Place:Middleton by Wirksworth, Derbyshire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Middleton by Wirksworth is a civil parish which includes an upland village of the same name lying approximately one mile NNW of Wirksworth, Derbyshire. It was formerly known for its lead mines and high quality limestone quarries, including the remarkable underground quarry site at Middleton Mine. ‘The Middleton Mine is so remarkable because it networks underground for approximately 25 miles with tunnels on three different levels running under Middleton Moor to the Hopton Wood quarry works at the other side of the hill below Ryder Point Works’. Part of the tunnel collapsed in the 1980s leaving a noticeable depression in the ground above on the eastern side of Middleton Moor. The appropriate civil parish is called "Middleton". The population of this parish as taken at the 2011 UK census was 775. end of Wikipedia contribution Middleton by Wirksworth was originally a township in the ancient parish of Wirksworth in the Wirksworth Hundred of Derbyshire. It was made a civil parish in 1866 and in 1894 it became part of the Ashbourne Rural District. Since 1974 it has been in the Derbyshire Dales District. (Source: A Vision of Britain through Time) [edit] A nineteenth century description A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Middleton by Wirksworth from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72: "MIDDLETON-BY-WIRKSWORTH, a village, a township, and a chapelry in Wirksworth parish, Derby. The village stands 1 mile NW by N of Wirksworth [railway] station, and 2 WSW of Cromford; is a considerable place; and has a post office under Wirksworth. The township includes the village, and extends into the country. Real property: £2,129; of which £252 are in quarries, and £34 in mines. Population: 964. Houses: 221. Ash-Hill is the seat of W. Wheatcroft, Esq. Excellent marble is quarried, and lead ore is mined. "The chapelry includes also Ible, Griff-Grange, Ivonbrook-Grange, and parts of Wirksworth, Cromford and Hopton townships; and was constituted in 1847. Population: 1,133. Houses: 259. Most of Griff-Grange belongs to the trustees of the late P. Gell, Esq.; and all Ivonbrook Grange belongs to Lord Scarsdale. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value: £300. Patron: the Vicar of Wirksworth. The church was built in 1839 at a cost of £1,200; and contains 413 sittings. There are chapels for Independents, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists, and a neat new school, in [Middleton] township; a chapel for Primitive Methodists in Ible township; and a school church in Ivonbrook-Grange. Charities, £25."

Research Tips

• Derbyshire Record Office website
• British History Online (Victoria County Histories) does not appear to cover Derbyshire geographically. A History of the County of Derby: Volume 2, edited by William Page is a part-volume covering the religious houses of the county. No further volumes have been found.
• GENUKI main page for Derbyshire which provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and therefore the reader should check additional sources if possible.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Derbyshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
• For a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from the following selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile. Sections of the 1900 map showing parish boundaries only have been reproduced on some (but not all) parish pages here in WeRelate.

• Map of Derbyshire illustrating urban and rural districts in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown.
• Map of Derbyshire urban and rural districts in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. This is not a repeat of the first map. There were some changes in urban and rural district structure in the 1930s.
• Ordnance Survey map of Derbyshire for 1967 This is the last in this series and was made while Derbyshire was experimenting with the non-metropolitan district structure adopted in 1974. It is a much cleaner map for reading the names of the civil parishes, but the smaller villages are no longer visible.

These are only three of the series of maps to be found in A Vision of Britain through Time.

• Wikimedia Commons map of the post-1974 districts of Derbyshire. The numbers will be linked to the districts on the WeRelate district pages.
• Wikimedia Commons often provides a map of the ancient divisions named "hundreds", but there does not appear to be one for Derbyshire. This 1832 Ordnance Survey map from A Vision of Britain through Time is not as good as those in the Wikimedia Commons series.
• Derbyshire family history societies are listed in GENUKI.
• Towns and Villages of Derbyshire and the Peak District is a locally produced website designed for tourists.