Sheldon

The Bakewell Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.

Neil THEASBY has a photograph of St. Michael and All Angels Churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2019.

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

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

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Michael and All Angels.
   
• Some sources give the dedication as just "All Angels" and many sources refer to the church as just a chapel.
   
• The present church was built in 1864 near the site of the old chapel.
   
• The church burial ground is just a little east of the church.
   
• The church seats 140.
   
• John DARCH has a photograph of St Michael and All Angels on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2006.

• The earliest baptism in the Sheldon parish register is 29 Aug 1737, of Cornelius and Richard, sons of Cornelius & Elizabeth WHITE, followed by the first baptism proper, in 1746. In addition to a transcription on CD, available from Ancestral Archives, there is a printed transcription of Sheldon registers available, covering the periods 1672-75 and 1745-1810 for baptisms, and 1745-1812 for marriages, which has the following note:

  "The Register Commenced in the year 1745 when the Queen's Bounty & Mrs Archer's Augmentation made Sheldon a private Curacy when John SWIFT B.A. was first Curate there."

  I recorded the above note from a transcription which I saw some years ago in the Society of Genealogist's Library, obtaining the reference [Ref: DB/R 29 pub. 1939] and covering dates from SoG's website more recently. It is not clear to me now where the baptisms recorded as taking place 1672-75 came from. Added 12 Mar 2008 by Rosemary LOCKIE.
   
• Check the registers at Bakewell for earlier entries.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Bakewell.
   
• The Primitive Methodists built a small chapel here in 1848.

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Bakewell sub-district of the Bakewell Registration District.

"SHELDON, a chapelry in the parish of Bakewell, hundred of High Peak, county Derby, 3 miles W. of Bakewell, its post town. The village, which is of small extent, is situated near the river Wye, and is chiefly agricultural. A portion of the inhabitants are engaged in the lead mines. The impropriate tithes belong to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield, and to the Duke of Devonshire."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin HINSON ©2003]

The parish covers 1,070 acres. It is about 1,050 feet above sea level. It is best known for being the closest village to Magpie Mine, a lead mine that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Basher EYRE has a photograph of the Village Hall on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2015. Stop in when the Hall is open and ask to see the schedule of forth-coming events. Village Halls are often used for talks on local history, family history, etc.

Peter BARR has a photograph of the Welcome to Sheldon sign on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2009.

Andrew HILL has a photograph of the bus stop at the west end of the village on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2011.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Sheldon entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

• The Sheldon Duck - in 1610, so legend has it, a group of Sheldon villagers watched a duck fly into an ash tree. They were baffled however, as they never saw the duck come out again. Thereafter, the tree became known as 'The Duck Tree'. Nearly 3 centuries later, when the tree was felled and split up into planks in a timber yard in Ashford, the image of a 'duck-sized' pattern was found in the grain of the two middle planks, with markings where the brain and lungs would have been. Thus was born the legend of 'The Sheldon Duck'. The two boards were on display in Ashford Post Office for a while, and postcards showing an image of the duck used to be sold. However, this was not to last, as the timber merchant who felled the tree liked the pieces of wood so much that he used them for making a mantlepiece at his home.
  [Reference: Bunting, Julie - Branching Out into Fact & Fiction. Article published in The Peak Advertiser 5th April 2004, p1.& p9]

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

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

• Peter McDERMOTT has a photograph of the old Cock and Pullet Inn on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2017. The Pub was rebuilt from an old barn in 1996.
   
• Barbarann AYARS has a transcription of the section of Lysons' Topographical and Historical Account of Derbyshire, 1817, for Sheldon.
   
• The Magpie Mine stands due south of the village about one mile. It is an abandoned lead mine that operated for over 250 years. Dolin PARK has a photograph of the buildings at Magpie Mine on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2014.
   
• Read about the Murders at the Red Soil Mine, 1835 on John PALMER's Wirksworth site.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK168691 (Lat/Lon: 53.218915, -1.750172), Sheldon 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.

Sheldon has a building which has been dedicated as the WW2 war memorial hall. The Hall was dedicated in 1950.

The Hall mentioned above is dedicated to the memory of Major William John Robert CAVENDISH, Coldstream Guards, Marquess of Hartington, who was killed in action on 10 Sep 1944.

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

You can read more about the major at World War Media.

There is a Roll of Honour on printed paper in the church listing World War One particpants. It does not designate which men fell in battle.

1. William Wright Hallowes, Private, Grenadier Guards
2. Frederick William Brocklehurst, Private, Grenadier Guards
3. Thomas Anthony Brocklehurst, Private, Grenadier Guards
4. Samuel Henry Wilton, Private, Grenadier Guards
5. Alfred Wildgoose, Private, Lancashire Fusiliers.
6. George Ward, Private, 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry
7. Frederick George Flack Bramwell, Private, 6th Manchester Regt.
8. John Brocklehurst, Private, Northumberland Fusiliers
9. Frederick Arthur Goodwin, Private, East Lancashire Regt.
10. John Lancaster Naylor, Private, Durham Light Infantry.
11. Samuel Bramwell, Private, 31st Sherwood Foresters.
12. Samuel Rowland, Driver, 201st Heavy R.G.A.
13. Thomas Morten, Private, Sherwood Foresters
14. Benjamin Sheldon, Gunner, R.G.A.
15. Anthony Gyte, Private, 3rd Sherwood Foresters
16. John Sherwin, Private, 3rd Leicestershire Regt.

Jane TAYLOR of Redcar offers this snippet from the Derby Mercury of 19 August 1802: "DIED: Saturday, at Sheldon, Captain CECIL, late of the Windsor Foresters."

• This place was an ancient Chapelry and township in Bakewell parish in Derbyshire and became a modern Civil Parish around 1858.
   
• This parish was in the ancient High Peak Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• This citizens of this parish have elected to forgo a formal Parish Council, but do hold periodic Parish Meeting to discuss civic and political issues.
   
• District governance is provided by the Derbyshire Dales District Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Bakewell petty session hearings each Friday.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms, this parish became a member of the Bakewell Poorlaw Union.

A National School (mixed) was erected here in 1878 to hold up to 36 children,

There is a Sheldon Family Association which focuses on the surname SHELDON, not the parish. The Association is located in Florida, USA.