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Wirksworth is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population was 4,902 in the 2021 census.Area E04002820 (Wirksworth parish) in Table PP002 - Sex, from Wirksworth contains the source of the River Ecclesbourne. The town was granted a market charter by Edward I in 1306 and still holds a market on Tuesdays in the Memorial Gardens. The parish church of St Mary's is thought to date from 653. The town developed as a centre for lead mining and stone quarrying. Many lead mines were owned by the Gell family of nearby Hopton Hall.
The toponym might be "Weorc's enclosure", or "fortified enclosure".
The Wirksworth area in the White Peak is known for Neolithic and Bronze Age remains. Woolly rhino bones were found by lead miners in 1822 in Dream Cave, on private land between Wirksworth and present-day Carsington Water. A nearby cave at Carsington Pasture yielded prehistoric finds in the late 20th century.
Many lead mines in Anglo-Saxons times were owned by Repton Abbey. Three of these are identified in Wirksworth's Domesday Book entry from 1086.
A barmote court was established in the town in 1288 during the reign of Edward I in order to regulate lead mining; anyone had a right to dig for ore wherever he chose, except in churchyards, gardens or roadways. All that was needed for a claim was to place one's stowce (winch) on the site and extract enough ore to pay tribute to the "barmaster". The present Moot Hall, where the barmote court met, dates from 1814.
By the 18th century, there were many thousand lead mines worked individually. Daniel Defoe gives a first-hand account of such a family and the miner at work. At this time, the London Lead Company was formed to provide finance for deeper mines with drainage channels, called , and introduce Thomas Newcomen steam-engine pumps.P. W. King, 'Sir Clement Clerke and the adoption of coal in metallurgy' Trans. Newcomen Soc. 73(1) (2001-2), 38-9; A. Raistrick, 'London Lead Company 1692-1705' Ibid. 24 (1943-4); J. N. Rhodes, 'The London Lead Company in North Wales, 1692-1792' (unpublished Ph. D. thesis, Leicester University 1972).
Many institutions in the area have ties with the Gell family of nearby Hopton Hall. One member, Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, fought on Parliament's side in the Civil War. A predecessor, Anthony Gell, founded the local grammar school, and a successor, Phillip Gell, opened the Via Gellia (perhaps an allusion to the Roman Via Appia), a road from the family lead mines round Wirksworth to a smelter in Cromford. More recently he has been remembered in the name of Anthony Gell School.
The population was recorded as 4,122 inhabitants in the 1841 census.
In 1879 the Wheatcroft family, which produced tape at Speedwell Mill, expanded into Haarlem. The two mills together employed 230; their weekly output was said to equal the circumference of the earth; Wirksworth was the main producer of red tape for Whitehall. These mills were close together at Miller's Green next to the Derby road. Haarlem Mill now houses an art collective; Speedwell Mill has been replaced by private houses and a carpentry workshop. The growing prosperity of the town led to the development of Wirksworth Town Hall in 1871.
Areas of Wirksworth include Yokecliffe to the west, Gorseybank and Bournebrook to the south-east, Miller's Green to the south-west, and Steeple Grange and Bolehill to the north. Bolehill, although technically a hamlet in its own right in Wirksworth's suburbs, is the oldest and most northerly part of the town, while Yokecliffe is a large estate in the westerly area. Modern houses have been built in the Three Trees area and at the bottom of Steeple Grange (Spring Close and Meerbrook Drive).
In the future, it is planned to build new housing estates to the north of the centre and in the disused Middle Peak Quarry. These will total around 800 houses if they come to fruition.
Anthony Gell was a local, requested by Agnes Fearne to build a grammar school on her death. The original site is now a private house on the edge of the churchyard. The current school is an 11–18 comprehensive, built on a larger site by the Hannage Brook with about 800 pupils. The school's five houses are named after Fearne, Arkwright (Sir Richard Arkwright), Wright (Joseph Wright of Derby), Gell and Nightingale (Florence Nightingale). Its catchment area is the town and surrounding villages: Middleton, Carsington, Brassington, Kirk Ireton, Turnditch, Matlock Bath, Cromford and Crich.
The town is served by five bus routes:
Wirksworth's local radio stations are BBC Radio Derby on 95.3 FM, Capital Midlands on 102.8 FM, and Greatest Hits Radio Midlands on 101.8 FM.
The Matlock Mercury is the town's weekly local newspaper.
Wirksworth was the main location of ITV's Sweet Medicine in 2003, having featured as an occasional location in its forerunner, Peak Practice. More recently, some of Mobile was filmed on a train on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, and much of an episode of the BBC series Casualty was set in the town.
Wirksworth features in the 2015 memoir, The Long Road Out of Town, by author and journalist Greg Watts, who grew up there.
