Carsington

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Description of Carsington (with Hopton) & St Margaret's Church

The tiny village of Carsington and neighbouring Hopton lie about three miles west of Wirksworth. They are united as a parish with a shared church. Carsington is described in the Domesday Book as an outlier of Wirksworth.

Carsington was a lead mining village and the area is riddled with disused mineshafts which have been covered in recent years. Most of the workings date from the 18th and 19th centuries. However, several mines were being worked until the end of World War I.

Excavations have revealed the existence of remains of substantial well- constructed buildings that may date from the first and fourth centuries. Evidence that the Romans were smelting lead in the area has been found when farmers ploughing the fields have turned up pigs of lead (smelted blocks of lead) carrying Roman inscriptions.

The church dedicated to St. Margaret dates from the 13th century, with alterations and additions from the 18th and 19th centuries. The registers which date from 1592 have been deposited at the County Record Office

The Gell family held land in the area from a very early period and resided at Hopton Hall. Due to Sir Philip Gell's marriage being childless, his sister Temperance inherited Hopton. She founded and endowed the school in Carsington. She died unmarried in 1730 and the estate was inherited by her newphew John Eyre, the son of her sister Katherine, who had married William Eyre. John Eyre then assumed the surname of Gell. After several generations of descendants of this line of the Gell family had resided at Hopton Hall it was sold in 1996.

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