Chaddesden: Village disappeared under urban sprawl

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Ann Hodgkin takes a brief look at the history of Chaddesden and records its loss, in the second half of the last century, to the Derby urban sprawl.

The village of Chaddesden

TODAY, many of Derby’s suburbs, with their vast housing estates and all the trappings of modern day living, are very urban in nature, with little or no evidence of rural life remaining.

Gradually, Derby has extended its limits to take in more and more of the surrounding area. Boundary changes in 1901, 1928, 1934 and finally in 1968, have resulted in many villages being absorbed into the urban sprawl, and thus completely losing their identities.

For instance, just over 100 years ago, at the turn of the 20th century, Chaddesden was a small rural village.

The Lord of the Manor, Sir Henry Wilmot, presided over a community that mainly earned its living from the land. The community boasted its own blacksmith and wheelwright, and the fields surrounding the village were farmed by local families, many of whom leased the land from the Wilmots.

There were few houses between the Derby borough boundary at Cemetery Hill and the village two miles away.

The first documentary evidence of Chaddesden’s existence is in the Domesday Book, when 26 families were recorded there, amounting to a population of around 100.

At that time, the village formed part of the parish of Spondon.

By the 14th century, a chapel had been established in Chaddesden, by the Chaddesden family, the then Lords of the Manor.

In 1347 the diocesan bishop gave villagers the right to bury their dead in the churchyard. Previously, all burials had to take place in Spondon, but at times when Chaddesden Brook flooded it became impossible to make the journey.

The church has undergone several restorations, the most radical one being in 1858, but parts of the present day St Mary’s date from the original church and the building is now Grade A listed.

The hall that dominated the village in 1900 was the last of a series of houses that were built by various squires.

The Wilmots had acquired the estate in the 16th century and, in 1639, the then head of the family built a new house, probably a timber framed one, to replace the existing building.

When Edward Wilmot (who was made a baronet in 1759) inherited the house in 1727, he replaced it with one made from brick and stone. This was added to by succeeding generations, and photographs from the 19th century show an imposing residence set in landscaped gardens.

The growth of Derby began to have its effect on Chaddesden when, in 1839, the Midland Counties Railway installed the tracks for the Nottingham to Derby line through the area.

The canal had been in existence from the 18th century in an attempt to improve Derby’s transport problems, but the railway was essential to meet the needs of the town’s growing industries.

The major change, however, came about when the fifth baronet, Sir Henry Wilmot, died in 1901. He did not have children, and the house was inherited by his nephew.

The baronet’s sister remained in the house until her death in 1916 but, in the early 1920s, the estate was divided up and sold, and the house was demolished.

Most of the land was acquired for building. The council purchased much of it to build council houses to re-house many of the people from poor quality town centre dwellings which were being demolished. Private developers also bought up large plots on which to build homes.

In 1921, Chaddesden’s population was 560 but, by 1961, it had risen to 15,622. Its close proximity to Derby made the location a very popular one.

The site of the house and some of the parkland, formerly known as Mosey Yard, was retained and leased to the parish council to be used as a public amenity. Later, the freehold of the 60 acre site known as Chaddesden Park, was bought by the borough council.

Many of the other old buildings in Chaddesden were demolished and replaced with modern dwellings.

Cross Cottage, a 16th century house, was pulled down in the 1950s, along with the Lockage (or Oxo cottage as it was known locally, because of the OXO pattern in the roof tiles).

St Mary’s Victorian vicarage was demolished in the late 1960s, and a housing estate was built in its place.

In 1968, the borough boundary was extended to take in the whole of the former Chaddesden parish.

Expansion continued throughout the following decades and, in the 1980s, in spite of local opposition, permission was granted for a new estate, Oakwood, to be built on one of the few open spaces remaining in the area. But that, as they say, is another story.

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