A Brief History of Elvaston

EARLY HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT PARISH OF ELVASTON

Who were Aelvolestune, Embolderstune and Torulfestune? They were the three Viking leaders who moved up the River Trent to settle in what became Elvaston parish. Therefore Elvaston pre-dates the Norman Conquest and by 1066 already had a church and priest and the three manors of Elvaston, Ambaston and Thulston, named after their Viking founders. They remain distinct settlements within the parish nearly a millennium later.

The Domesday Survey of 1086, was made by order of William the Conqueror, William Duke of Normandy, who had been crowned William the First, after his victory at the Battle of Hastings. The purpose was to record land rights as a basis for taxation. Survey results were taken to Winchester, checked and written up on leaves of sheepskin parchment and the two resulting volumes are now preserved at the Public Record Office. William’s friends had been granted land throughout the country, but apart from the new ownership, the management of the land remained as it had been in Saxon times. England was already divided into Shires, or counties, as today. These were divided into Hundreds, which were administrative districts, where the notable people and village representatives met about once a month. Elvaston was in the Hundred (or Wapentake, the Danish equivalent) of Morleyston.

William had granted land in Derbyshire to several individuals plus Burton Abbey. The Domesday survey records that Geoffrey of Alselin (or Hanselyn) was given the 3 manors in Ambaston, Thulston and Elvaston, all previously held by Tochi. The total valuation in 1086 was only £10, compared with £12 in 1066. Geoffrey was also granted land in other parishes in the south of Derbyshire, including neighbouring Ockbrook, and Shelford in Nottinghamshire, where he chose to live. (Until the Reformation Ockbrook was a chapelry of Elvaston with a chaplain appointed by the Vicar of Elvaston.)

In the reign of Henry II Geoffrey’s descendant, Ralph Hanselyn, founded an Augustinian Priory at Shelford and endowed it with tithes and rents from Elvaston, which meant that the Prior and Canons there had to provide the priest to serve the church in Elvaston. This continued until the Reformation, after which it was the Stanhopes who appointed the vicars. There is a complete list of Vicars of Elvaston, beginning in 1298 with Frater Godmannus, canon of Shelford.

The canons of Dale Abbey and Darley Abbey also held land in the parish of Elvaston. Dale had a grange at Ambaston and Darley had a grange at Thulston. A grange was a farm worked by lay brethren from the monastery. They were usually illiterate, but followed the monastic regime. The religious house would receive the revenues from the land to support the monastic community. The grange functioned independently of the manorial system with its common fieldsand servile labour. Most granges would have a chapel for the use of the lay brothers and visiting monks, quite separate from the parish church where the village people would attend services. The chapels in Ambaston and Thulston have totally vanished and there is no tradition of where they were located, but both were there and still had a bell in 1549 when an inventory of church goods was taken after the Reformation.

In 1539 after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, Sir Michael Stanhope purchased most of Shelford Priory’s possessions and land of other religious houses, including much of Elvaston. The Stanhopes, later the Earls of Harrington, were to remain in Elvaston until the 20th century. Philip Stanhope, first Lord Chesterfield, built the first family house at Elvaston in 1633, part of which still stands and bears this date. Further work, including the drawing room, staircase and some fine fireplaces, date from the 18th century.

But the appearance of the house today owes most to the 3rd Earl and the designs of James Wyatt, the changes and additions being done between 1815 and1829. The elaborate gothic entrance hall dates from this time and is known from the 1969 film “Women in Love” in which the wrestling scene with Alan Bates and Oliver Reed was filmed in front of the fireplace. It was also the 3rd Earl who brought the Golden Gates, which had originally been at the Palace of Versailles.

