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PENTRICH, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]
"PENTRICH, a parish in the hundred of Morleston, county Derby, 5 miles N.E. of Belper, its post town, 2½ S.W. of Alfreton, and 3 W. of the Ambergate railway station. The village, which is considerable, and was formerly a market town, is situated on the road from Birmingham to Sheffield through Ripley, near the Cromford canal tunnel and the river Derwent. The tunnel of the Cromford canal is 2,966 yards in length, and in the neighbourhood is the reservoir of the Nottingham canal.

The parish contains the chapelry of Ripley, and was formerly a demesne of the Abbey of Darleigh. A large portion of the inhabitants are employed in the Butterley iron works, established about 1793, and in the silk mills and stone-quarries. A riot, in which several houses were destroyed, occurred here in 1817. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield, value £135.

The church, dedicated to St. Matthew, is an ancient embattled edifice with a square tower containing three bells. It has several ancient monuments. There is also a district church at Ripley, the living of which is a perpetual curacy, value £200. The parochial charities produce about £3 per annum. There is a parochial school. There are places of worship for Calvinists, Independents, and Unitarians. There are traces of a Roman camp on the common, near which passed the Icknield Street. The Duke of Devonshire is lord of the manor."

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