VCH Derbyshire Publications

This volume was edited by William Page and was published in 1905.

It includes the following entries:

• Natural History
• Early Man
• Romano-British Remains
• Anglo-Saxon Remains
• Early Christian Art
• Introduction to the Derbyshire Domesday
• Text of the Derbyshire Domesday
• Ancient Earthworks
• Forestry
• Index to the Derbyshire Domesday

The full text is available via the Internet Archive.

This volume was edited by William Page and published in 1907. It includes the following entries:

• Medieval Religious Houses
• Political History
• Social and Economic History
• Schools

• Introduction
  • Derby Grammar School
  • Chesterfield Grammar School
  • Repton School
  • Tideswell Grammar School
  • Dronfield Grammar School
  • Wirksworth Grammar School
  • Ashbourne Grammar School
  • Staveley or Netherthorpe Grammar School
  • Risley Grammar School
  • Lady Manners School, Bakewell
  • Buxton Grammar School
• Grammar Schools now Elementary
• Elementary Schools founded before 1800

• Sport Ancient and Modern
• Agriculture
• Industries

The entries for medieval religious houses are on British History Online.

Edited by Philip Riden with contributions from Dudley Fowkes, this volume was published in 2013.

The history and topography of the small market town of Bolsover in north-east Derbyshire and four parishes immediately to its north (Barlborough, Clowne, Elmton - including Creswell - and Whitwell) are covered in this volume. All lie mainly on a magnesian limestone ridge, rather than the exposed coalfield, and therefore only became mining communities late in the nineteenth century. Since the end of deep mining in Derbyshire all have faced a difficult period of economic and social adjustment. As well as the general development of the five parishes, the book includes detailed accounts of the medieval castle at Bolsover, the mansion built on the site of the castle by the Cavendish family of Welbeck in the seventeenth century, and Barlborough Hall, a late sixteenth-century prodigy house built by a successful Elizabethan lawyer.

Buy this volume.

Written by Philip Riden and Dudley Foukes, the book was published in 2008.

Bolsover is famous for its castles and its colliery, the boldest elements in the rich history of a town that was laid out shortly after the Norman Conquest. For many centuries a quiet market town in a large rural parish, Bolsover was physically dominated by a castle which seems to have been maintained only for use in troubled times until it was rebuilt by the Cavendishes, descendants of Bess of Hardwick. Their mansion, one of the most curious and intriguing buildings of the 17th century, is what visitors now flock to see, although for its owners it was a private house that turned its back on the town. The collieries, which transformed the parish physically and economically in the late 19th century, have gone, but a legacy of new settlements, including the model village of New Bolsover, survives to illustrate the part the town played in the heyday of the British coal industry. 'Bolsover: Castle, Town and Colliery' explores the history of town and parish, and charts the changing fortunes of its communities from rural origins to post-industrial present.

Written by Philip Riden and Dudley Fowkes, the book was published in 2009.

One of the most magnificent great house of the Elizabethan period, Hardwick New Hall stands prominently on high ground overlooking the valley of the river Doe Lea in north-east Derbyshire. Built in the 1590s by Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury (best known to history as 'Bess of Hardwick'), the hall is one of the best preserved examples of the work of the architect Robert Smythson and stands in stark contrast to the ruinous remains of the Old Hall also built by Bess in the 1580s. This book looks at the history of both the halls and the wider estate, the changing fortunes of the Cavendish family, and the growth and eventual decline of the coal mining industry in the area. Hardwick: a Great House and its Estate follows the development of the estate, from its purchase and initial development by Bess, to the administration of her son William, who also bought the Chatsworth estate and became earl of Devonshire in 1618. The story continues to the death of the 10th duke of Devonshire in 1950, taking in the transformation brought about by the expansion of coal mining in the late 19th century and the impact of the closure of the collieries in the late 20th century on the estate communiities, some of which have prospered and others face an uncertain future. This book is a must for all those interested in finding out more about the social and physical history of this great hall and its surrounding villages.