Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BOLSOVER

BOLSOVER, a small town and a subdistrict, in the district of Chesterfield, and a parish in the districts of Chesterfield and Mansfield, Derby. The town occupies the summit of a steep hill, 5½ miles E of Chesterfield r. station. It commands a splendid view; retains traces of fortifications which once surrounded it; and was formerly a place of note; but is now straggling and decayed. It has a post office‡ under Chesterfield, a nominal weekly market, and fairs on the last Friday of April and the first Friday of Oct. It formerly carried on a famous manufacture of steel buckles and spurs; and subsequently engaged in the making of tobacco-pipes and fire-bricks. Pop., 1,526. Houses, 350.—The parish includes also the hamlets of Ockley, Whaley, Oxcroft, Stanfree, Shuttlewood, Woodside, Woodhouse, and Glapwell. Acres, 6,060. Real property, £8,079. Pop., 1,629. Houses, 367. The property is divided among many. The manor belonged at the Conquest to Peveril of the Peak; passed to the Earl of Morton, afterwards King John; went, in the time of Henry III., to the Earl of Chester, and afterwards to Lord Abergavenny; was resumed, in 1243, by the Crown; passed to Roger Lovetot, the Pipards, the Sturys, the Earl of Richmond, and the Duke of Norfolk; reverted again to the Crown; went, in the time of Edward VI., to Sir John Byron, and afterwards to Lord Talbot and Sir Charles Cavendish; descended from the last to the Dukes of Newcastle; and passed from them, by marriage, to the Dukes of Portland. A Norman keep was built on it by the Peverils; and made a military figure in the troubles of the time of King John. A palatial castle superseded this under Sir Charles Cavendish; was besieged and partly demolished in the civil war; underwent partial reconstruction after the Restoration; was unroofed about the middle of last century; and is now a picturesque ruin. The Duke of Newcastle three times entertained Charles I. and his court here; and on one of these occasions, which was assisted by the genius of Ben Jonson, spent about £15,000. The riding-house is still in good order; and the Tudor restoration of the Norman keep is used as the parsonage. A yellow magnesian limestone is quarried in the parish; and was used in the construction of the new houses of parliament. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £111.* Patron, the Duke of Portland. The church is Norman, with later additions; has a fine early English spire; and contains splendid monuments of the Dukes of Newcastle and Portland, and a number of other monuments. There are chapels for Independents and Methodists, and charities £103. One of the Dukes of Newcastle and his second duchess were noted for their writings; and the lady of the present vicar is known for a history of Etruria and several kindred works. The castle contains a fine collection of Etruscan and other antiquities. The subdistrict contains three parishes, with the exception of one of the hamlets of Bolsover. Acres, 11,247. Pop., 2,402. Houses, 523.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town and a subdistrict"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Derbyshire AncC
Place: Bolsover

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.