Osmaston

1 The Estate Village
2 The Victorian Industrialist’s Tudor Manor
3 Derbyshire’s first medieval Gothic style church
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The Estate Village

Osmaston is an old village approximately 3 miles from Ashbourne. At the time of the Domesday Book it was known as Osmundestune and had a population of between 60 to 80.

It is known as an estate village and most of the buildings seen today were built around 1850 when the village was redeveloped to serve Osmaston Manor built by Francis Wright.

A thatched cottage in Osmaston village

Nottingham bankers, the Wright family had made a considerable fortune from iron and coal production during the Industrial Revolution and they owned the Butterley Ironworks near Ripley in Derbyshire (builders of St Pancras Station). Francis Wright (1806-1873) inherited Osmaston from his mother's family (she was a daughter of Francis Marcus Beresford of Compton House, Ashbourne and Osmaston) and married his cousin Selina, daughter of Sir Henry FitzHerbert of Tissington. In 1845 Francis Wright started to build Osmaston Manor, which was completed in 1849. Realizing that he needed somewhere to house estate workers, he had Osmaston village built developing the village even more (although there has been a settlement in Osmaston for about 1000 years.) Francis Wright also contributed to the village new schools, a new church and built or rebuilt estate properties in the village, and in Ashbourne he had St John’s Church built.

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The Victorian Industrialist’s Tudor Manor

Osmaston Manor was built in the early Victorian Tudor style of limestone and echoed Tissington Hall in much of the design. The house was set in within 5000 acres of parkland with trees and lakes; Sir Joseph Paxton advised on the layout of the park. Once completed it had 70 rooms, a bake-house, wash-house and a brew-house. A central tunnel carried smoke from the house to a communal chimney in the garden which was an ornate 150 feet high Italian type tower.

The only remains of Osmaston Manor today though are the (reduced) smoke tower and sawmill with original waterwheel, the garden terraces and the kitchen gardens.

The Watermill at Osmaston

Francis Wright died in 1873 and there is a memorial to him in Ashbourne Market Place however during his lifetime he did not prove very popular. He had put a stop to the annual fair and also tried to stop the Shrovetide Football tradition! This did not prove very popular at all.

Today the village still retains it’s picture postcard appearance with delightful half-timbered cottages and thatched roofs The village green overlooks a duck pond and the 160-year old church and old world pub give the village an picturesque charm.

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Derbyshire’s first medieval Gothic style church

St Martin's Parish Church was built in 1845 to replace an earlier building and has many tributes to its benefactors, the Wright family.

It has been claimed that a stone in the previous church here was engraved with the date AD cccccc – showing that the church was founded in the 600s but it is more likely that it was founded around the 1300’s. Legend states that the previous church was made of wickerwork. This was demolished in 1843 to make way for the new building.

St Martin's Parish Church, Osmaston, built in the medieval Gothic style

The register of the church dates back to 1606 and the more modern building was designed by H.I.Stevens of Derby who was also the architect of the manor house and several other churches and schools for Francis Wright. St Martin's Parish Church was the the first church in Derbyshire built in the medieval Gothic style.

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