CRICH, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"CRICH, a parish in the hundreds of Morleston, Scarsdale, and Wirksworth, in the county of Derby 4 miles N. of Belper, and 2 N.W. of Ambergate station. It contains the township of Wessington, and the chapelry of Tansley. The village, which was once a market town, is pleasantly situated on rising ground, commanding extensive and varied prospects. It first rose into importance in 1793, when a cotton manufactory was established at Fritchley; this has subsequently been converted into a bobbin-mill. The silk and cotton manufactures, which were formerly carried on to a considerable extent, have been superseded by stocking weaving.

The adjacent quarries produce a superior kind of limestone, and many of the inhabitants are engaged in working the lead-mines at Crich Cliff and Wakebridge, which were formerly very productive, but are now worked at a loss. In one of the mines coins of Hadrian and Dioclesian have been found. The mines are mentioned in the Domesday Survey as belonging to Leofric, or Lowrie; and that at Wakebridge is still exempt from the king's duty on lead ore. The Cromford canal passes through a tunnel at the north-western and southern extremities of the parish.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Lichfield, value £170, in the patronage of trustees. The church, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, is a handsome structure, and contains monuments to the Dixies of Bosworth. There are also the perpetual curacies of Tansley, value £160, and Wessington, value £100, both in the patronage of the vicar. The Baptists, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, have places of worship."

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