Bonsall is a village in the Derbyshire Dales on the edge of the Peak District.

Geography

It is five miles from Matlock and 18 miles from Derby. Bonsall has a long history of lead mining, along with its neighbouring town of Wirksworth probably going back to Roman times, and is even mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The village lies on the Limestone Way, at the head of its branch to Matlock. The village lies on the edge of the Peak District National Park, the border of which bisects the 'Uppertown' suburb. Approaching the village is done via a very steep 1:5 hill, which leads down to Via Gellia (A5012) and nearby Cromford. This road is known as the 'Clatterway', or occasionally the 'Col du Bonsall'.

The village church is dedicated to St James. There is a C of E primary school.

A market cross lies in the village centre, probably dating from the Mediaeval period. Bonsall applied for a market charter some three hundred years ago, but was rejected.

History

Textiles and lead mines

Bonsall inhabitants have been involved in the textile industry, pre- and post-Arkwright. In around 1850, Bonsall was a farming village surrounded by lead mines and busy outworker frame-knitting workshops. Many people also worked in the cotton spinning mills at Cromford and the Via Gellia . In early modern times it was on an important salters' route, and was a staging post on the road between Derby and Manchester.

Contemporary period

Bonsall is still a working village, involved in agriculture, heavy goods transport and a range of forms of information technology. However, most people in the village travel to larger conurbations such as Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield for work.

Extraterrestrial visits

For two years after October 2000, there were 19 sightings of UFOs in the area. On October 5 2000, Sharon Rowlands caught one sighting of a circular object on film. The circular object showed a similarity to a circular object seen on the STS-75 Columbia Space Shuttle mission in early 1996 .

Since 2002, the landlord of the Barley Mow pub conducts UFO walks every Bank Holiday, and this has featured on BBC's 'Country File'.

References

External links

• Village web site
• Primary school
• Bonsall and District Film Society
• The Bonsall History Project
• The Bonsall UFO
• BBC News item on the 'Bonsall UFO'
• Discover Derbyshire
• The Barley Mow pub
• The Bonsall Field Barn Project