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Village History

We have now created a new informal Morley Parish History Group and several people will be travelling to Matlock County Archive Office etc. to research the history of Morley Parish. If you would like to be involved in any way, or if you have any items which you think may be of interest, photographs, stories or information to pass on please contact our Co-ordinator, Jim Parish at jamesparish382@btinternet.com.

Some years ago a local group formed to research and publish a 'Village History'. This book provides a fascinating insight into many aspects of Morley, the people, the places, the events and the activities spanning several centuries.

The book is out of print but can be accessed via local libraries.

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The Morley History Group A Report of progress and of the Winter

Meeting held 11th February 2010

Back in June 2009 a public meeting was held at the village school with the purpose of reviving and updating a history of the Parish of Morley, the last one having been published in 1977 and is now out of print. At a meeting held in Jim Parish's house in Brackley Gate, Jim and Mo Hicklin reported back to the five people who could make the winter progress meeting: namely Graham Curtis, John Green, Roger Baddley, Kate and Theo Marsland.

So what has been happening since 2009?
At that earlier meeting Jim Parish, Mo Hicklin and Andrea Last had volunteered to attend the Victoria Country History meetings held in Matlock each fortnight. Jim was to act as co-ordinator for the information, mostly because he was retired and could put the time in at the computer. Due to sickness, weather conditions and other issues, we rarely managed three attendees, but never less than one.

What is the Victoria County History (VCH) attempting to do with our labour?
Founded in 1899 and originally dedicated to Queen Victoria, VCH is written by historians working in counties across England. It is attempting to write a definitive historical reference for all the parishes in England. Philip Ridden is the editor for Nottingham and Derbyshire and a Professor of History at Nottingham University. Our labour is required to source and write the Morley entry, as none exists today. Because all parishes must use a common style, which is strictly an academic approach, Philip will have the final say on what eventually gets published. It is true to say that it may not be every-bodies cup of tea. The more chatty style of the 1977 “A History of the Parish of Morley Derbyshire” was more of what most people had in mind. However VCH has access to a basic methodology and a lot of the source of material required for both exercises and with that in mind we can create two set of Histories: one the VCH way and another for ourselves.

What has happened so far and who is doing what?
We are still in a data gathering mode, and those attending the February meeting are keen to help within their individual time budgets. It is apparent that this is not going to be done quickly. Kate Marsland and Mo Hicklin have already co-opted the children of the village school to assemble maps of the area. Kate has also co-opted her mother down from Yorkshire to go to the Matlock Records Office to research the School history by looking through the log books.

Mo and Jim have been scouring the Directories of Derbyshire from 1821 to 1941 to find entries for Morley. Other sources include Pevsner's Derbyshire, the Charity Commission and historic books from Derby and Matlock. Jim has become obsessed with the geology and climate changes that lead up to the place we live in today, with the odd flurry into Roman and Toll Roads. We are a rural parish of many farms and Jim has done a sample write-up for Morley Moor Farm with the help of the current owner George Godber.

Graham Curtis has a video of the Queen's Jubilee which he will convert from VHS to a DVD and will make copies available (not something VCH would approve of). His wife studied geology and has taken off the Geological Survey Map for Morley to help Jim make sense of it.

Roger Baddley has volunteered to attend a day at Nottingham University with Jim and Mo this summer to create a definitive line of decent for the Sachervell family: with Philip's guidance. Roger was also keen to research a number of other items on our to-do-list and went off keen to make a start.

John Green has a lot of photos he is keen to donate, but is concerned that we should not wait until a definitive document can be produced. He strongly feels that we should be putting this up on the web in some form and others agreed.

We have the Morley Parish website which can host the Village History pages and should perhaps start there. If it becomes too big we can consider a seperate web site. We now have the archive of material left by the late Eva Bestwick, editor of the 1977 history to catalogue and investigate, which include her notebooks. Mo has the Tithe map of 1843 and Jim is about to produce a spreadsheet of the supporting schedule so we can analyse who owned what. We also have the enclosures map of 1784, but as yet no schedule to support it.

When is the Next Meeting?
It was agreed that monthly meetings would be too frequent, so I will attempt to set up another in April this year. The meeting broke up after two and a half hours.

From your Co-ordinator,
Jim Parish