Ticknall Life, Derbyshire

The Trail starts from the car park at the Village Hall [35]. The Village Hall was built in 1992 and is, with its gardens, a credit to such a small village. It may be convenient to break the walk into two parts, or to cut it short where indicated along the road to Ashby de la Zouch or along the road to Derby.

Follow the footpath through the gate into the school [34] playground. The school was built by Sir George Crewe in 1824 replacing an earlier structure endowed by Dame Catherine Harpur in 1724. In 1986 Derbyshire County Council closed the school owing to lack of numbers.

However it re-opened as an independent non-fee paying school in 1987 for children aged four to eleven. Money for its support is raised from parental and trust contributions, a Government Capitation Grant and the profits from the Catherine Wheel gift shop at Staunton Harold.

This article is taken from the booklet "Ticknall Village Walk" first published in 1981 by The Ticknall Preservation and Historical Society, and is reproduced here (with revisions) with their kind permission. The map is based on an original drawing by Stuart Woodward.
A full list of TPHS publications and a mail order form is available here.

Enter the churchyard where are the scanty remains of an early 13th. century church dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket. This church was demolished in 1841 and the new ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH [33] was erected to fill the needs of an increased population. The old church was demolished with gunpowder from the limeyards, and the patron of the new church was Sir George Crewe of Calke Abbey. Perhaps this is why the dedication was changed from St. Thomas to St. George! Adjacent to the ruins is a medieval cross whose function is uncertain. It may have been either a preaching cross or a market cross, and was moved from its site in the almshouse gardens, when the almshouses were built. The new church was designed in the Perpendicular Gothic style by Henry Isaac Stevens of Derby and new stained glass windows were inserted in the 1920s. Various items were removed from the old church to the new one including three wall mounted monuments, the finest of which is an alabaster slab of about 1375 incised with an effigy of a knight and dedicated to John Franceys of Ticknall.

Outside the south door, mounted on a sandstone base, is the clock face from the early church. From the existence of a groove upon its face it would appear to have been adapted at some time for use as a sundial. The clock on the new church was the last one built by John Whitehurst of Derby, before they were taken over by Smith's. Many of the older gravestones are indecipherable, but one interesting specimen near the gate in the wall to the old vicarage, is to a James Sims, 1844, who was pageboy to H.R.H. Princess Charlotte, the daughter of King George IV. Close to the ruined west end of the old church is the grave of Ted Moult, the popular television personality of the 1960s and 1970s. He farmed at The Scaddows, on the Hartshorne Road.

The Harpur-Crewe family allowed the Boswell family of gipsies to camp in Calke Park and their graves are marked by iron crosses near the path to the church. Delilah Boswell was a particular favourite of Sir John Crewe, and she died in 1885 at the age of 85. Regrettably the church has to be kept locked, but interested visitors should ask Mary Hirst at 11 Church Lane for the key.

Pass through the gate from the churchyard into Church Lane. On your left is the row of seven ALMSHOUSES [27] erected by Charles Harpur in 1772. Underneath the central triangular pediment is the following inscription:

"This Hospital was erected in the year 1772 being ye Donation by Will of CHARLES HARPUR Esq, brother to Sir HENRY HARPUR - Bart who left 500£ for the Building of it, and 200£ for the Endowment for the Benefit of decayed Poor Men & Women, belonging to the parishes of TICKNALL and CALKE and who are to be nominated at the Discretion of Sir HENRY HARPUR Bart and his Heirs"

In 1867, the Derby Mercury reported the death of Betty Dymoke, one of the occupants of the Almshouses, who set light to her clothes while making a cup of tea. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death."

Opposite the almshouses is the former modern vicarage and behind it a new (1969) housing development in Grange Close, occupying the land of the old vicarage, which still stands at the northern end. Walk down Church Lane to Main Street (formerly known as Highwayside); at the corner is the former READING ROOM [25], used in the late 19th Century as the village library, but now incorporated into a private house. This building was originally part of a farm and the former Post Office, which moved to an outbuilding of the "Staff of Life" and then to the Village Stores before being closed.