|
Wirksworth is a market town in Derbyshire, England, with a population of over 5,000. Wirksworth is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086.〔〔Outlying farms or berwicks were Cromford, Middleton, Hopton, Wellesdene (sic), Carsington, Kirk Ireton and Callow.〕 Within it is the source of the River Ecclesbourne. The town was granted its market charter by Edward I in 1306. The market is held every Tuesday in the market square. St Mary's Church is believed to date from about AD 653. Historically, Wirksworth developed as a centre for lead mining and later of stone quarrying. Many of the institutions in the area have connections with the Gell family, of Hopton Hall, whose most famous member was Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, who fought on Parliament's side in the Civil War. One of his predecessors, Anthony Gell, founded the local grammar school, and one of his successors, Phillip Gell, opened the curiously named Via Gellia (possibly named in allusion to the Roman Via Appia), a road from the family's lead mines around Wirksworth to the smelter in Cromford. Today, Anthony Gell School is named after Anthony Gell. ==Early history== During the Carboniferous period (between about 359 and 299 million years ago), Wirksworth was under tropical oceans, thus giving it vast quantities of limestone for quarrying. There is an extensive history of quarrying, which scars the surrounding of the town, whilst Dene Quarry is still operational in the neighbouring village of Cromford. Close to Wirksworth in Carsington Pastures is the Dream Cave, where the remains of a woolly rhino were found in the late 19th century. The area may well have been visited by ''Homo erectus'' as long as 150,000 years ago, during warm inter-glacial periods. An Acheulean handaxe from the Lower Paleolithic has been found at Hopton nearby.〔Cockerton, R. W. P. (1954) ''A Palaeolith from Hopton,'' Derbyshire Archaeological Journal 79. pp. 153–155〕 From other remains found in the county there would seem to have been human presence at least periodically until the Romans arrived and found a thriving lead industry. Wirksworth is rumoured to be the ancient Roman town of Lutudarum, although there is speculation as to the whereabouts of this.〔On the possible whereabouts of Lutudarum, see Anton Shone: ''Origins and History of Wirksworth: Lutudarum and the Peak District before the Norman Conquest'' http://www.conferencesdirect.co.uk/clacton/Lutudarum.pdf〕 In 2009 a team of volunteers excavated near the vicarage for a Roman fort, but failed to find it.〔http://www.stosythscollege.com/WRP.htm〕 One of the rectors of Wirksworth was Anthony Draycot who served from 1535 until his imprisonment in 1560. Draycott was the judge at the heresy trial of Joan Waste.〔Gordon Goodwin, ‘Draycot, Anthony (d. 1571)’, rev. Andrew A. Chibi, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed 28 Feb 2009 )〕 The ancient Wirksworth wapentake or hundred was named after the town. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wirksworth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|