Derbyshire

Contents

BOLSOVER

... urban district, Derbyshire, England, 5 1/2 mi. E. of Chesterfield, on branch lines of L.M.S. and L.N.E. railways. Pop. (1938) 10,190. Area 7.07 sq. mi. The castle round which the town grew up was founded by William Peverel shortly after the conquest, but the existing building, a fine castellated residence, was erected on this site in 1613. The town itself was fortified, and traces of early works remain. The church of St Mary is of Norman and later date; it contains some interesting early stone carving, and monuments to the family of Cavendish, who acquired the castle in the sixteenth century. Coal-mining and quarrying are carried on in the neighbourhood. About 1/2 mi. to the south is New Bolsover, known as the Model Village.

(Enc. Brit. 1950.)

The parish consists of the township of Glapwell and the villages or places of Oxcroft, Shuttlewood, Stanfrey [sic], and Walley [sic].

(Glover 1829. Current spellings are Stanfree and Whaley.)

Local Studies information is held at Bolsover Library, Church Street, Bolsover S44 6HB. Tel: 01246 823179. Census returns on microfilm are at Chesterfield Library

Bibliography

The following books contain useful information about the history of Bolsover and the surrounding area:
• Bolsover Remembered by Bernard Haigh (priv pub 1986, £2.95)
• More Bolsover Remembered by Bernard Haigh (priv pub 1987, £2.95)
• Glover's History and Gazetter of the County of Derby 1829
• The Diary of Benjamin Granger of Bolsover by Pym Yeatman in JDANHS IX 1887.
• Bolsover Surnames - an index to archive sources by Mike Spathaky (pub. 1997 Cree FHS)

There is only one main graveyard in Bolsover that is of historical interest.
• St Mary's parish church

  The MI's are to be recorded by Derbyshire FHS in September 1997

• Nonconformist chapels

  There are several active and some disused chapels which may have MI's awaiting recording. There are a few gravestones in the lawn in front of the medical centre(!) as this is in the grounds of the earliest non-conformist chapel in Bolsover.

• 1871: Surname index by Joan Smedley now incorporated in Bolsover Surnames.
• 1881: Surname Index in the Derbyshire section of the fiche produced by the 1881 census project.
• Other years appear not to have been indexed. It takes a couple of hours to scan through the census returns for the whole parish for one year.
• Census returns for all years (1841-1891) are available at the Local Studies section of Chesterfield Library.

• St Mary and St Laurence(Church of England) The parish church stands between the end of Church Street and the corner of High Street and Horncastle Road OS Grid Ref SK474702. It has a 13th Century tower supporting a broach spire.

  Bolsover Church is a plain Norman structure, with a tower terminated by a low spire dedicated to St Mary... There was a church at Bolsover in the reign of Henry II. It was then given by William Peverel, of Nottingham, to the Abbey of Darley. The present patron is the Duke of Portland, and the incumbent is the Rev. William Tinsley. (Glover 1829.)

• Presbyterian/Independent Meeting House

  Now converted to use as a private house, standing on High Street at OS Grid Ref. SK 47472705.

  This was built in 1662 of local hand-made bricks and is said to be one of the oldest non-conformist chapel buildings in Derbsyshire. After long service as a Presbyterian Meeting House, it was then shut up for many years, to be re-opened as an Independent Meeting House in 1817. A medical centre stands in the grounds and its front lawn displays a few gravestones.

  John James writes of the Presbyterian Meeting House:
  The church was also used as an additional classroom at the C of E School. I know because I was taught in there. It must have been 1959. We used to walk there and back. I don't remember any teacher telling us the signifcance of the building and it was only about ten years ago that I discovered the importance of the place and now feel quite privileged to have been taught there.

• Trinity Methodist Church

  Stands on Hill Top at OS Grid Ref. SK 472707.

  The first Wesleyan Chapel was built at the corner of Chapel Breck and Station Road (SK 472706) but by the 1860s it was too small and was sold (to Joseph Handby, great-great grandfather of the present author) and a new Chapel built on Hill Top. This in turn was replaced in 1897 by the present Methodist Church.

• There are several other non-conformist chapels in the parish.

• Parish Registers

  The original registers are held at Derbyshire Record Office. The earlier records were kept extremely untidily for many years and are difficult to find your way around. It appears that at least one complete register is missing, covering the following periods:

  • Baptisms: 1717-1812
  • Marriages: 1714-1754
  • Burials: 1715-1812

  The lacuna is generally covered by Bishops Transcripts. Neither a full transcript nor an index of the PR has been attempted. The poor state of the Register has led to many inaccuracies and omissions in the IGI.

• Bishops Transcripts are held at Lichfield Joint Record Office

The Register Office covering Bolsover parish is Chesterfield

Information about Bolsover today is available on the website of the Bolsover District Council.

Bolsover is within easy reach of the M1 motorway; indeed the castle on its bluff presents a fine view from it. However some careful mapreading is needed for the last two or three miles whether from Junction 29 or Junction 30.

An unusual way to reach Bolsover is on the ancient (1948) but restored bus of the Bolsover Heritage Service from Worksop (Sundays and Public Holidays). Otherwise it's a normal bus service from Chesterfield. The railways mentioned in the quoation at the head of this page have closed.

Prior to the increase of population due to the rapid expansion of coal mining around 1890, Bolsover seems to have had a stable population, and many of the families are found to be inter-related. The main available resource on Bolsover families is Bolsover Surnames - an index to archive sources, by Mike Spathaky, available both on-line and in printed form. This contains over 4000 entries with detailed references to the relevant sources.

A "Pedigree of the descent of Bolsover [Manor] through the noble families of CAVENDISH, HOLLES, HARLEY and BENTINCK" is given in Glover 1829. This starts from William Cavendish and his wife, the famous Bess of Hardwick, (who are also progenitors of another Cavendish line - that of the Dukes of Devonshire) and continues with the Dukes of Newcastle down to 4th Duke of Portland and his children.

The Manor Court of Bolsover was held every three weeks on Fridays from time immemorial until the 1920s, with a Great Court twice yearly. The Court was held in the Swan Inn.

After 1066, William I granted the manor to his natural son William Peverell. Glover (1829) details the subsequent history of the lordship and gives a full transcription of the Customary of Bolsover, of which several copies exist in Nottinghamshire Archives. Sir Charles Cavendish acquired the manor in 1608 and it descended eventually to the Dukes of Portland, whose main seat is at Welbeck, just over the county boundary in Nottinghamshire. The extensive run of manorial records thus fell into the hands of Nottinghamshire Archives.

Oxcroft was a separate manor although its own Customary makes clear that it was subservient to the Bolsover Manor in some respects. No manorial records are known to exist for Oxcroft.

For probate purposes prior to 1858, Bolsover was in the Diocese of Lichfield. The original wills for the Diocese are held at the Lichfield Joint Record Office.

Last updated 16th March 1999 - Mike Spathaky