Middle Peak Quarry, on the outskirts of Wirksworth, featured in the 2010 music video "Unlikely Hero" by the Hoosiers.
Wirksworth Heritage Centre illustrates the history of Wirksworth from its prehistoric Dream Cave and , through its Roman and lead mining histories, to modern times.
The study Wirksworth and Five Miles Around, by Richard Hackett, includes census information, notes on church monuments, accounts of crimes, church wardens' accounts, maps, a transcription of "Ince's pedigrees", monument inscriptions and old photographs, parish registers and wills.
History
Early history
The origins of Wirksworth are thought to have related to the presence of thermal warm water springs nearby, coupled with a sheltered site at the head of a glaciated valley, able to yield cereals such as oats and provide timber suitable for building.
Lead mining
In Roman Britain, the limestone area of today's Derbyshire yielded lead, the prime site probably being Lutudarum in the hills south and west of present-day Matlock. (1975). 9780413315502, Eyre Methuen. ISBN 9780413315502 Wirksworth is a candidate for the site of Lutudarum. Roman roads from Wirksworth lead to Buxton (The Street) and to Brough-on-Noe (The Portway).Wirksworth Archaeological Society: Reports. The town has the oldest charter of any in the Peak District, dating from 835, when the Abbess of Wirksworth granted nearby land to Duke Humbert of Mercia.
(2025). 9780141439945, Penguin. ISBN 9780141439945 Scientists studying a Swiss glacial ice core have found that levels of lead in European air pollution between 1170 and 1216 were similar to those during the Industrial Revolution, pointing to the local lead and silver smelting around Wirksworth, Castleton etc. as the main source with a remarkable correlation. There is a tiny carving in Wirksworth Church of a miner with a pick and whisket (basket); the figure is known as "T'Owd Man of Bonsall." It stood in Bonsall Church for centuries, but was moved for safekeeping during a restoration project. It was later found in a Bonsall garden and moved to Wirksworth by the vicar of the time. The ore was washed out through a sieve, whose iron wire had been drawn in Hathersage since the Middle Ages. Smelting took place in Bole hill, hence the name Bolehill. The lead industry, the miner, the ore and the waste were also known collectively as "t'owd man".
Limestone
The carboniferous limestone around Wirksworth has been much quarried over the town's history, resulting in several rock faces and cliffs surrounding the town. There was a workhouse from 1724 to 1829, called Babington House, standing on Green Hill () and housing 60 inmates.
Industrial revolution
In 1777, Richard Arkwright leased land and premises for a corn mill from Philip Eyre Gell of Hopton and converted it to spin cotton, using his water frame. It was the world's first cotton mill to use a steam engine to replenish the millpond that drove its waterwheel. The mill was adjacent to another, Speedwell Mill, owned by John Dalley, a local merchant. Arkwright's mill was sublet in 1792, when Arkwright's son, Richard, began to sell off family property and move into banking. It was named Haarlem Mill in 1815, when converted to weaving tape by Madely, Hackett and Riley, who had set up Haarlem Tape Works in Derby in 1806.
Geography
In the 2011 census, Wirksworth civil parish had 2,416 dwellings, 2,256 households and a population of 5,038.
Education
There are four schools in Wirksworth: Church of England, Wirksworth Junior School, the Anthony Gell School and Callow Park College.
Transport
Wirksworth railway station is a stop on the heritage railway Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. Services operate to and from , which provides a connection to the National Rail network for ongoing East Midlands Railway services to , and on the Derwent Valley Line.
Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the local relay TV transmitter.
Culture and community
Events
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Community facilities
Fanny Shaw's Playing Field, just beyond the centre, is the main recreation area for the north of the town. It includes a play area. In the south is the "Rec", another children's play area, along with cricket and football pitches. There are public toilets in the car park alongside the United Reformed Church at Baromote Croft.
Cultural references
Haarlem Mill has been mentioned as the possible model for the mill in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss. The town of Snowfield in George Eliot's Adam Bede is also said to be based in Wirksworth; Dinah Morris, a character in that novel, is based on Eliot's aunt, who lived in Wirksworth and whose husband ran the silk mill, which used to house the Wirksworth Heritage Centre.
Town twinning
Wirksworth is twinned with Die in southern France and with Frankenau in the Kellerwald range south-west of the Talgang, Germany, through the Wirksworth Twinning Association.
Notable residents
Sport
Landmarks
Wirksworth civil parish contains 108 Listed building, protected by Historic England for their historic or architectural interest. The parish church of St Mary is listed Grade I and eight structures (15 Market Place, 35 Green Hill, 1 Coldwell Street, Haarlem Mill, Wigwell Grange, the Red Lion Hotel, Gate House and the former grammar school) are Grade II*.
See also
Citations
External links
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