Cromford, Derbyshire Genealogy

England Derbyshire  Derbyshire Parishes  Cromford



Parish History
Cromford is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Derbyshire, created in 1798 from chapelry in Wirksworth, Derbyshire Ancient Parish

CROMFORD, a chapelry, in the parish and hundred of Wirksworth, union of Bakewell, S. division of the county of Derby, 1 mile (N. by E.) from Matlock; containing 1407 inhabitants, and comprising 1308 acres, of which 125 are common or waste land. This place, which is pleasantly situated on the river Derwent, was an inconsiderable village prior to the year 1776, when Sir Richard Arkwright, having purchased the manor, erected mills, which were the first ever put in motion by water, and established a cotton-manufactory of large extent. Since this period it has greatly increased, and at present it is a flourishing place, consisting chiefly of neat and commodious dwellings for the persons engaged in the factories, many of them built round an open space where a small customary market is held on Saturday, and others chiefly in detached situations. The cotton manufacture affords employment to more than 1000 persons; there are a manufactory for hats, one for ginghams on a small scale, and a paper-manufactory. In the neighbourhood are extensive mines of lead and calamine, and quarries of marble and limestone: a great quantity of lapis calaminaris is exported annually. The Cromford canal communicates with the Erewash canal near Langley bridge, and commodious wharfs and warehouses have been constructed on its banks. The Cromford and High Peak railway, for the conveyance of minerals and merchandise, commences at this place, and pursues its course to the Peak-Forest canal, near Whaley bridge; the whole line is thirtythree miles, in which it attains a rise of 990 feet above the level of the Cromford canal: it was opened in 1830. The chapel, a small neat building in the Grecian style, begun by Sir Richard Arkwright, in 1794, and completed by his son, Richard Arkwright, Esq., who endowed it with £50 per annum, was consecrated in 1797. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £96; patrons, the family of Arkwright: the great tithes have been commuted for £90, and the vicarial for £11. The Wesleyans have a place of worship.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 729-733. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50906 Date accessed: 05 April 2011.

The chapel of ease of St Mark Cromford opened in 1877, closed 1957 and was later demolished (see records below)

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 Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes

Cromford St Mary was originally a township in Wirksworth, Derbyshire formed as a parish in 1869 and included part of the parish of Middleton by Wirksworth, Derbyshire

Derbyshire Record Office reference D3387 has deposited registers Bap 1797- 1990 Mar 1869-1977, 1980-1987 Burial none Banns 1869-1890, 1932-1972 there are some Arkwright family burials entered in the baptismal register 1843-1974.

The chapel of ease of St Mark Cromford opened in 1877, closed 1957 and was later demolished.

Derbyshire Record Office reference D 3387 has deposited registers Bap 1877-1957 Burial 1877-1954

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts 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

Non-Conformist Churches
Cromford Wesleyan Baptisms 1806-1837: Transcribed by Jen Durbin, Perth, Western Australia, housed by John Palmer of Dorset

Poor Law Unions
Bakewell Poor Law Union, Derbyshire

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.