Carsington

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Carsington
Carsington village 206417 47da5353.jpg
Carsington village
Derbyshire UK parish map highlighting Carsington.svg
Carsington parish highlighted within Derbyshire
Population251 (including Godfreyhole, 2011)
OS grid reference SK250534
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town MATLOCK
Postcode district DE4
Police Derbyshire
Fire Derbyshire
Ambulance East Midlands
List of places
UK
England
Derbyshire

Carsington is a village in the middle of the Derbyshire Dales, England; it adjoins the hamlet of Hopton, and is close to the historic town of Wirksworth and village of Brassington.

Contents

According to the 1991 Census, the population was 111, [1] increasing to 251 at the 2011 Census. [2]

History

Carsington has a long history, including Roman occupation (an old Roman settlement now lies beneath the reservoir). [3] In prehistoric times, woolly rhinos lived in the area; the near-complete remains of one such animal were discovered in the Dream Cave nearby Hopton in 1822, with Phillip Gell writing to Sir Everard Home in regards to the discovery that "The Rhinoceros appears to have occupied the centre of the Cave, the Ox and Deer one end, and the smaller animals the other end". [4]

Carsington is recorded in Domesday Book of 1086 as one of the berewicks (supporting farms) of the town and manor of Wirksworth. During the Middle Ages and right up until about 1800 it was a major location for lead mining and the lead obtained in the many Brassington and Carsington mines was usually smelted in Wirksworth.

Excavations as part of the Carsington Water reservoir construction revealed that the Romans were once present in the area. [5] Several archaeologists have stated that either Carsington & Hopton, or the wider Wirksworth area, was Lutadarum, a fortress-town and administrative centre of the Roman lead industry. [6] [7] [8] Support for this theory is provided by existence of Roman cupellation plants in Carsington, as well as lead pigs unearthed in the area. [8] [9] However, the precise location has not currently been established. [10] [11]

The Channel 4 archaeology series Time Team once visited Carsington to investigate the archaeology and ancient remains in the pastures, where they visited a cave, discovered by the Pegasus Caving Club, full of ancient human bones. [12]

British aurochs specimen CPC98 was retrieved in 1998 from Carsington Pasture Cave, possess P mtDNA haplogroup sequences and radiocarbon dated to 6,738 ± 68 calibrated years BP. [13] An aurochs is a kind of wild cattle.

Etymology

While human activity and settlement in Carsington predates Anglo-Saxon establishments, the Old English term for the village is still used today. [5]

The origin of 'Carsington' is as follows:

Cærsen (Old English) Growing with cress

tūn, (Old English) an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate. [14]

Cærsentūn can literally be translated to 'Farm/settlement growing with cress'. [14] It is also recorded in 1290 as being spelt ‘Cressington’. [15]

The Carsington and Hopton area is recoded as having previously been known as ‘Gershitune’, additionally meaning “the settlement of the [water] cress farm”, given Carsington’s former water source of Scow Brook, much of which was inundated by the Carsington Water reservoir in 1991. [15] [16]

Scow Brook historically formed the upper reaches the Henmore Brook, with the brook still running by Hognaston before becoming Henmore Brook for the rest of its path. [15]

Carsington today

Today, Carsington has one pub, the Miner's Arms, and a primary school, the Carsington & Hopton Church Primary School. The community is primarily composed of a strong commuter and retiree contingent to replace the traditional agricultural, mining and quarrying community.

Carsington Reservoir, opened in 1992, stores water from the River Derwent and is operated by Severn Trent Water. It is open all year for recreation, with an extensive cycle path, several bird hides, a water sports and sailing centre. Inside the visitor centre are a trail, several specialist shops including an excellent and informative RSPB shop, and a café/restaurant.

Politics and governance

Derbyshire Dales District Council Ward Results from 2023. Hopton, part of the Wirksworth Constituency, is shaded in red. DDDC Wards 2023.svg
Derbyshire Dales District Council Ward Results from 2023. Hopton, part of the Wirksworth Constituency, is shaded in red.

Carsington is part of the Derbyshire Dales constituency, with the Member of Parliament (MP) being John Whitby of the Labour Party. [17] The Carsington and Hopton Parish Council is responsible for the first tier of governance and community management, and is centred at St. Margaret's Church. [18]

The local council districts for Carsington are Wirksworth in both the Derbyshire Dales District Council and Derbyshire County Council, represented by Labour and Reform UK respectively. [19] [20]

Transportation

The nearest railway station to Carsington is Cromford Station in the East Midlands Railway for day-to-day use, and Wirksworth on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, which operates on a heritage basis. [21]

The Cromford and High Peak Railway formerly operated stations in Carsington from 1856, before closing the aftermath of the Beeching Axe in 1967. [22]

Bus routes that pass through Carsington include the 110 and 111 to Ashbourne and Matlock, both operated by Ashbourne Community Transport after the bankruptcy of Hulleys of Baslow. [23]

Education

Carsington and Hopton are served by the Carsington & Hopton Church Primary School, a Grade II listed CofE primary school as part of the Derbyshire-based 'The Village Federation'. [24] Established in 1726 by the Gell family, it continues to be linked with nearby Hopton Hall, with the school using the Gell Family crest as its logo. [25]

