Place:Norton, Derbyshire, England

Norton was an ancient parish in the Scarsdale Hundred (or wapentake) of Derbyshire, England. It became a civil parish in 1866 and was part of Norton Rural District from 1894 until 1934. In 1934 the rural district was abolished and Norton's area was split with the southern section going to Chesterfield Rural District and the northern part going across the county border to Sheffield County Borough in Yorkshire. The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography). "NORTON, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in the [registration] district of Ecclesall-Bierlow and county of Derby. The village stands 1 1/3 mile S E of the river Sheaf, at the boundary with Yorkshire, 2½ N of Dronfield, and 4 S by E of Sheffield [railway] station; is a pleasant place; has a post-office under Sheffield and a good inn; and is a seat of petty sessions, and the monthly meeting-place of a local farmers' club. "The parish contains also the villages of Norton-Lees, Greenhill, Backmoor, Maugerhay, Hemsworth, and Woodseats. Acres: 4,330. Real property: £9,341; of which £20 are in quarries. Population in 1851: 1,856; in 1861: 2,318. Houses: 479. The increase of population arose chiefly from the operations of Freehold Land and Building Societies. "The property is much sub-divided. The manor, with Norton Hall, belongs to Cammell, Esq. Norton House, the Oaks, Grange House, and Mearsbrook House, are chief residences. The manufacture of scythes, sickles, saw-files, and nails is carried on. :"The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value: £300. Patron: H. Wilson, Esq. The church is large and handsome; has a tower; and contains a tablet to Sir Francis Chantrey, and several other monuments. There are three Wesleyan chapels, an endowed school with £65 a year, a national school, and considerable charities. Sir Francis Chantrey, Bishop Geoffry Blythe, and Bishop John Blythe were natives. Wikipedia describes Norton Lees which is the modern equivalent of Norton within Sheffield. It does not mention the Derbyshire connection.

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.