Stenson, Derbyshire
Coordinates: 52°51′58″N 1°31′01″W / 52.866°N 1.517°W
Stenson is a hamlet (grid reference SK325298) south of Derby on the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Between Stenson and Derby itself lies the busy A50 dual-carriageway and Stenson Fields, a large housing estate built between the early 1970s and late 1990s. Stenson Fields is constituted as a separate parish wholly within South Derbyshire District, but it is essentially contiguous with the Sunny Hill, Sinfin and Littleover suburbs of Derby city. The parish of Stenson Fields was created in 1983 from parts of the parish of Barrow-upon-Trent and the parish of Twyford and Stenson. Originally called Sinfin Moor the name was later changed to Stenson Fields to be in keeping with the geographical and historical place name of the area. Sinfin Moor is a large tract of land to the east of Stenson Fields and Sinfin proper. Sinfin Moor is a Regionally Important Geological Site (RIGS) which formed over the bed of an ice age lake. Part of the RIGS spills over into Stenson Fields close to the hamlet of Arleston.
Stenson Lock is lock number 6. It is the second deepest on the canal at 12' 6".[1] There is also a marina and a narrowboat builders. The 'Stenson Bubble', after which the local waterside pub is named, is a small spring on the downstream side of the lock.
A railway line follows the line of the canal, part of a loop for freight bypassing Derby. This runs from the nearby Stenson Junction on the Derby-Birmingham line to Sheet Stores Junction at Sawley on the Midland Main Line.
Twyford
Stenson itself is parished with Twyford, (grid reference SK327285). a similar village about one mile (1.6 km) to the south, on the north bank of the River Trent.
Twyford and Stenson are mentioned in 1086 in the Domesday book. The book says[3] under the title of “The lands of Henry de Ferrers[4]
”In Twyford and Stenson Leofric had four carucates of land to the geld. There is land for three ploughs (plows). There are now two ploughs in demesne and four villans and five bordars with one plough and one mill rendering 5 shillings have one plough. There is one mill rendering 2 shillings and 24 acres (97,000 m2) of meadow, woodland pasture one furlong long and one much broad. TRE[5] worth eight pounds now four pounds.“
The river crossing there has not been used in recent times; there was a chain ferry there until 1963.
St Andrew's Church at Twyford is an unusual sight as from the outside it appears to be of brick construction with stone extensions and steeple. In fact the brickwork is just a fascia as internal investigation reveals. It is about 220 yards (200 m) from the River Trent which floods every winter but never, it seems, has the church been flooded.[6] However it has been damaged by lightning in 1821 and a fire in 1910. The lower part of the tower dates from 1200. Local tradition tells of “food being handed out to wayfarers from a stone framed window in a nearby farmhouse. This charity was administered by monks from a religious house of the Knights Hospitallers at the village of Arleston.
References
- ↑ Deepest Canal Locks in England and Wales
- ↑ Pictures from Wikimedia Commons
- ↑ Domesday Book: A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.749
- ↑ Henry held a considerable number of manors including several in Derbyshire given to him by the King. These included obviously Twyford and Stenson, but also included lands in Youlgreave, Swarkestone and Kedleston.
- ↑ TRE in Latin is Tempore Regis Edwardi. This means in the time of King Edward before the Battle of Hastings.
- ↑ ”The Church of St Andrew Twyford” An eight page brochure published by the church. Available May 2007
Media related to Stenson, Derbyshire at Wikimedia Commons