Home Page | Contact the Project bonsallhistory@googlemail.com

Bonsall History Project - Site Contents & Links

This website is a means of publicising the project and also a way for members and others to share information. At present, all the members are deeply engaged in researching their particular areas of interest so the website serves as a bit of 'scrapbook'. It is updated regularly. Contact us if you would like to know more about Bonsall History Project.

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Another Bonsall Project

field barn photoThe Bonsall Field Barn Project has been created to do something about the many derelict field barns in and around Bonsall. Although they look quite romantic as ruins, the truth is that after surviving the stripping of their roofs over the past 50 years, many are now being plundered for their stone quoins and lintels. It is only a matter of little time that these historic and important barns will be left to memory. We could be the last generation of people for as long as 300 years, to see them standing in their rightful places. They have always been here but now they are disappearing overnight - literally.
Booklets for sale Trackways, Trails, Transport and Trade by Gwen Wright, Peter Fellows, Peter Greaves and John March - The area around Bonsall is crisscrossed with many different kinds of paths and trackways. Transport, trade and communications have always played an important part in the village's history, linking it with Cromford and Matlock, the lead mines and smelting works at Wirksworth and with important lead, salt and calamine routes. Published January 2004.
Bonsall - A Thousand Years of Growth by Dudley Fowkes, Gwen Wright, Jenny March, Peter Fox, Peter Greaves and John March - examines surviving historical documents from the Domesday Book onwards outlining the people who lived in Bonsall through the centuries and attempts to trace the growth of the village over the best part of a thousand years. Published January 2004.
Bonsall at Work by Peter Fellows - looks at the many trades that helped to make Bonsall virtually self-sufficient over the past 400 years. Among the trades it describes are leather working, rope making, food and drink production and sale, textiles, paper making, comb making and the wood industries. Published November 2003.
Bonsall in the Dim and Distant Past by Bob Howie and Pam McInally - explores the influence of the area's geology and the evidence of human settlement from Palaeolithic times to the Domesday Book. Published September 2003
Bonsall in the 17th century by Gwen Wright, Dudley Fowkes and John March - a period dominated by plague, civil war and religious upheaval. How these cataclysms affected the village and its people. Published July 2003

The 1415 Duchy of Lancaster returns by John March - A schedule of the people who rented land in Bonsall from the Duchy of Lancaster.
Photo Archive Over 100 photos of old Bonsall going back to the early years of last century

Articles and Notes

Water Scheme l902 - a proposal to Matlock Urban District Council
Nuisance Byelaws 1877
Murder in the Village
'Bonsall' spellings From Bunteshale to Bonsall - spelling the village name
'Our Bonsall Lads' - a First World War poem
'Ayd to His Majesty King Charles I, 1627''Loans' collected from Bonsall people in 1627
A List of Rectors in Bonsall 1304-1874
School and Sunday School - old photographs

The complete Tithe Map of 1848 in eight sections.

References and sources
Books held by Bonsall History Society members

Catalogued Sources at the Local History Library - a variety of general resources including books, local government reports, historical and tourist information including;
House sales - catalogues dating from 1981
Maps - Ordnance Survey sheets from 1900 to 1970
Articles - from the local and national press, historical and archaeological society journals
Domesday Sources - The Domesday Book and Derbyshire

Downloadable documents

Employment and Businesses 1841 - 1891 - Information from John Palmer's site compiled by Peter Fellows
The Civil War (1642-9) Bonsall in the Seventeenth Century by Gwen Wright and John March. Now published as a pamphlet and available to order for only £2.50 (or US$5.00).
Businesses Taken from business directories from 1833 to 1936. 1950s onwards, based on interviews. Available as a downloadable Excel spreadsheet. Compiled by Peter Fellows.
Hearth Tax Assessments 1670 Taken from D.G. Edwards, Derbyshire Hearth Tax Assessments 1662-70 Chesterfield: Derbyshire Record Society
Population The growth of the village from 1086, the Domesday Book, up to the first census in 1801. Downloadable Word document. Article by John March.
Links
Websites useful for research, for learning more about Bonsall and Derbyshire, and for learning about history.
News Groups
The Bonsall History Society - our own group. Everyone with an interest in Bonsall history is welcome to join.
Wirksworthnet - ditto
The Bonsall Research Group - an American group researching the Bonsall family name
Local History
The most important site for local history research is www.wirksworth.org.uk - an amazing compilation from Wirksworth enthusiast John Palmer.
http://www.andrewspages.dial.pipex.com/ "A wealth of genealogy and local history information"
The Local History Press - www.local-history.co.uk
Derbyshire Archaeological Society
The Bonsall Map Project
Family History
Public Records Office
Derbyshire Family History Society
Bonsall Historical Society American site dedicated to the ancestry and descendants of Richard and Mary (Wood) Bonsall of Mouldridge Grange, Bonsall.
Genuki, a geneaology website
Neighbouring Communities
Wirksworth Heritage Centre
Cromford Homepage Interesting enthusiasts' site about the neighbouring village
Local Government and Official websites
Derbyshire County Council Online
District Council
The Peak District website
CPRE - Council for the Protection of Rural England

The Bonsall History Project has been supported by theLocal Heritage Initiative

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Home Page | Contact the Society bonsallhistory@googlemail.com