Shirland

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Shirland
St. Leonards Church
Shirland shown within Derbyshire
OS grid reference	SK394583
District	North East Derbyshire
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ALFRETON
Postcode district	DE55
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
European Parliament	East Midlands
List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire

Coordinates: 53°07′16″N 1°24′43″W / 53.121, -1.412

For the town in the United States, see Shirland, Illinois.

Shirland is a parish and and former mining village in Derbyshire, England. It is continuous with the villages of Higham, Stretton and Stonebroom. Shirland has existed since at least 1086. Local politics is largely Labour. The River Amber flows through the parish.

[edit] History

Shirland is mentioned in the Domesday Book. According to this ancient document the manor was given to William de Peveral after the Norman conquest. Peveral inherited many manors around Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire including Nottingham Castle.^[1]

The village is built around St. Leonard's Church. The foundations of the church date to 1220, according to the inscriptions within the church. The church grounds contain many monuments to a the De Grey family, who inherited the manor in the early 13th Century. The church also contains memorials to the Revill family who were well known Derbyshire landowners in the 15th Century.

In 1868, the inhabitants were mostly involved with agriculture but a proportion were involved with framework knitting.^[2] However in 1864 a mine was founded. by the end of the century and employed 500 men. The community together with Higham increased from a population of 2437 in 1871 to 3415 in 1881.^[3] The mines shaped the community until 1965 when the mine closed. A golf course is now built on the former slag heaps.^[4]

[edit] The church

See above is the buttressed west tower of St Leonard's Church, alongside the A61 north of Alfreton. Parts of the Church date from 1220 but the majority of the existing Church is 15th Century. It is part of a Benefice with the Church of England churches in Stonebroom: St Peter's Church, Stonebroom and Morton:Morton Church of the Holy Cross.