DARLEY ABBEY, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"DARLEY ABBEY, a chapelry in the parish of Derby St. Alkmund, hundred of Morleston and Litchurch, in the county of Derby, 1 mile N. of Derby. It is situated on the river Derwent, near the Leeds railway. There are traces of a small Austin abbey founded by the abbots of St. Helen's in the reign of Henry I., and given to the West family, from which the place takes the suffix to its name.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield value £150, in the patronage of T. W. Evans, Esq. The church is a modern structure, erected and endowed by the late Walter Evans, Esq., in which is a monument to the founder and his wife. There are also schools, erected by Mrs. Evans at a cost of about £3,000. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the manufacture of paper, and in cotton spinning."

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