GRESLEY (CHURCH), a parish in the hundred of
REPTON-AND-GRESLEY, county of DERBY, 5 miles
(S. E.) from Burton upon Trent, comprising the townships
of Drakelow and Linton, the hamlets of Castle-Gresley
and Swadlincote, and the greater portion of the hamlets
of Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe, and containing, with the
whole of Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe, 1951 inhabitants.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
of Derby, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry,
endowed with £200 private benefaction, £800 royal
bounty, and £1300 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of Sir Roger Gresley, Bart., whose remote
ancestor, William, founded a priory of canons of the
order of St. Augustine, in the reign of Henry I., and dedicated
it to St. Mary and St. George; its revenue at the
dissolution, was valued at £39.13.8. There are considerable
potteries in the parish, which afford employment to
more than six hundred persons; the clay is found in great
abundance, and of good quality. Extensive collieries
are also wrought, and excellent iron-stone is obtained in
the neighbourhood.