RISLEY, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"RISLEY, a parochial chapelry in the parishes of Wilne and Sandiacre, hundred of Morleston, county Derby, 7½ miles S.E. of Derby, its post town, and 1½ mile from the Sawley railway station. The village, which is of small extent, is wholly agricultural. Risley was formerly held by the Mortimers, Sheffields, and Willoughbys, of which last family was Sir Hugh, the navigator, who, in 1554, was frozen to death with his crew on the coast of Lapland, while exploring the north-east passage by Russia.

The living is a perpetual curacy annexed to that of Breaston, in the diocese of Lichfield. The church has a pinnacled tower, containing three bells. It was thoroughly restored in 1841, when a new aisle was added. There is a school for both sexes; also a grammar school, to which the children of seven adjoining parishes are admitted."

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