Longford

Contents & Site Map

Description of Longford & St Chad's Church

Longford is a scattered village situated on both sides of the Roman road known as Long Lane. There is no real centre of the village and the church is half a mile to the north beyond the park. Longford does not appear in the Domesday survey but it is thought to have been a part of Bubden which does appear in the survey with a church, a priest and a mill. The village of Bubden seems to have disappeared, but there is a Bubton Farm which is understood to be on the site of the old village. There is still a mill, now called Longford Mill, which probably stands on the site of the one mentioned in the Domesday survey. The mill is now a private residence.

The manor was held by the de Longfords whose medieval manor house was on the site of the present Longford Hall. Their tombs which date from mid 1375 to 1610 can be seen in the church. The manor house, rebuilt between 1560 and 1570, had remained virtually unchanged until 1942 when it was almost totally destroyed by fire. The Hall was rebuilt to almost the same in appearance as before except for the loss of the upper storey.

In 1620 the estate became the property of the Coke family who owned it for about 300 years. They were great benefactors of the parish. The Coke almshouses, built in 1687 by Sir Edward Coke still exist today. There are several monuments to the Coke family in the church.

Early industries in Longford were brick making, shown by Brick Kiln field names, paper making, where the now demolished Mill Cottages marked the site of the paper mill on Longford Brook, farming and cheese making. Longford's cheese factory, opened in 1870, is said to be the first one built in England.

The present church at Longford is dedicated to St. Chad and is not the church mentioned in the Domesday survey. The registers dating from 1538 have been deposited at the County Record Office at Matlock.

© Copyright Derbyshire Ancestral Research Group, GENUKI and Contributors 1999-2008, &c.
GENUKI is a registered trade mark of the charitable trust GENUKI, see About GENUKI as an Organisation

Are you lost in the Genuki hierarchy or arrived here from a Search Engine?
If so, use the up-arrow(s) at the top of the page to go up the hierarchy.

URL of this page: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/Longford/DARGNotes.html