Conksbury

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Site of Conksbury
Conksbury Bridge

Conksbury is the site of a deserted medieval settlement between Over Haddon and Youlgreave in Derbyshire.

The village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 AD as Cranchesberie in the Hundred of Blackwell. The settlement was one of seven berewicks (surrounding estates) within the royal manor of Bakewell. It was listed as part of the lands owned by the King, with the following details documented for Bakewell (including Burton; Conksbury; Holme; Monyash; [Nether and Over] Haddon; One Ash and Rowsley):[1]

  • Households: 35 villagers. 16 smallholders. 2 priests. 1 men-at-arms.
  • Farming: 18 ploughlands. 7 lord's plough teams. 11 men's plough teams.
  • Meadow 80 acres. Woodland 1 by 1 leagues. 1 mill, value 10 shillings and 7 pence. 1 church. 3 church lands.

William the Conqueror subsequently granted the manor of Bakewell to the Norman knight William Peverel. Peverel established Lenton Priory and set up Meadow Place as a monastic grange for the priory next to Conksbury. Conksbury and its mill were later given to the Abbey of St Mary de Pre by William Avenal of Haddon.

Conksbury and Meadow Place became property of the Crown after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th-century. By 1610 the Cavendish family had purchased the land, which became part of the Devonshire estate.

The village today

The site is a protected ancient monument.[2]

There are visible earthwork remains of building platforms and enclosures either side of a road that was thirty feet wide.

Conksbury Bridge is a medieval bridge over the River Lathkill and a designated Grade II listed structure. The bridge was built in the mid-18th-century from limestone rubble with gritstone dressings. It carries the road between Bakewell and Youlgreave. The bridge was authorised to collect tolls in the 1758 Turnpike Act. The curving bridge has three main arches with pointed cutwaters.[3]

Conksbury Hall is an 18th-century gritstone house on the western edge of the site of the medieval village. It was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1967.[4] On the same side of the site, Conksbury Farmhouse is also a Grade II listed building, dating from 1725 (the door lintel is inscribed 'S/CF 1725 BH').[5]

References

  1. Conksbury in the Domesday Book
  2. National Heritage List 1014589: Conksbury deserted medieval settlement (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
  3. National Heritage List 1158017: Conksbury Bridge (Grade II listing)
  4. National Heritage List 1311514: Conksbury Hall (Grade II listing)
  5. National Heritage List 1109854: Conksbury Farmhouse (Grade II listing)