Derby St Alkmund Derbyshire Family History Guide

Derby St Alkmund is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Derbyshire.

Other places in the parish include: Little Chester.

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

• Parish registers: 1538
• Bishop’s Transcripts: 1662

Nonconformists include: Baptist, General Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Reform. 

Adjacent Parishes

• Derby St Michael
• Darley Abbey
• Mackworth
• Derby All Saints
• Derby St Werburgh
• Derby St John
• Derby St Paul

Historical Descriptions

See Derby Derbyshire Family History Guide

St Alkmund

History, Gazetteer and Directory of Derbyshire Bagshaw 1846

St Alkmund is an ancient structure supposed to have been founded in the 8th or early in the 6th century It is said that Alkmund son of Alured king of Northumberland being slain in a battle in which he was fighting for Ethelmund viceroy of Worcester was for this action reputed a saint and martyr he was first buried at Littleshull in Shropshire but was afterwards removed to Derby and interred in the church which now bears his name He was believed to work miracles and the northern people before the reformation made frequent pilgrimages to his tomb This church is now rebuilding on the same site of which the first stone was laid the 6th of May 1844 It will be much larger than the old church which had accommodation for 500 persons and was commenced taking down in the previous January It was of various styles of architecture from Norman to late Perpendicular it having been enlarged or rebuilt at different periods The chancel was Norman and once had the richly moulded and carved roof of oak timber over the nave finished in gilding and colours which having become insecure by the decay of the principal timbers they were secured by the insertion of trussed beams beneath and beautified by flat plaster ceiling It had for some time been considered in many parts insecure The new church from a design of Henry John Stevens Esq has it nave with clerestory north and south aisles a handsome chancel a south porch over which is a parishoners vestry approached without entering any other part of the church and a tower at the west end 100ft in height upon which the committee are desirous to erect a handsome spire if they can prevail with the public to provide them sufficient funds It is in the decorated style or that which prevailed about the 14th century The stone for the outside is from the priory quarry and for the interior from Coxbench The carpentry is of pitch pine the roofs being all wrought stained and varnished and the body of the church fitted with open seats It is expected to be completed before Christmas 1845 The cost will be about 6,000 and it will accommodate 1,200 persons of which more than one half are unappropriated This church was granted to the abbey of Derley After the dissolution it rested in the crown till queen Mary gave it to the corporation of Derby who have sold the presentation to Jedediah Strutt Esq and his son in law the Rev Edward Henry Abnew is the Incumbent Ever since the year 1712 as noticed by Hutton it has enjoyed an endowment bequeathed by a person of the name of Goodwin descended from an ancient family in Derby How will you dispose of your fortune says Mr Cantrell minister of St Alkmund's I am at a loss TM replied Goodwin for I have no near relations My church says the parson stands desolate for instead of being a place of regular worship it is only a nursery for bats and owls No act of charity can surpass that of promoting religion Then I will give 11 per annum to St Alkmund's at my death says Goodwin and the residue at the death of my nephew Which last event happened about 1734 This estate is situate at Plumley in the parish of Eckington and at that time produced 60 per annum but now about 210 Rev Edward Henry Armitage is the curate Mr Proud Fritchie organist Edmund Columbell parish clerk and Thomas Marshall sexton and beadle.

Source: History, gazetteer and directory of Derbyshire, with the town of Burton-upon-Trent; Samuel Bagshaw (of Sheffield.) 1846

Little Chester

History, Gazetteer and Directory of Derbyshire Bagshaw 1846

Chester Little a township and small village on the east bank of the Derwent 1 mile NNE of Derby without the borough. It contains 436 acres of land including 11a 2r 18p of roads and waste 77 houses and 364 inhabitants of whom 150 were males and 214 females Rateable value 1,381 5s The Duke of Devonshire is lessee of the manor under the Dean of Lincoln The corporation of Derby own 330 acres The Derby canal occupies 5a 2b 13p rated at 151 6s Id and the North Midland railway 9a 2b Up rated at 516 10s 6d The railway passes close to the E side of the village under a neat stone bridge of three arches over whieh the road passes to Mansfield several rows of small houses have lately been built In 1831 during the Reform Riots the Grange a neat house belonging to Miss Harrison was ransacked and the interior with the furniture destroyed by fire It has since been restored A district church St Paul's is about to be erected here till which a factory in the City road has been fitted up for divine service of which the Rev James Mantle Pratt is the incumbent Little Chester occupies the site of the Roman station Derventio the most important in the county occupying nearly six acres The wall that surrounded it was traced by Dr Stukely in 1721 but subsequent cultivation has removed every vestige of it It stood on the line of the Iknield street which here crosses the river and is noticed in Domesday Book under the name of Cettre being described as a parcel of the ancient demesne of the Crown Numerous foundations coins of gold silver and copper and other Roman remains have been discovered AD 275 the Britons besieged a colony of Roman soldiers here and took it by storm putting all the Romans to the sword.

Bacon Samuel machine clerk

Coleman John collector toll gate

Harrison Miss Ann Grange

Line William victualler Coach and Horses

Marsball Thomas veterinary surgeon

Pratt Rev Jas Mantle incmbt St Paul's disct

Presbury William farmer

Prince William farmer

Poxon Samuel bailiff

Roberts Sarah collector toll gate

Shaw George fitter np

Smitherd William boot and shoe maker

Source: History, gazetteer and directory of Derbyshire, with the town of Burton-upon-Trent; Samuel Bagshaw (of Sheffield.) 1846

Parish Records

England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1537-1918

Marriages

Derbyshire parish registers. Marriages
by Phillimore, W. P. W. (William Phillimore Watts), 1853-1913, ed; Blagg, Thomas Matthews, ed

Derby St Alkmund Derbyshire Marriages 1538 to 1812 - Archive.org

Derby St Alkmund Derbyshire Marriages 1538 to 1812 - UK Genealogy Archives

Administration

County: Derbyshire
Civil Registration District: Derby
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Lichfield (Episcopal Consistory)
Diocese: Lichfield
Rural Deanery: Derby
Poor Law Union: Derby
Hundred: Derby Borough; Morleston and Litchurch
Province: Canterbury