The Lost Houses of Derbyshire
by Maxwell Craven
The south ( entrance ) front photographed c . 1900 from a postcard sent in 1918 . [ MC ]
WILLESLEY HALL ASHBY
The 1820 engraving of the house from the South East , much as Francis Smith had left it a century before . [ Private Collection ]
Until the local government reforms of 1888-
1889 Derbyshire did not sit inside a single boundary ; it has detached ‘ islands ’, mainly to its south , created in the Saxon period by assarting – clearing of woodland by men of Derbyshire in unadopted regions . The settlements so created , once the County system had become established in the mid-10th century , tended to become detached parts of the area ( county ) of the people who had initially created them . Several counties had them . Derbyshire itself boasted Appleby Parva , Chilcote , Clifton Camville , Donisthorpe , Edingale , Measham , Oakthorpe , Ravenstone ( the most southerly ), Stretton-en-le-Field - and Willesley . Since 1889 they have been divided amongst Leicestershire and Staffordshire .
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