ASHOVER, a parish partly in the hundred of
WIRKSWORTH, but chiefly in the hundred of SCARSDALE,
county of DERBY, 7 miles (N.W. by W.) from
Alfreton, containing, with the chapelry of Dethwick-Lea,
and the hamlet of Holloway, 2998 inhabitants. This
place, formerly a market-town, occupies a pleasant site
near the rivers Amber and Mimtown; and, according
to Domesday-book, had a church at the time of .the
Conquest. Coal, iron-stone, mill-stone, grit-stone, and
lead-ore are found here, and the Gregory lead mine, three
hundred yards deep, is said to have once been the richest
in the kingdom, though its present produce is but inconsiderable.
The manufacture of stockings is carried
on to a small extent, and the working of tambour
lace affords employment to the greater part of the
female population. Fairs for cattle and sheep are held
on the 25th of April and the 15th of October. Ashover
is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of Lancaster,
and within the jurisdiction of a court held at Tutbury
every third Tuesday, for the recovery of debts under 40s.:
constables and other officers are appointed at the court
leet of the lord of the manor. The living is a rectory,
in the archdeaconry of Derby, and diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry, rated in the king's books at
£24.3. l., and in the patronage of the Rev. J. Browne.
The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a large ancient
edifice, bnilt in 1419, with a very handsome spire,
and contains a Norman font of curious design, and several
monuments to the family of Babington. There
are places of worship for Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists.
The free school, erected in 1703, at Ashover
Hill, is endowed with £23. 9. per annum, principally
arising from a bequest of land by the Rev. Francis
Gisborne, in 1819, for which about twenty poor children
are instructed.