Place:Fernilee, Derbyshire, England

Watchers
NameFernilee
TypeTownship, Civil parish
Coordinates53.3°N 1.967°W
Located inDerbyshire, England     ( - 1934)
See alsoHope, Derbyshire, Englandancient parish of which it was part
High Peak Hundred, Derbyshire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Chapel en le Frith Rural, Derbyshire, Englandrural district 1894-1934
Fairfield, Derbyshire, Englandcivil parish to which land was transferred in 1934
Hartington Upper Quarter, Derbyshire, Englandcivil parish to which land was transferred in 1934
Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, Englandcivil parish to which land was transferred in 1934

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).

"FERNILEE, a township in Hope parish, Derby; 6 miles NNE of Tideswell. Acres: 2,240. Real property: £3,449; of which £150 are in mines. Population: 767. Houses: 153. There are a powder-mill, barytes-works, a Wesleyan chapel, and two public schools."

A Vision of Britain Through Time goes on to say that Fernilee had an area of almost 2,800 acres and a population of 1,063 in 1881. In 1894 it lost an unidentified amount of land to Buxton and then in 1934 it was abolished with the remainder of its area distributed between Fairfield (710 acres), Hartington Upper Quarter (1,193 acres) and the newly createed civil parish of Whaley Bridge (840 acres).

GENUKI states that Fernilee lies just east of the Goyt River along the A5004 arterial road, just south of Horwich and north of the Fernilee Reservoir. It gives a somewhat differenct description of the 20th century alterations:

"The river Goyt, which flows through Horwich End and Whaley Bridge, was formerly the boundary between Derbyshire and Cheshire, separating the parishes of Taxal (St James's Church) and Fernilee. Originally, Fernilee was united with Chapel en le Frith, which was then a chapelry in the parish of Hope. However when Chapel en le Frith became an independent parish in 1297, Fernilee remained part of Hope, where it stayed until in 1898, when it was transferred to Buxton. Shortly after (1905) it became a separate parish, then in 1966, it was joined with Taxal, in the diocese of Chester. For the purposes of civil administration, however Taxal and Fernilee are now in Derbyshire."

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.