Place:Kirk Ireton, Derbyshire, England

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NameKirk Ireton
Alt namesHiretunesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 69
Kirk-Iretonsource: Family History Library Catalog
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates53.055°N 1.603°W
Located inDerbyshire, England
See alsoWirksworth Hundred, Derbyshire, Englandhundred in which it was located until 1866
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

Kirk Ireton is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish plus that of the neighbouring parish of Callow (near Wirksworth) (which is less than 100) at the 2011 UK census was 518. Kirk Ireton is located 4 miles southwest of Wirksworth nestling on a hillside, near to Carsington Water 700 ft above sea level.

Kirk Ireton remains what it has always been, an agricultural village. Following the Second World War the number of working farms dropped from over thirty to half a dozen in the space of 40 years. The last cow was turned down Main Street in the late 1980s, but Fords, Matkins, Rowlands, Walkers and Wards still farm locally as they have done for many generations. Many of the former farm buildings have been adapted into houses. Much of the older part of the village dates back to the 17th century and is mostly built from sandstone, quarried locally.

end of Wikipedia contribution

Kirk Ireton was originally an ancient parish in the Wirksworth Hundred of Derbyshire, England. As an ancient parish it had supervision of the township of Ireton Wood. (Ireton Wood was absorbed into Idridgehay and Alton in 1889 because it was not large enough to be viable on its own.)

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 non-metropolitan district.

Image:Ashbourne RD 1900.png

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 Kirk Ireton. 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.