The 4th Earl inherited in 1829 when he was fifty and his priority was to landscape the gardens and parkland as a private retreat for himself and his beloved actress wife. The famous garden designer Humphrey Repton refused the commission as he believed the site to be too flat and the Earl turned to an unknown gardener, William Barron. He worked at Elvaston from 1830 to 1850, introducing revolutionary ideas in design and technique and became one of the most respected gardeners of his time. The grounds remain famous for their landscaping, with a large serpentine lake, long straight avenues and fine topiary. Meanwhile the 4th Earl began the final building phase of the castle in 1839. After decades as a very private estate, Elvaston was inherited in 1851 by the 5th Earl who opened the gardens to the public for the first time, and people flocked to see them. He died in 1862 and his monument shows him in full military uniform and states that from the age of fifteen he served all over the world, and was also with Lord Byron in Greece.

The family remained at Elvaston until just before the Second World War. The teacher training college in Derby was evacuated to the Castle during the war, and after they left, the building was unused until its sale in 1968 to Derbyshire County Council and the former Derby County Borough Council. The country’s first country park was opened to the public soon after, and the 200 acres of gardens, woodland and parkland are still maintained by the County Council.

Elvaston Church is dedicated to St. Bartholomew, whose feast day is 24 August. However, during the 15th century it is recorded as being dedicated to Our Lady

and the change probably came after the reformation. The original Saxon building was probably of wood and thatch and there is no trace of it. The chancel is the oldest part of the present church and dates from around 1200. Most of the rest of the structure dates from 1474 when extensive repairs and a general restoration were carried out under the will of Walter Blount, the first Lord Mountjoy. There were also major restorations in 1847 and 1904-5, which have both left their mark.

The close association of Elvaston with Shelford Priory during the middle ages is demonstrated in the resemblance in architectural detail of the two church towers, especially their lower parts, described by Pevsner as being of unusual design. The form of the buttresses, doorway mouldings and window sills are examples of these similarities. Furthermore, identical masons’ marks show that the same masons worked at both Elvaston and Shelford. The upper parts of the towers differ because in 1847 Elvaston became insecure and a restoration replaced the pinnacles and parapet, leaving a very plain top. The four bells remain intact, the earliest ones dated 1564 and 1595, the newer two were cast by Taylors of Loughborough, one of them dated 1847 when the tower was repaired.

The interior of the church is rich in monuments to the Stanhope family, later the Earls of Harrington, but there are records of others, now destroyed. They are thought to have been swept away in alterations by the Stanhopes to make room for their own memorials. The earliest surviving is to Sir John Stanhope (died 1610), who is shown in armour. The next is his son, also Sir John (died 1638), who was knighted in 1607 by James 1. His monument, showing him in plate armour, was mutilated during the civil war, but was reassembled by his descendent in 1731. In the 17th century Sir John Stanhope was loyal to the King and Church. The house, garden and the church with his family monuments were all victims of damage from the Parliamentarian, Sir John Gell, and his soldiers. During the 1904/5 restoration of the church alabaster fragments were found under the floor of the nave, and bullet marks can still be seen on the outside of the tower on the north wall, all dating from the 1640s.

The dress and the inscriptions on these monuments tell a story of a family which served the country over the centuries, at home and across the world.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

There is much more detail which could be written about the parish and its people, church and castle, but most of it can be found elsewhere.

1. In the Shadow of a Castle (2001) by the late J. F Morrell paints a picture of the parish, the buildings and the inhabitants, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with reminiscences and old photographs.

2. Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire, Volume IV (1879) by J. Charles Cox provides details of the history and architecture of the church from the earliest times, and gives references to the early documents.

3. St Bartholomew’s Parish Church Elvaston: A Souvenir of the Restoration and Re-opening (1905). This is a leather-bound volume, limited to 600 copies and provides valuable information about the people of the parish at the time, and the individuals involved in the work. Many of the families named are still in the parish today.

4. The Buildings of England – Derbyshire (1953 – first edition) by Nikolaus Pevsner is a useful guide to the architecture of the church and the castle.

5. The internet is useful in giving information about some of the more notable people who were born, lived or worked in the parish over the centuries. There are also details of the recent campaign to save the heritage of the castle and its grounds for the future.

6. The church itself deserves a visit for the information given on the monumental inscriptions inside and also in the churchyard.

Irene Brightmer May 2010