Ticknall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ticknall is a small, attractive and peaceful place in South Derbyshire, England.

Situated on the A514 road, close to Melbourne, Derbyshire, it has three pubs, several small businesses, and a primary school. Two hundred years ago it was considerably larger and noisier with lime quarries, tramways and potteries. Coal was also dug close to the village. Close to the village is Calke Abbey, now a National Trust property.

The Parish Church

The old village of Tichenhalle is mentioned in the Doomsday Book, and probably existed from Anglo-Saxon times. Ticknall was an estate village to Calke Abbey until late in the 20th century. It reached its hey-day in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the limeyards and the brickmaking, tile and pottery industries were operating at maximum capacity. The population reached 1500, treble the present number of around 500. Since the neighbouring Calke Abbey changed its status in 1984 from long-standing private occupation by the Harpur-Crewe family to semi-public administration by the National Trust, much of the village has changed. The break-up of the former estate has meant the sale of cottages and building land, altering not only the charming higgledy-pigglediness of the architecture, but also the dilution of the former feudal relationship between the villagers and their somewhat reclusive lords of the manor. The village has developed with examples of new buildings and renovations.

Near the entrance to Calke Abbey is Tramway Bridge which is now a Grade II listed structure. It was built in 1802 to carry the former Ticknall Tramway and subsequently connect the brickyards and limeyards around the village to the Ashby canal at Willesley Basin. It was though too costly to build the expensive locks which would be required to bring the canal to Ticknall so the Tramway was constructed as a cheaper alternative. Although abandoned in 1915, the tramway can still be traced intermittently along its route which passed through the estate of Calke Abbey where two tunnels were needed.

At the start of the 19th century the Ticknall Limeyards were operated by two different classes of people, namely freeholders and tenants. Some of the freeholders in the parish had their own limeyards while others were worked by tenants for the Harpur-Crewe and Burdett families. As the century progressed the freeholders went bankrupt for various reasons while the tenants of the Harpur-Crewes gave up because of the high rents charged and general mismanagement of the limeyards.