Category: Derbyshire

The parish church of Spondon, now just part of Derby, is dedicated to St Werburgh. It is just north of the A52, at SK398359 – website. There’s a good local history website too. There was a priest and church here at Doomsday, and in the reign of Henry I it was given to the Hospital of Burton Lazars in Leicester, the foremost and most wealthy leper hospital in England (you don’t think of leper hospitals being wealthy!). The Hospital was dissolved under Henry VIII, and the vicarage was valued at £30. I wonder how impressive a church it was...

The second church open for HODs was St Leonard’s, Scarcliffe – SK496687 – it is in the same benefice as Ault Hucknall. One 24 page guidebook and a 31 page book on The Legendary Lady Constantia of Scarcliffe. I will not write as much. In 1150 AD Ralph de Aincourt and his wife Matilda ordered the original building (plus a daughter chapel just down the road at Palterton), gave the advowson to Darley Abbey, and had their sons Robert and Peter installed as priests. There are no church records before the Restoration, perhaps because Cromwell’s men destroyed them in 1643...

We headed out on Sunday afternoon 11 September 2016 to do a couple of Heritage Open Days properties – and this is the afternoon of the guidebook. Our first church has two, one about the church, the other about every single house in the parish! St John the Baptist, Ault Hucknall, is on a minor road with few houses nearby but just a few miles from the M1 – SK467653. It is open on Summer Saturday afternoons and this weekend. The kettle was on! There are pictures of the church at this website. One of the other people there...