DONISTHORPE, Derbyshire

Census

• The parish was in the Hartshorn sub-district of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.
  
  
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
  
  

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Church History

• The Anglican church was built in 1838 for the joint township and also for a part of Ashby Wolds in Leicestershire.
  
  
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint John.
  
  
• The church is now used only occasionally.
  
  
• The church hall has fallen into disuse in recent decades and, at last report, was condemned.
  
  
• The church seats 480.

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Civil Registration

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
  
  
• The parish was in the Hartshorn sub-district of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.
  

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Description and Travel

"DONISTHORPE and OAKTHORPE, are two hamlets adjacent to each other, about four miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch; they are both partly in the parish of Church-Gresley, Donisthorpe extending into that of Nether Seal, county of Leicester; and Oakthorpe stretching into Measham parish, and also into that of Stretten-en-le-Fields. They contained together, in 1831, 757 inhabitants."

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

Donisthorpe is 17 miles south-west of Derby and only 3.5 miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch (in Leicester). The River Mease runs through the village. The parish has declined somewhat since the closing of the coal mines late last century. There is a Donisthorpe web site maintained by Brett Payne on Ancestry.

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Directories

• Ann Andrews provides a transcription of the Donisthorpe entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

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Politics and Government

• In 1897, this Civil Parish was deemed a part of Leicestershire.
  
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish was in the Ashby De La Zouch Poorlaw Union.

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Population

Year	Inhabitants
1861	392

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