HATHERSAGE, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"HATHERSAGE, a parish in the hundred of High Peak, county Derby, 8 miles N.E. of Bakewell. The parish, which includes a large tract of moorland, is situated on the road froth Manchester to Sheffield, in a vale watered by the river Derwent. It includes the hamlets of Bamford, Outseats, Derwent, and Stoney-Middleton. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the manufacture of wire and needles, and in the cotton mills. Millstone is quarried for the Sheffield markets. The tithes were commuted for land and a money payment under an Enclosure Act in 1808.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Lichfield, value £150. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is an ancient structure, with a square embattled tower surmounted by a lofty and richly-crocketed spire. In addition to the parish church, there are three district churches-viz: at Bamford, Derwent, and Stoney-Middleton, the livings of all which are perpetual curacies varying in value from £100 to £85.

On the S. side of the churchyard attached to the parish church is a spot shown as the place of interment of Little John, the companion of Robin Hood. The body of B. Ashton, Esq., who was buried in a vault in the parish church in 1726, was found in 1781, when the vault was opened, quite perfect and petrified into a kind of flint; and the like has happened at Hope.

The charities produce £70 per annum, including the endowment left by B. Ashton, for the support of a school. A National school was built in 1840. To the E. of the church is Camp Green, a circular enclosure 144 feet in diameter, single-ditched, and supposed to be of Danish origin. On the moors are rocking stones, or rock basins, as they are here called; also a curious natural cave called Robin Hood's Cave."

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