| Eckington | |
Eckington parish church of St Peter and St Paul |
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Eckington
Eckington shown within Derbyshire |
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| Population | 11,152 |
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| OS grid reference | SK434749 |
| District | North East Derbyshire |
| Shire county | Derbyshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SHEFFIELD |
| Postcode district | S21 |
| Dialling code | 01246 |
| Police | Derbyshire |
| Fire | Derbyshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | North East Derbyshire |
| List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire | |
Eckington is a town in North East Derbyshire, 7 miles (11 km) north of Chesterfield and 8.5 miles (14 km) south of Sheffield on the border with South Yorkshire.
Eckington has a population of 11,152.[1]
It lies on the B6052 and B6056 roads close to the A6135 for Sheffield and Junction 30 of the M1.
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10 Roman coins were discovered in December 2008,[2] at a site alongside Eckington cemetery, which may be evidence of a Roman settlement or thoroughfare in the area. The oldest of the silver and copper coins dates from the reign of the emperor Domitian (AD 81 to 96) while the others are from the reigns of Trajan (AD 98 to 117) and Hadrian (AD 117 to 138).
Eckington features in the Domesday Book in 1086 (as Echintune[3]) a manor that had been given to Ralph Fitzhubert.[4] Some parts of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul date back as far as 1100.
George Sitwell was baptised in 1601 by his parents George and Mary of Eckington. George's father died whilst he was still a child. However when an adult he was able to acquire the freehold of land in the area of Eckington[5] and exploited this by mining iron ore.[6] In 1625, he built the Renishaw Hall estate, which is now owned by Sir Reresby Sitwell's daughter, Alexandra and her family.
After mining the ore, Sitwell vertically integrated the business by constructing a blast furnace at Plumbley in partnership with his stepfather. (His mother had remarried locally to Henry Wigfall). By 1652, Sitwell had built his own furnace at Foxbrooke near Renishaw. Over the next twenty years Sitwell built a furnace at North Wingfield, forges at Pleasley, Clipstone and Cuckney; and at Pleasley he built a furnace, a forge and power saws. However the novelty was the East Midlands' first rolling and slitting mill near Renishaw.[6]
Sitwell moved to Eastcote in 1668 to live with his new wife Elizabeth Hawtrey in Haydon Hall.[7]
Eckington also had a small coal mine in the eastern part of the town, one of the very few in the country which still operated. There used to be a railway station between the town and Renishaw.
The town also has a history of the Sickle and Scythe trade. Several Dams dedicated to using waterpower to grind the blades can be found in the area- Chapelwheel, Carlton Wheel and Feilds Wheel.
Local attractions include Renishaw Hall, a 400 year old Manor House.[8]
The oldest school in Eckington is Camms CE Primary School. In 1702, Thomas Camm gave an endowment to be used to build a schoolhouse and to employ a schoolmaster to teach 24 poor children in the parish of Eckington. In 1832, Robert Harrison moved the school to its second building, which cost £600, and it was moved again to its current location on Castle Hill in 1975.[9]
The only secondary school in Eckington is Eckington School, a very large comprehensive school, with pupils going there from surrounding areas such as Killamarsh, Renishaw, Beighton, Ridgeway and Mosborough. Despite the school being closer to several Sheffield residential areas (including Beighton and Mosborough) than other Derbyshire ones, the admissions policy is set in such a way to favour pupils coming from the Derbyshire feeder schools in areas such as Killamarsh and Renishaw.[10] Eckington Comprehensive is designated a specialist engineering college. Eckington Grammar School in Halfway became Derbyshire's first comprehensive school in 1957, changing its name to the Westfield School (Sheffield), and since 1967 has been controlled by the borough of Sheffield.
On the border between South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, Eckington and other border towns such as Killamarsh, Mosborough and Ridgeway have their own local accent, a cross between the Sheffield (as opposed to Yorkshire) and Chesterfield accent. The influence of the Sheffield accent is the more strong.
There is the Eckington Swimming baths[11] near the library[12] built in the 1970s as part of town centre improvement plan. Latter followed by a bypassing of the High street, and building a bus station (halt).
Eckington Woods to the west of the town form part of the Moss Valley conservation area. They are also known locally as the Bluebell Wood, the latter being a local term coined because of the quantity of bluebells which cover the woods in the springtime. The area used to be known for sickle and scythe production, with the remains of an old forge in the valley.
Notable people from Eckington include:
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