| A Potted History of Clowne. |
| From Earliest Times. Close by to Clowne lies Creswell Craggs, here are caves, some of the oldest once inhabited caves in the world, certainly the furthest north that have been discovered. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that some of the genes of these ancient cavemen still remain in some of their descendants who still inhabit this area. The Celtic people who later inhabited this area, also no doubt, added some of their genes, as indeed would the Romans in their turn. During the Roman period Clowne was the site of a fort guarding an important road, which ran North to South, it was to the East of this road that the early settlement lay. In important find of Roman coins was found, just north of Creswell Road, adjacent to what is now Gapsick Lane. Just south of the site of the Roman fort lies Markland and Hollinhill Grips, which have been recognised as the site of a Bronze Age fortification, so in early times, the area must have been strategically important. It is in fact one of the highest points in this part of Britain and would have been a fine vantagepoint. After the Romans left Britain, Angles from the continent, soon invaded and spread inland from the coast, enslaving the incumbent Celts. However large areas of the country were seemingly by-passed. The invaders largely ignored the area around Northeast Derbyshire. The peoples who probably make up thebulk of our ancestors were the Danes.These were the Vikings, who first came as pirates and raiders of the coast, and later moved inland and colonised with their families. After the Treaty of Wedmore in 878 most of Eastern England came under the Danelaw.This was the central kingdom of the Danes which had at its nucleus the five Danish Boroughs, these were, Stamford, Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, and Lincoln. Large parts of these areas were farmed by the Danes.By the time of the Norman Conquest, the inhabitants of Clowne were largely of Dane extraction, not necessarily from Denmark, but possibly from Southern Norway. Thus, we can see that the makeup of the Eleventh century inhabitant of Clowne was probably mostly Danish-Norwegian, with a part of Angle, a proportion of Celt, a trace of Roman and a slight hint of pre Celtic Briton. The Boundaries of Derbyshire were set long before the Norman Invasion, the name is apparently of Danish origin and an early reference to the county in 1064, refers to it as Deorbisair. In the Doomsday Book of 1090 it is spelt Derbiscire.The Following is the entry found in the book. “In Clune Ernui had six ox-gangs of land to be taxed.one plough land. Two ox-gangs of land to be taxed belonging to the manor of Witewelle. There is now in the demesne half a plough, and eight villanes have one plough. Value in King Edward’s time 20s. now 8s. Ernui holds it under the king. In Barlleburg and Witewelle Levenot had six carucates of land…… There is land for eight ploughs. Three ploughs in demesne; Ten sochmen; ten villanes; thirty-six bordars with eight ploughs. One priest and church and one serf…two mills (rendering) three shillings…meadow…woodland for pannage two leagues by one league…underwood one league by one league wide. Value in King Edward’s time £6. The same now. Robert holds it. In Clune(there are) two bovatesof land (assessed) to the geld belonging to this manor.” Little is said in the Doomsday Book about Clowne (Clune) though the reference does lead to certain conclusions. We know that Clowne was not merely a manor, parts being in the manors of Barleburg (Barlbourough) and part in Witewelle (Whitwell) .So Clowne itself were an identifiable community apart from the manor. We can see that there is no church in the entry for Clowne but in less than a century (1135-1154) there was one built that could hold a fair sized congregation. A picture emerges then that it was a pretty village made up of agricultural workers and their families. There would be a few other workers blacksmith, a farrier etc. The men being mostly villians, would spend half their working week working on the land of Ernui, and the other half on their own land. They would graze their livestock on Clowne Common. |
 |
 |
 |
| The Crags. |