Scarcliffe

Scarcliffe is a small village and civil parish in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire, England. It is sometimes called Scarcliffe with Palterton.

Location

About two miles SSE of Bolsover, the village's main street is the B6417 road between Clowne and New Houghton, which connects at Scarcliffe to the A617 between Mansfield and Chesterfield. Other nearby settlements include Clay Cross, Matlock, Shirebrook, Warsop, North Wingfield, Tupton, Pilsley and Ashover.

Scarcliffe is within a few miles of Junction 29 of the M1 motorway.

Palterton is a hamlet within the parish, one mile to the west of the main village. In the early 20th century it had both a school and a post office.

To the east of the main village are two areas of woodland, Langwith Wood and Roseland Wood.

Facilities

The village has its own primary school, which takes children between the ages of four and eleven and has some eighty places. There are two pubs ('The Elm Tree' and 'The Horse and Groom'), but no shop.

Church

The most notable building is the Norman parish church of St Leonard, which is a Grade II starred listed building. It contains a handsome marble monument, dating to the 13th century, of a Lady Constantia, who holds a child in her arms. A stone tympanum over an ancient door is carved with geometrical patterns, and there is a medieval piscina. The oak parish chest is almost ten feet long. The church tower is fairly modern, having been added in the 1830s. In the 21st century, the church has increased its peal of bells from five to eight.

The Scarcliffe ecclesiastical parish includes Scarcliffe, Palterton and Hillstown. Scarcliffe now forms a united benefice with Ault Hucknall, Astwith, Bramley Vale, Doe Lea, Glapwell, Hardwick Hall, Stainsby, Rowthorne, and Hardstoft.

History

The village was part of the ancient hundred of Scarsdale. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church was held by Darley Abbey, later becoming a vicarage in the gift of the Dukes of Devonshire, major landowners in the area. The 13th century resident Lady Constantia (whose monument is in the church) left five acres of land to provide for the ringing of the church's curfew bell for three weeks on either side of Christmas in perpetuity. After some eight hundred years, the 'Bellrope Charity' continues to serve its founder's purpose.

The surviving parish registers date from 1680.

The village school was built in 1868-1869. It was established opposite the former Primitive Methodist church, which had been founded in 1858 but is now gone.

John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-1872) says -

SCARCLIFF, a parish, with a village, in the district of Mansfield and county of Derby; 6 miles N N W of Mansfield r. station. Post-town, Mansfield. Acres, 3,674. Real property, £3,790. Pop., 548. Houses, 126. The property is divided among a few. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £70. Patron, Earl Bathurst. The church is ancient but good, and has a tower of 1842. There are an endowed school, and charities £30.

At Palterton in the parish, there was a station of the Midland Railway, which was opened in 1890.

In the early 20th century, the main landowner was the 7th Earl Bathurst.

Geology

The soil is predominantly limestone and the subsoil limestone and clay.

Local government

Scarcliffe has its own elected parish council. While this has few powers, it is consulted on all decisions affecting the village by Derbyshire County Council and Bolsover District Council, which together provide most of the local government services. Before a reorganization in 1974, Scarcliffe was part of the Blackwell Rural District.

Parliament

The village is in the parliamentary constituency of North East Derbyshire and elects its MEPs as part of the East Midlands region.

Notable people

Harry Elliott (1891-1976), England cricketer

References

Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (London, 1891) p. 296
Scarcliffe at genuki.org.uk (accessed 19 October 2007)
Scarcliffe home page at scarcliffeweb.co.uk (accessed 19 October 2007)
St Leonard's Church at Ault Hucknall & Scarcliffe Churches and Charities online (accessed 19 October 2007)
Scarcliffe Primary School at ofsted.gov.uk (accessed 19 October 2007)