A plaque on the school wall states: 'This School was Built and Given by Mrs Temperance Gell of Hopton for Twenty Poor Children of Hopton and Carson, to Learn to Read, Write, and other proper Works. Anno Dom: 1726'. [26] As of 2025, the Church School was last rated as 'Good' by Ofsted, serving 36 students with 22.2% eligible for free school meals. [27] [28]

Secondary and Sixth Form education for Carsington village are provided by Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Ashbourne, and Anthony Gell School in Wirksworth, the latter of which was established by Anthony Gell in 1576. [29]

See also

References

  1. ↑ (1991 Census)
  2. ↑ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  3. ↑ There has been some discussion about the whereabouts of a Roman city known as Lutudarum. Anton Shone has recently published a well-referenced paper on the possible location of Lutudarm (link broken January 2015): "Origins and History of Wirksworth: Lutudarum and the Peak District before the Norman Conquest" "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ McFarlane, et al. (2016). A New Radiometric Date and Assessment of the Last Glacial Megafauna of Dream Cave, Derbyshire. University of Oxford
  5. 1 2 Anderson, Robert G.W. (2008). "A history of the Matlocks, Ashbourne, p10-16" . Nuncius. 23 (1): 160–162. doi:10.1163/182539108x00319. ISSN   0394-7394.
  6. ↑ "Carsington and Hopton | Carsington Water | Brassington". Discover Derbyshire - Peak District. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  7. ↑ Beswick, Pauline (September 2006). "Chatsworth: A Landscape History" . The Antiquaries Journal. 86: 457. doi:10.1017/s0003581500000731. ISSN   0003-5815.
  8. 1 2 Breeze, Andrew (November 2002). "The Name of Lutudarum, Derbyshire" . Britannia. 33: 266–268. doi:10.2307/1558864. ISSN   1753-5352. JSTOR   1558864.
  9. ↑ Wright, Paul (September 2017). 'Anglo-Saxon lead from the Peak District; where does it lead? A new approach to sourcing Anglo-Saxon lead' (PDF). University of Nottingham. pp. 69–78.
  10. ↑ "Carsington: A Roman Settlement". www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  11. ↑ Beswick, Pauline (September 2006). "The Peak District, Landscapes Through Time, p49, p54" . The Antiquaries Journal. 86: 457. doi:10.1017/s0003581500000731. ISSN   0003-5815.
  12. ↑ "Carsington Derbyshire". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 1 August 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
  13. ↑ Park, Stephen D. E.; Magee, David A.; McGettigan, Paul A.; Teasdale, Matthew D.; Edwards, Ceiridwen J.; Lohan, Amanda J.; Murphy, Alison; Braud, Martin; Donoghue, Mark T.; Liu, Yuan; Chamberlain, Andrew T.; Rue-Albrecht, Kévin; Schroeder, Steven; Spillane, Charles; Tai, Shuaishuai; Bradley, Daniel G.; Sonstegard, Tad S.; Loftus, Brendan J.; Machugh, David E. (26 October 2015). "Genome sequencing of the extinct Eurasian wild aurochs, Bos primigenius, illuminates the phylogeography and evolution of cattle". Genome Biology. 16 (1): 234. doi: 10.1186/s13059-015-0790-2 . PMC   4620651 . PMID   26498365.
  14. 1 2 "Key to English Place-names". kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
  15. 1 2 3 Hargreaves, PhD., Sally (2016). A Study of the Medieval Landscape of Hopton and Carsington, Derbyshire: Explanations of their close proximity. University of Leicester.
  16. ↑ Yates, E. M.; Cameron, Kenneth (1960). "The Place-Names of Derbyshire. English Place-Name Society, Vols. XXVII-XXIX". The Geographical Journal. 126 (3): 344. doi:10.2307/1793642. ISSN   0016-7398.
  17. ↑ "Location of Derbyshire Dales (Constituency) - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  18. ↑ "Carsington & Hopton Parish Council | About the Villages". C&H PC. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
  19. ↑ "Election results for Wirksworth - County Council Election - Thursday, 1 May 2025". democracy.derbyshire.
  20. ↑ "Councillors by Ward: Wirksworth". Derbyshire Dales County Council. 7 February 2025.
  21. ↑ "Ecclesbourne Valley Railway – Derbyshire's Longest Heritage Railway" . Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  22. ↑ McCarthy, P J (November 2001). A Chronology of the CROMFORD & HIGH PEAK RAILWAY and associated events (PDF). RAILWAY & CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY RAILWAY CHRONOLOGY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP.
  23. ↑ "Life after Hulleys". BusAndTrainUser. 29 March 2025. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  24. ↑ "The Village Federation - Home". www.thevillagefederation.co.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  25. ↑ "Carsington And Hopton C of E Primary School - Home". www.carsingtonhoptonprimary.co.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  26. ↑ "CARSINGTON AND HOPTON PRIMARY SCHOOL, Carsington - 1109456 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  27. ↑ Ofsted (2025). "Carsington and Hopton Primary School". reports.ofsted.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  28. ↑ "Carsington and Hopton Primary School - GOV.UK". get-information-schools.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  29. ↑ "About Us". Anthony Gell School. Retrieved 11 October 2025.

53°04′41″N1°37′37″W / 53.078°N 1.627°W / 53.078; -1.627

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