Woodville, Derbyshire Genealogy

England Derbyshire



Parish History
Woodville is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Derbyshire, created in 1847 from Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire and  Hartshorne, Derbyshire Ancient Parish; partly in Derbyshire and partly in Leicestershire.

WOODVILLE, an ecclesiastical district, in the union of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, partly in the parish of Ashbyde-la-Zouch, hundred of West Goscote, county of Leicester, and partly in the parish of Hartshorn, hundred of Repton and Gresley, county of Derby, 3½ miles (N. W. by W.) from Ashby; containing about 700 inhabitants. Woodville is a modern village, until lately called Wooden-Box. About thirty-three years ago, a person appointed to take the toll at a side gate on the road from Ashby to Burton-on-Trent, was sheltered from the weather by a common watch-box, there being at the time no houses in the neighbourhood; and when the earthenware manufactories of Gresley and Swadlincote were extended to the place, it obtained the name of Wooden-Box, which was changed in 1845 for its present more euphonious name of Woodville. The houses are on each side of the high road; those on the left side are in the parish of Ashby, and the houses on the right in Hartshorn parish. The inhabitants are partly colliers, but chiefly potters, the immediate vicinity containing a bed of fine clay, which is extensively used for earthenware and fire-bricks. Petty-sessions are held once a fortnight at the Potters' Arms inn. The first stone of the church, dedicated to St. Stephen, was laid in Nov. 1845, by Earl Howe; the edifice is in the Norman style, and built of durable stone quarried near its site. The living is in the patronage of the Bishop of Peterborough. The Wesleyans have a small place of worship.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 657-661. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51426 Date accessed: 05 April 2011.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Woodville like this:

WOODVILLE, a chapelry in Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Hartshorn-parishes, Leicester; 3½ miles NW of Ashby-de-la-Zonch r. station. It was constituted in 1847; and it has a post-office under Burton-upon-Trent. Pop., 1,408. Houses, 259. The manor belongs to the Countess Loudoun. The manufacture of earthenware, fire-bricks, and sanitary ware is carried on. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £116.* Patron, the Bishop of P. The church was built in 1846. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Woodville St Stephen was formed as a parish in 1847 from parts of Hartshorne, Derbyshire and Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire

Derbyshire Record Office reference D 3420 has deposited registers Bap 1847-1946 Mar 1848-1949 Burial 1847-1941 Banns 1847-1881 1897-1923 1939-1988

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Poor Law Unions
Ashby de la Zouch Poor Law Union, Leicestershire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Derbyshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.