Peak Forest

The parish established a Reading Room around 1880.

Basher EYRE has a photograph of the Reading Room on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2015.

You may find it valuable to use the Chapel-en-le-Frith Library, which has both a Family History section and a Local Studies section.

Basher EYRE has a photograph of the churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2015 .

Michael SPENCER provides a partial extract of Parish Register burials for your review. Your additions and correction are welcomed.

• The parish was in the Chapel en le Frith sub-district of the Chapel en le Frith Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• The first chapel at Peak Forest was built towards the end of the Civil War, by Christiana, Dowager Countess of Devonshire, a loyal supporter of the Crown - although it wasn't dedicated until after the end of the War. Christiana's own son, Charles, also died during the War, in 1643, fighting for the Royalist cause. This chapel was removed before 1900.
   
• The present church was built in 1876-1877 adjacent to the old church site.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to King Charles I, the Martyr.
   
• The church seats 240.
   
• The chapel had a reputation for disregarding the Marriage Act and people came from all over to get married, many of them underage. The minister would not read the traditional banns until an act of Parliament in 1804 forced him to change the practice.
   
• George GRIFFIN has a photograph of Peak Forest Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2005.
   
• Bill HENDERSON has a photograph of Charles King and Martyr Church on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2017.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1669, but early sections are dilapidated. From 1727 it is almost perfect.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Buxton.
   
• Andrew HILL has a photograph of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2012.
   
• The village had a Wesleyan Methodist chapel prior to 1895.

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Chapel en le Frith sub-district of the Chapel en le Frith Registration District.

• Jane TAYLOR in Redcar provides this extract from the Derby Mercury of 27 October 1803: "...on the 21st inst. John TIMMONS, charged upon oath with burgulariously breaking open the dwelling-house of Mr David PEARSON, of Peak Forest, on the night of the 8th or on the morning of the 9th instant, and stealing thereout sundry articles of wearing apparel."
   

"PEAK FOREST is all extra parochial liberty, in the hundred of High Peak, about three miles and a half north-west from Tideswell. This district is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction of a court of pleas, held at Tutbury every third Tuesday, for the recovery of debts under 40s. The chapel here is dedicated to King Charles the Martyr: the living is a perpetual curacy in the peculiar jurisdiction of the dean and chapter of Lichfield, and in the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire. A free school here has a small endowment, for the education of ten poor children. The liberty contained, in 1831, 573 inhabitants, being fewer by thirty-four than were returned for it thirty years previous; and a reduction in the population of 107 persons since the census of 1821."

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]

The nearly 5,300 acres of the parish have been mostly pasturage.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Rosemary LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Peak Forest entry under Tideswell from Pigot & Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire (1835).
   
• Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Peak Forest entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

• Mel LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Peak Forest entry from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England, 1831.
   
• The transcription of the section for Peak Forest from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin HINSON.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Peak Forest to another place.

Bill HENDERSON has a photograph of The Devonshire Arms pub. on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2017.

These are the names associated with the Devonshire Arms in various directories:

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK116797 (Lat/Lon: 53.31411, -1.827351), Peak Forest which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• This place was an ancient extra-parochial area in Derbyshire and became a modern Civil Parish in December, 1858.
   
• This parish was in the ancient High Peak Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• You may contact the local Parish Council regarding civic and political issues, but they will NOT be able to help you with family history questions.
   
• District governance is provided by the High Peak Borough Council.

• The Countess of Devonshire established a fund that helped pay for apprenticing poor children.
   
• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Chapel-en-le-Frith petty session hearings once each month.
   
• Around 1818, the Rev. Francis GISBORNE funded a charity of £5 10s annualy for flannel for the poor.
   
• As a result of the Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish became a member of the Chapel en le Frith Poorlaw Union.

Year	Inhabitants
1801	607
1831	573
1841	575
1851	596
1881	499
1891	502

• The Public Elementary School (mixed) was built in 1868 for 100 children.
   
• Bill HENDERSON has a photograph of Peak Forest Primary School on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2017.