Hazelwood, Derbyshire

Hazelwood
Derbyshire
St John the Evangelist, Hazelwood
Location
Grid reference:	SK328460
Location:	53°-0’40"N, 1°30’43"W
Data
Population:	330  (2011)
Post town:	Belper
Postcode:	DE56
Local Government
Council:	Amber Valley

Hazelwood is a village in Derbyshire, at the lower end of the Pennines around five miles north of Derby. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 330.

The name of the village is as it seems, meaning 'hazel wood'. The spelling has varied: the common spelling on Ordnance Survey maps in the nineteenth century for example is Hazzlewood, and has been written Hazlewood too.

The village stands on the western edge of Chevin Hill. Nearby is a place called Firestone where beacon fires were lit in the days of the beacon signal system. Firestone is now the site of a reservoir.

Formerly Hazelwood was part of the parish and manor of nearby Duffield. In 1817 it was recorded that "Hazlewood is parcel of the manor of Duffield. The Blount family had for many years an estate there, called a manor in records of the reign of Edward III. and that of Edward IV."

In the days before Hazelwood had its own cemetery, burials were conducted at St. Alkmunds in Duffield. It is said that funeral parties would stop for refreshment at the New Inn on Hazlewood Road (now a private house) and would leave the coffin resting on the flat stone coping of the garden wall.

Hazelwood railway station was about half a mile from St. John's Church down Hob Hill, on the Wirksworth Branch of the Midland Railway.

Edith Maude Hull, born in Hampstead, married locally born Percy Winstanley Hull and moved to "The Knowle" where she wrote a number of books, including The Sheik, which led to the film of the same name starring Rudolf Valentino.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hazelwood, Derbyshire)

• Parish Council