WINSTER, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"WINSTER, a township, chapelry, and small market town in the parish of Youlgreave, hundred of High Peak, county Derby, 5 miles W. of Matlock, 6 S. of Bakewell, and 2½ from the Darley Dale railway station. This small town is situated on the road from Ashbourne to Bakewell, near the river Derwent. It has recently much declined, so that the population of the township in 1861 was only 971. There are lead mines.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, value £103, in the patronage of the resident freeholders. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, has been rebuilt, with the exception of the tower. The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have chapels. The charities produce about £45 per annum. In the barrows on the common many trinkets of British origin were discovered in 1768. Saturday is market day."

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