PENTRICH, a parish in the hundred of MORLESTON-and-LITCHURCH,
county of DERBY, comprising the
townships of Pentrich and Ripley, and containing 2143
inhabitants, of which number, 508 are in the township
of Pentrich, 2 miles (S/'w. by S.) from.Alfreton. The
living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Derby, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated
in the king's books at £ 6, endowed with £ 600 royal
bounty, and £1000 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage
of the Duke of Devonshire. The church is dedicated
to St. Matthew. There are places of worship for
Independents and Unitarians. The parish is bounded
on the west by the river Amber. The population .of
the township of Pentrich has decreased one-third since
the disturbances which broke out there in 1817, when
the agents of the Duke of Devonshire razed many of
the houses toj the ground. It had anciently a market
and two fairs; the latter are still held on the Wednesday
in Easter-week and October 23rd. At Butterley are
iron-works, established about 1793, underneath which
the Cromford canal is conducted through a tunnel two
thousand nine hundred and sixty-six yards in length;
and in the neighbourhood is the reservoir of the Nottingham
canal, covering an extent of many acres.
There are also considerable coal and iron-stone works in
the parish. A National school, erected by the Duke of
Devonshire in 1819, is supported by voluntary contributions.
The Romans had a camp on the adjoining
common, near which passed the Iknield-street.