Nearby places
STOKE, Derbyshire
"STOKE, a township in the parish of Hope, hundred of High Peake, county
Derby, 5 miles N.E. of Bakewell, and 1½ mile N.E. of Stoney-Middleton, on
the river Derwent."
[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of
Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]
- Transcription of the Census for Stoke of
1841,
1861,
1871 and
1881
by Rosemary Lockie from individual photocopies.
- Transcription of the Census for Stoke of
1851
is included with Eyam Woodlands
(Schedules 58 to 69).
- Transcription of the Census for Stoke of
1891 with
Summary,
by Rosemary Lockie,
from microfiche as part of the
FreeCEN project.
(NB: this is Schedules 1-10 of an Enumeration District which included Nether Padley and Eyam Woodlands)
- Transcription of the Census for Stoke of
1901 with
Summary,
by Rosemary Lockie from individual photocopies.
Folklore
- Fair Flora - her statue strikes me as somewhat incongruous stuck in the middle of a
wood - as it is - and I grew up in a house some 500 yards away! She represents
Flora, the Greek Goddess of Flowers, and stands in the Wood named in her honour
- "Flora Wood" - just outside the modern village of Grindleford, beside a
trackway branching off the B6521 road going towards Eyam.
The story I was told by my mum as a child was that she was originally
sited at Chatsworth House, but she was given to the owners of the Hall at
Stoke as a gift. Indeed, Chatsworth House has a number of this type of
Italian-style statue in its grounds. However, the lady of the house at Stoke
Hall became convinced the statue had brought bad luck, and she also
became frightened by it at night, so it was transferred at her insistence to its
present site.
Many strange tales have become associated with the statue over the
years. On the one hand, the statue is supposed to represent a young lady
who was murdered by a jealous lover; on the other, the statue is a
memorial to a girl who drowned in the River Derwent when eloping with
her lover across stepping stones above the Leadmill Bridge at Hathersage.
A further tale involves a real 'Fair Flora' living in a tiny cottage near Eyam,
the so called "Astrologer's Daughter" immortalised in a long
ballad by J. Castle Hall. Victor, the son of a local squire, was betrothed to
Flora but then was called away to war, to fight for his country. Many months
elapsed, and when he failed to return, Flora, in her sorrow, is said to have
pined away and died.
Or... as told by John Merrill in his book 'Derbyshire Folklore'
(JNM Publications, Winster, 1988, ISBN 0 907496 331 8)
- a combination of all of them. He tells of Flora as a servant at Stoke Hall
living about 120 years ago. She was murdered whilst her betrothed - a
soldier - was fighting abroad, and Stoke Hall's owners being deeply shocked
had a statue erected in her memory. However, one night the lady of the
house thought she saw the statue move, and at her insistence the
statue was moved to the present site for safety.
No doubt each of these stories, as with all good Family History Legends,
do have an element of truth to them - similar events really did happen to
local people. In keeping with the myth of the modern age, the most recent
theory is that Fair Flora was a fertility symbol, and there are rumours the
young girls of the village deck the statue with garlands of flowers, and
go dancing around it at dawn on May Day...
In all seriousness, I think I recall my mother telling me they used to hang garlands
of flowers around her neck when they were kids, but I suspect this was
more a "dressing-up" game than a hark back to the times of
"The Green Man"!
In the 1950's the Statue was vandalised - some ramblers knocked the head
off; however it was kept safely by a nearby resident, and in the 1980's
the Parish Council arranged for it to be restored to its former glory
(as you will see from the accompanying photograph).
- Stoke was formerly a Township of
Hope parish. It was transferred
to Eyam in 1911; then in
1987 it became part of the "modern" parish of
Grindleford.
- Here are some collected references to Stoke in
Early Records.
- An account of
Stoke Hall, taken from
Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire, Volume I
1892 (The High Peak) by Joseph Tilley, transcribed/OCR'd by
Rosemary Lockie.
- Stoke Quarry has for many years provided quality stone
for a variety of purposes, and employment for many local
stonemasons and labourers. Today, mechanisation has replaced
many of the traditional skills, such as stone cutting, and gathering, and
whilst one might regret the loss of such skills, in the past workers
were subject to respiratory diseases such as silicosis, and
accidents caused by unguarded equipment and rock falls.
Mechanisation and more safety precautions make such hazards
less of an issue for today's workers...
The following are some items of interest relating to the Quarry -
kindly contributed by John Mather.
- "Stoke" Pulp Stones -
an article published originally in the The Paper-Maker and
British Paper Trade Journal, 1915-16.
- Census Statistics - the population figures for the village of Stoke are as follows:-
| 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 |
1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 |
| 68 | 66 | 74 | 60 | 46 |
62 | 68 | 42 | 22 | 46 |
| 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1951 |
1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 |
| 57 | 60 | 56 | 69 | 63 |
54 | 45 | 52 | - |
For 1991 see Grindleford - split between several parishes but Grindleford is main one.
The above census statistics have been contributed by
Joseph Platt.
- Here is a list of Stoke Voters.
NB: There is only one voter on this list, Robert Tomlin, of "Nouchley".
The only other list available to me for transcribing was
1845-46 - for which the return was "None"!
© Copyright GENUKI and Contributors 1996-2008, &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/Stoke/index.html
[Last updated 17 Nov 2009 - 13:52 by Rosemary Lockie]
