best of the many village histories I've read. The lists of family names in Chapter 3 - 'A Thousand Years of Growth' are a real treat for any Family Historian, but the accompanying analyses really bring the past to life in a way that no simple lists can. For instance, I was made aware that the 17th century Inventories - the accounts of goods owned by the deceased, which we are so familiar with from our own research - were of real people, and I could well imagine walking into the shop belonging to the ABELL family in the 17th century, and seeing some of the Inventory goods for sale. A bargain for £10 + post and package, but please see the Bonsall History Project website for how to order.

• Bonsall - A Portrait of a Village and its Church. The Bonsall History Project, 2000.

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Census

• The parish was in the Brassington sub-district of the Ashbourne 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 James the Apostle.
  
  
• The church was restored in 1863.
  
  
• The church seats 300.
  
  
• There ia a photograph of the church at Flickr.

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Church Records

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1587 and is in good condition.
  
  
• We have a pop-up window of a handful of Parish Register marriages in a text file for your review. Your additions are welcomed.
  
  
• A CD containing a transcription of The Parish Registers of St James's Church is available for purchase from Valerie Neal.
  
  
• The parish was in the rural deanery of Wirksworth.
  
  
• The Wesleyan Reformer Methodists had a chapel built here in 1852.
  
  
• The Primitive Methodists built a chapel here in 1852 but abandoned it by 1891. At that time it was a Temperance Hall.
  
• The Baptists built a chapel here in 1824.

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Civil Registration

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

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Description and Travel

"BONSALL is a parish, containing a village which was once a market town, and the market cross, consisting of a pillar, bearing the date of 1687, resting on a base formed by an ascent of fifteen steps, still remains. The houses which form the village are scattered over a considerable plot of ground, the centre of which is between three and four miles N.W. from Wirksworth, and about one mile and a half from Cromford; the approach to it from the latter place being by the Via Gellia, a singularly romantic ravine."

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

Upper Town and Slaley are hamlets in the parish.

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Directories

• Ann Andrews provides a transcription of the Bonsall entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).
• A Description of Bonsall has been transcribed by Heather Faulkes from Pigot's Directory of 1828-9.

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Gazetteers

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

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Military Records

• There is a grey stone plinth War Memorial for World War I. The names are listed at Bonsall War Memorial.
  
  
• There is a second War Memorial for World War II. There is a picture at Flickr.
  

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Politics and Government

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

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• As a result of the Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish became a member of the Ashbourne Poorlaw Union.
  

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