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“BEAUCHIEF ABBEY, an extra-parochial liberty in the hundred of Scarsdale, in the county of Derby, 3 miles to the N.W. of Dronfield, and 4 S. of Sheffield. The living is a curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, in the gift of B. P. Burnell, Esq. An abbey for Premonstratensian canons was founded here in 1183 by Robert Fitz-Ranulph, one of the murderers of Thomas-a-Becket, to whom the house was dedicated. Its value at the Dissolution was £157. The tower of the present church was part of the abbey buildings. Beauchief Hall is pleasantly situated on the brow of a wooded hill.”
from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868
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The nearby Dronfield Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.
- The parish was in the Norton sub-district of the Eclesall Berlow Registration District.
- The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
Census Year | Piece No. |
---|---|
1861 | R.G. 9 / 3467 |
1871 | R.G. 10 / 4667 |
1891 | R.G. 12 / 3801 |
- The Abbey was built here between 1172 and 1176.
- Chris MORGAN has a photograph of the surviving portion of Beauchief Abbey on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2020.>br />
- The chapel of Saint Thomas was built in 1660 out of part of the ruins of the abbey.
- Jonathan CLITHEROE has a photograph of St Thomas a Becket's Church on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2011.
- The Anglican parish register dates from 1812 for baptisms and from 1814 for burials.
- Marriages at Beauchief, 1696-1837 are available in Nigel BATTY-SMITH's database of scanned images of Phillimore's Parish Registers.
- The church was in the rural deanery of Dronfield.
- The Baptists have a chapel on Hutcliffe Wood Road, but the date of construction is unreported.
- Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
- The parish was in the Norton sub-district of the Eclesall Berlow Registration District.
"BEAUCHIEFF ABBEY, a village extra parochial, in the same hundred as Dronfield, is situate in a beautiful vale, about three miles and a half from that town. The abbey was founded between the years 1172 and 1176, for regular canons of the Premonstratensian order, by Robert Fitz-Ranulph, lord of Alfreton, in expiation for having conspired with the other knights who slew Thomas-a-Becket."
[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]
The parish borders on Yorkshire to the north and covers 745 acres. The city of Sheffield lies 4 miles to the north.
Chris MORGAN has a photograph of the Beuachief Golf Course on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2008. Obviously Chris thinks there's more to Beuachief than just Family History.
- A Description of Beauchief has been transcribed by Heather FAULKES from Pigot's Directory of 1828-9.
- Rosemary LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Beauchief Abbey entry under Dronfield from Pigot & Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire (1835).
- Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Beauchief entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).
- The transcription of the section for Beauchief Abbey from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin HINSON.
- Ask for a calculation of the distance from Beauchief to another place.
You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK333817 (Lat/Lon: 53.331171, -1.501443), Beauchief which are provided by:
- OpenStreetMap
- Google Maps
- StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
- Bing (was Multimap)
- Old Maps Online
- National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
- Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
- English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
- Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
- GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)
- All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
- Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
- Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.
- "This is a typical French name for a monastic site 'the beautiful headland', from OFr. beau (v. bel) chef, cf. Beachy Head (Sussex). The abbey was situated near a hill-spur."
(Ref: The Place-Names of Derbyshire, K. Cameron, Cambridge University Press, 1959)See also Dore.
Note: 'Beauchief' is pronounced locally as 'Beech-iff' ('Beech' as in tree), and with emphasis on the first syllable. Typically, Derbyshire dialect swallows the last syllables of words!
- This place was an ancient extra-parochial area in Derbyshire until incorporated as a Civil Parish in 1858.
- This parish was in the ancient Scarsdale Hundred (or Wapentake).
- In April, 1934, this Civil Parish was abolished and the entire parish became a ward of Sheffield city. As such, it is now part of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
- Bastardy cases would be heard in the Eckington petty sessional hearings.
- As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms, this parish became a member of the Ecclesall Bierlow Poorlaw Union.