The Andrews Pages Picture Gallery> Derbyshire> The Andrews Pages Picture Gallery : Derbyshire A selection of our own photographs and postcards that have personal or family connections Picture Gallery Index Next page Previous page Also see Our Genealogy Images of Matlock & Matlock Bath   St. Leonard's Church, Shirland - two photographs   St. Leonard's Church, Shirland, the church tower The church is in the centre of the village, beside the turnpike road connecting Chesterfield and Alfreton. Gladwyn Turbutt, in his "History" of the village writes that "The earliest reference to a church at Shirland occurs in an interesting fine, dated 22 September 1226"1 and goes on to comment that "a dispute of this nature could only have occured a short while after a new church had been built"1. According to Pevsner it is "essentially a fifteenth century church. The West tower has diagonal buttresses and eight pinnacles on the battlements" 2. St. Leonard was a hermit - a Frankish nobleman - who settled near Limoges about the sixth century. Writing in 1875, Reverend J. Charles Cox observed that "the memory of this humble-minded hermit seems to have been formerly regarded with much favour in England, for more than one hundred and forty churches still retain their dedications to his name". ... There are three other churches in Derbyshire dedicated to St. Leonard, viz., Thorpe, Monyash and Scarcliffe"3. The number has increased and there are now around 180 churches dedicated to him. There is a marble tablet inside the church in memory of the webmistress's 3x great grandfather, John Clay (1790 - 1865), and his two daughters. St. Leonard's Church, Shirland Although the part of the churchyard surrounding the church has been largely cleared of its really old headstones, some memorials are still to be found. These include what must have been a very costly large chest vault to the Bansall family, which is of particular interest to me as Mary Bansall (1799-1844) had been a Clay before her marriage. Unfortunately, these memorials here have not withstood the effects of circumstances, weathering and nature. Cox3 has a photograph of the memorial showing it surrounded by iron railings that presumably disappeared during the war and when the webmistress visited there was a yew tree almost covering the tomb. On the opposite side of the old highway stands the old manor house, now called Manor Farm, where several generations of my Clay ancestors lived and farmed the land. The names of John and Mary Clay, with the date 1746, are carved on the barn wall of Manor Farm. The Clays in Shirland were part of the family from The Hill, North Wingfield4; the branch of the family who lived in Shirland had come to the village in 1695 and built Gables Farm in Higham (which is in the parish of Shirland). The family finally left Shirland in the 1870's, though younger sons had moved to Bonsall, Crich, Liverpool, Matlock and Nottingham before that date. My Bryon ancestors farmed at Shirland Lodge. The Gentleman's Magazine Library - Derbyshire to Dorset 1842 Pigot's Directory extract of Shirland names Shirland entry in Kelly's Directory for Derbys, Notts, Leics & Rutland, 1891 CLAYs listed in Kelly's Directory for Derbys, Notts, Leics & Rutland, 1891 Images © Andy Andrews, rescanned 2007. All other information provided by and © Ann Andrews Intended for personal use only References and notes on the text: 1 Turbutt, Gladwyn (1978, reprinted 1997), "A History of Shirland and Higham", Higham Press p.93 ISBN 0 9504692 1 1 2 Pevsner, Nikolaus (1953), "The Buildings of England, Derbyshire", Penguin Books 3 Cox, J Charles (1875) "Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire Vol I" Chesterfield: Palmer and Edmunds, London: Bemrose and Sons, 10 Paternoster Buildings; and Derby p.332 4 Some of the younger sons of the Clay family in North Wingfield went to Alfreton, Ault Hucknall, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Salford, Sheffield (all ENG) as well as to Pennsylvania, USA. © 1996 - Ann Andrews (click link to contact). All Rights Reserved. Last Update: 29 September, 2007 About and Conditions of Use | Site Map, Genealogy and Local History | Links | Part of The Andrews Pages - www.andrewspages.dial.pipex.com