England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Elton All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Elton lies in central western Derbyshire, Elton, until 1728, was a chapelry within the vast upland parish of Youlgreave Elton is located about 5 miles west of the market town of Matlock and sits about a mile west of the B5056 road which connects Grangemill through to the A6, Matlock to Buxton road. Elton sits within the Peak District National park in the White Peak, so called because of its underlying limestone. At the time of this transcript Elton's economy would have been underpinned by the grazing of sheep as well as quarrying the limestone for building work. Today quarrying is still a feature of the area despite its protected status, whilst tourism has grown significantly, the sheep are, however, still present. Elton is drained northwards by a small tributary of the River Bradford, this soon joins the Derwent and turns back southwards, the Derwent joins the Trent near Long Eaton and thence to the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Elton is sited at around 270 metres above the sea in very much an upland environment, local heights rise to both south and west to almost 400 metres. Elton parish was carved from the wider area of Youlgreave and was thus small for an upland parish, it covered just over 2,500 acres and would have supported a population of just over 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Elton was held by Henry de Ferrers and was a relatively small place offering just 5 ploughs together with meadow & woodland.

The Church

All Saints' church sits at the heart of the village at the "T" junction formed by Main Street and Moor Lane. The church was completely rebuilt in 1812 after a disaster struck the mediaeval original. The collapse of the steeple onto the main body of the church resulted in almost total destruction and required nothing short of a new building. The nave shows lancet windows of the early English Gothic style and it is not known whether this is a homage to the original or a design from the architect's whim. As a replacement the church was clearly of little interest to Pevsner who's description is short and limited to a handful of descriptive text offering no comment, caustic or otherwise. Main Street is narrow but has parking with care, the church sits behind a waist-height local stone wall and is well sheltered by mature trees, once through these trees the churchyard is fairly open with few restrictions on photography.