Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BAKEWELL

BAKEWELL, a small town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Derbyshire. The town stands at the foot of a hill, on the river Wye, adjacent to the Buxton railway, 11 miles W by S of Chesterfield. Its name is a corruption of Bath-well, originally Bath-quelle; and was derived from a mineral well, used for the supply of baths, and supposed to have been in repute prior to the year 924. The manor of it was known to the Saxons under the name of Badecanwylla; probably had a Roman station, and certainly had a castle of Edward the Elder, on Castle-hill, on the road to Chatsworth; was given at the Conquest to the family of Peveril; passed to successively the Gernons and the Vernons; and belongs now to the Duke of Rutland. The town is clean and pleasant; exults in picturesque environs; and is much visited by strangers, both for its own sake, and for sake of the splendid neighbouring scenery. It is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place; and it has a railway station, a head post office,‡ a banking office, a parish church, two dissenting chapels, an endowed grammar school, an hospital and other charities with £382, a workhouse, a six-arched bridge, a public library and reading room, a museum, public baths, and seven good inns. The parish church stands on an eminence; is a spacious cruciform structure, in Saxon, Norman, and early English; has new transepts, and a new octagonal tower and spire, erected in 1841; and contains an ancient font and interesting tombs of the Vernons, the Folijambes, the Mannerses, and others. A very ancient cross, 8 feet high, decorated with rude sculpture, but much mutilated, is in the churchyard. The public baths have been rebuilt by the Duke of Rutland; contain good accommodation; and include a large swimming-bath, and separate shower and warm baths. The water from the mineral spring is chalybeate and slightly tepid; and that for the warm baths may be had of any temperature by artificial heating. A pleasant promenade is attached, called the Bath Garden, Well laid out in walks and grottoes. The public museum contains a great variety of British, Roman, and Saxon relics, obtained from places in the neighbourhood; and a private museum, connected with a shop, exhibits splendid specimens of spar ornament and inlaid marble. A number of the inhabitants are employed in the working of marble and chert; and others are employed in a cotton mill. A weekly market is held on Monday; and fairs, on Easter Monday, Whit Monday, 26 Aug., the Monday after 10 Oct., and the Monday after 22 Nov.-The township of Bakewell includes the town, together with a circumjacent tract. Real property, £10,474. Pop., 2,704. Houses, 485.

The parish includes also the townships of Froggatt, Curbar, Callver, Rowland, Hassop, Great Longstone and Holme, Little Longstone, Ashford, Sheldon, Taddington and Priestcliff, Brushfield, Chelmorton, Monyash, Over and Nether Haddon, Hartle or Harthill, Great Rowsley, Beeley, Baslow-with-Bubnell, Blackwell, and part of Wardlow, all in the district of Bakewell; and the township of Buxton, in the district of Chapel-en-le-Frith. Acres, 43,020. Real property, with the rest of Ward low, £62,699. Pop. in 1841, 10,363; in 1861, 11,254. Houses, 2,164. Two objects of grand interest are the ducal seats ofChatsworth and Haddon-Hall: which see. Mines of coal, lead, and zinc, and quarries of stone and marble are worked. Rocking-stones and a Druidical circle occur on Stanton manor. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £460.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. The chapelries of Ashford, Baslow, Beeley, Buxton, Chelmorton, Great Longstone, King's Sterndale, Monyash, Rows ley, Sheldon, and Taddington, are separate charges.

The subdistrict includes the greater part of Bakewell parish, parts of Youlgreave and Hartington parishes, and all Edensor. Acres, 56,916. Pop., 12,547. Houses, 2,490. The district comprehends also the subdistrict of Tideswell, containing the parishes of Eyam and Hope, and parts of the parishes of Bakewell, Tideswell, and Hathersage; and the subdistrict of Matlock, containing the parishes of Matlock and Darley, and parts of the parishes of Youlgreave, Crich, Wirksworth, and Brad bourne. Acres, 107,105. Poor rates in 1866, £8,519. Pop. in 1861, 31,378. Houses, 6,448. Marriages in 1866, 170; births, 949,-of which 67 w. ere illegitimate; deaths, 650, of which 191 were at ages under 5-years, and 17 at ages above 85 years. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,1,909; births, 9,323; deaths, 6,157. The places of worship in 1851 were 33 of the Church of Eng land, with 10,546 sittings; 8 of Independents, with 1,553 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 100 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 90 s.; 5 of Unitarians, with 290 s.; 34 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 4,955 s.; 20 Of Primitive Methodists, with 2,588 s.; 7 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 586 s.; 3 of Roman Catholics, with 200 s.; and 1 undefined, with 70 attendants. The schools were 37 public day schools, with 2,298 scholars; 62 private day schools, with 1,371 s.; 80 Sunday schools, with 6,141 s.; and 4 evening schools for adults, with 83 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Bakewell CP/AP       Bakewell SubD       Bakewell RegD/PLU       Derbyshire AncC
Place: Bakewell

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.