Wirksworth, Derbyshire Family History Guide

Wirksworth is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Derbyshire. Alderwasley is a chapelry of Wirksworth.

Other places in the parish include: Ivonbrook Grange, Ivenbrook Grange, Idridgehay, Idridgehay and Alton, Ideridgehay and Allton, Ible, Hopton, Grange Mill, Callow, Biggin, Ashleyhay, and Alton.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1608
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1662

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

WIRKSWORTH, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred, in Derbyshire. The town stands in a valley, nearly surrounded by hills, at the terminus of a branch of the Midland railway, and at the southern extremity of a mining region, 13¾ miles NNW of Derby; was known to the Saxous as Werchesvorde; belonged, before the Norman conquest, to Repton abbey; passed, through the Ferrerses and other s, to the Duchy of Lancaster; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts, and a polling place; carries on malting, and the manufacture of silk, gingham, and tape; engages largely in the working of neighbouring lead mines; publishes a weekly newspaper; and has a head post-office, a r. station, a banking office, two hotels, a police station, a moot-hall of 1814, a temperance hall, a church of the 13th century, with chancel restored in 1855, and with a tower and spire, four dis senting chapels, a mechanics’ institution, an endowed grammar-school rebuilt in 1828, with £180 a year, alms houses with £55 a year, other charities £186, a weekly market on Tuesday, and five annual fairs. Pop. in 1861, 2,592. houses, 637. The township comprises 8,497 acres. Real property, £18,615; of which £5,142 are in mines, £1,346 in quarries, and £148 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 3,923; in 1861, 3,717. Houses, 900. The parish contains four townships in Belper district, five in Ashborne district, and two in Bakewell district; and comprises 14,154 acres. Pop. in 1851, 7,498: in 1861, 7,098. Houses, 1,623. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £300. Patron, the Bishop of L. The vicarages of Middleton and Idridgehay, and the p. curacy of Cromford, are separate benefices. The sub-district contains the four W. townships of Belper district, and two townships and a chapelry of other parishes. Acres, 14,348. Pop., 6,072. Houses, 1,388. The hundred contains 13 parishes and 6 parts. Acres, 72,177. Pop. in 1851, 22,503; in 1861, 23,901. Houses, 5,242.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].