Place:Fenny Bentley, Derbyshire, England

Watchers
NameFenny Bentley
Alt namesBenedlegesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 69
Fenny-Bentleysource: Family History Library Catalog
Woodeavessource: hamlet in parish
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates53.05°N 1.733°W
Located inDerbyshire, England
See alsoWirksworth Hundred, Derbyshire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Ashbourne Rural, Derbyshire, Englandrural district in which it was situated 1894-1974
Derbyshire Dales District, Derbyshire, Englandadministrative district covering the area since 1974
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Fenny Bentley is a small village and civil parish located close to Dovedale in the Derbyshire Dales District of Derbyshire, England. The population in 2009 (local estimate) was 305 reducing to 183 at the 2011 UK census. The population of the village has fluctuated slightly since the 19th century, with a peak in 1841 of 343 people living there.

It lies two miles north of Ashbourne, on the A515 road Buxton to Ashbourne Road. It is the most southerly village in the Peak District.

Sir Thomas Beresford, who died in 1473, is buried with his family in St Edmund's Church in the village. They were from a prolific family who lived in the area for generations, and owned much of the property and land there. It is suggested that everyone with the surname Beresford is descended from them and there are still reunions held in Fenny Bentley every spring as it is now the meeting place for the Beresford Family Society.

Cherry Orchard farm is located opposite St Edmunds Church. Previously known as Bentley Hall, it was once the home of the Beresford Family and at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century it was the home of Thomas Beresford as well as his wife and children.

Many of the residents of Fenny Bentley in the past worked at Tattersell Cotton Mill, which was located in Woodeaves, a nearby hamlet approximately 1 mile from Fenny Bentley. The mill was built in 1784 by John Cooper, and was originally powered by the Bentley Brook. Around 100 people were employed there, mainly for the Nottingham lace and cotton trade. In 1886, the mill was brought by Manchester cotton merchant Cornelius Tattersell, father of John Lincoln Tattersall (1865-1942) who was also employed there; he established a home in nearby village Thorpe, Derbyshire with his wife Lizzie Harland in 1893. In 1908, the mill ceased production but the warehouse was taken over in 1910 by William Nuttall. Originally from Melton Mowbray, he was the brother of John Nuttall, who was the owner of the Harlington Cheese Factory which made Stilton cheese until 1930.

end of Wikipedia contribution
Image:Ashbourne RD 1900.png

Fenny Bentley was originally an ancient parish in the Wirksworth Hundred of Derbyshire, England. It was an ancient parish without any subsidiary chapelries or townships.

It was made a civil parish in 1866 and in 1894 it became an urban district/became part of the Ashbourne Rural District. Since 1974 it has been in the non-metropolitan Derbyshire Dales non-metropolitan district.

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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Fenny Bentley. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.