Horsley Woodhouse

Horsley Woodhouse
Derbyshire
St Susanna's Church
Location
Grid reference:	SK396449
Location:	52°59’60"N, 1°24’41"W
Data
Population:	1,219  (2011)
Post town:	Ilkeston
Postcode:	DE7
Dialling code:	01332
Local Government
Council:	Amber Valley
Parliamentary constituency:	Amber Valley
Website:	www.horsley-woodhouse.co.uk

Horsley Woodhouse is a village in Derbyshire, in the east of the county, on the A609 road between the neighbouring villages of Kilburn and Smalley. The nearest towns are Heanor, two and a half miles to the north-east, and Belper, three miles to the north-west, while the city of Derby is located about six miles to the south.

The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 1,219.

The name is said to mean "houses in the wood belonging to Horsley".

Carnival

Each year in July the village hosts a carnival with a parade of floats from the Medical Centre to the showground at the Sitwell Recreation Ground. The carnival showground features rides and sideshows and is also the venue for the Amber Valley Marching Bands Contest.

The Old Oak pub

Derby Midshipmen Band

Pubs

The village currently has two pubs: The Old Oak Inn on the main village street, and the Sitwell Arms in the hamlet of Woodside. The Knife and Steel pub closed several years ago.

About the village

To the south-east of the village stood Stainsby House. Built in the 1780s, by the end of the 18th Century it had been acquired by the Wilmot-Sitwell family, relatives of the Sitwells of Renishaw Hall through George Sitwell. The Wilmot-Sitwells were great benefactors to the villages of Horsley Woodhouse, Horsley, Smalley and Morley. The present Church Hall in Horsley Woodhouse was originally built as a school in 1869 by the Wilmot-Sitwells. Once the Wilmot-Sitwell line had died out the house was sold and eventually demolished in 1972. A new, futuristic-looking house was then built, also called Stainsby House. This new house was used as a location in the BBC television production of Life and Loves of a She Devil.

Hollies Farm in the centre of the village was built in the late 17th century and was used as a tannery for many years by the Richardson family. This family later moved the business to Derby and eventually to the Eagle Tannery in Sinfin. Hollies Farm has been the subject of a planning application to demolish it in order to build houses.

St Susanna's church was erected in 1882. A Stained glass window was given by the Wilmot-Sitwells.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Horsley Woodhouse)