Somercotes
| Somercotes | |
| Derbyshire | |
|---|---|
 The Old English Gentleman, Somercotes | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK424538 |
| Location: | 53°4’47"N, 1°22’3"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 6,255 (2011, with Leabrooks and Lower Birchwood) |
| Post town: | Alfreton |
| Postcode: | DE55 |
| Dialling code: | 01773 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Amber Valley |
Somercotes is a former mining village in the east of Derbyshire, close to the border with Nottinghamshire, formed here by the River Erewash along whose western bank the village stretches.
The village was once surrounded by more than five pits, all now closed. The village has numerous shops, pubs, food outlets and other businesses. It has industrial areas at Cotes Park and Birchwood. Whilst increasingly urbanised, there is still some agricultural land in the northern and western parts of the parish, and a small nature reserve at Pennytown Ponds.
The parish church is the Church of St Thomas and there is also a Methodist church.
History
The area was within the Norman Manor of Alfreton. The earliest known spelling of Somercotes is Sumcot, recorded in 1225.[1] The name derives from the original use of the area for seasonal grazing, when temporary huts or 'summer cottages' were used by herdsmen.[2]
The original settlement was in what is now known as Lower Somercotes: the upper village developing much later after a turnpike road was driven through to Alfreton in the eighteenth century.
The fortunes of the village were to be based on the coal mining industry, which rapidly expanded in the 19th century. Pye Hill and Somercotes railway station used to serve the village until it was closed by the Beeching Axe in the 1960s.[3] Clothing manufacture was a significant local employer until quite recently, with English Rose and Aertex having factories in the area.[4]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Somercotes) |
References
- ↑ BBC Where I Live
- ↑ Johnson, Reginald, 1968, p.148-149, 'A History of Alfreton'
- ↑ Higginson, M., (1989) The Friargate Line:Derby and the Great Northern Railway, Derby: Golden Pingle Publishing
- ↑ BBC Where I Live
