Derby's Monasterial legacy

 

The Normans displayed a strong inclination toward the church and gained renown as skilled builders. They embarked on the demolition and subsequent reconstruction of Derby's churches in the Norman architectural style. Regrettably, this architectural heritage has long vanished. Only a few fragments crafted by Norman stonemasons still endure in St. Peter's Church. To envision these churches, one should picture them with low, square towers akin to the one in Allestree and adorned with round, intricately carved arches, much like the Norman door at Boulton. If the six Derby churches resembled Melbourne's fine Norman church, they must have been truly remarkable. 

In the county of Derbyshire, numerous monasteries existed, and one of them had associations with both the Normans and the crusades. Yeaveley Preceptory, also recognised as Stydd Preceptory, served as a preceptory for the Knights Hospitaller. It was situated near the village of Yeaveley in Derbyshire, England, roughly one mile to the west of the village, on the present site of Stydd Hall. The preceptory bore several names over time, including "Yeaveley Preceptory," "Yeaveley Bailiwick," "Yeaveley and Barrow Preceptory," and "Stydd Preceptory."

Yeaveley Preceptory

Preceptories like this were founded in order to raise revenues to fund the Hospitallers' 12th- and 13th-century crusades to Jerusalem. Besides invading England, the Normans also headed south and east. They won success in southern Italy and Sicily, had territorial ambitions in Turkey, and played a prominent role in the crusades. Also, the knights had Barrow Camera which was a Knights Hospitaller foundation in the parish of Barrow upon Trent, Derbyshire, England. A Camera is: "A residence used during short visits by an official and attendants of the Knights Hospitallers for administrative purposes on their estates."

During the Middle Ages, it was a customary practice for men to enter monasteries and women to join nunneries. Remaining unmarried, they rarely departed from the confines of the monastery, dedicating their lives to religious devotion and scholarly pursuits. Remarkably, when the Domesday Book was compiled, Derbyshire did not host a single monastery. However, within a mere century, Derby saw the construction of no less than eight monastic institutions. In fact, it was the citizens of Derby, led by Tovi, who laid the foundation for the first of these monasteries in the year 1137. Tovi possessed the very land upon which the present-day Derby School stands, a site that once housed a sacred well. He generously donated this land to the cause, and, with the involvement of the citizens, they summoned monks from the Order of St. Augustine to establish a chapel or oratory dedicated to St. Helen. This historical connection is why the building used by Derby School is referred to as "St. Helen's."

St Helens House, Derby.

(In 2013, renovation of the main house was completed. Originally it was planned to convert both St. Helen's House and the Pearson Building into a luxury hotel, with an adjoining crescent of new apartments. Due to the economic situation in 2011 this plan was changed, and it was decided to convert the building into an office instead.)

The devoted inhabitants of Derby were not content with the modest Oratory and believed their beloved town deserved something grander. Consequently, they generously provided the Austin (Augustinian) monks with Darley, an enchanting location nestled within the woods along the banks of the River Derwent. This new setting was intended for the construction of a more substantial monastery. Earl Ferrers and Hugh, the Dean of Derby, were eager to offer their assistance in this endeavor. Earl Ferrers extended his support by granting the monks the churches of Crich and Uttoxeter, along with all the associated revenues. Furthermore, he allocated some of his Derby rents and provided them with land in Ockbrook and other places. Additionally, he granted them the valuable perpetual right to dispatch a cart every day to Chaddesden Wood or Duffield Frith to procure timber.

The Norman Abbey at Darley as it may have looked

The Abbey was given the incomes of St. Peter's and St. Michael's Churches, paying two priests, called vicars, to look after the parishes. Thus it came about that in the year 1148 men, supervised by a monk, could be seen felling trees and digging foundations on the hillside at Darley. Slowly the buildings and church shaped and looked wonderfully fine from the river. Albinus was the first Abbot of Derby Abbey, as people called it, though it was known later as Darley Abbey and still is to this day. After he had been elected in the Chapter House and attended the proper services in the church, he was taken beneath the tower so that the bell-ropes could be put into his hands as the sign of authority.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, Darley Abbey had no church. Villagers had to travel to St Alkmund's Church, Derby until 1819. Then, Walter Evans, one of the family who owned the mills, paid for the building of St Matthew's Church with a small contribution from a central government fund. 

St Matthews

The architect was Henry Moses Wood of Nottingham (who also designed St Matthew's School). The design was in the Gothic Perpendicular style. The stone used in its construction was quarried locally from King's Croft Allestree, Pentrich, and Wirksworth. The church was substantially extended in 1895-96.

Darley Abbey Ruins

Little of the Abbey is left today except a few bits of wall and a small building.

If Hugh, The Dean of Derby ever paid a visit, he entered at the Gate House, where strangers were lodged and the poor fed. He must have admired the great church and the carved round arch of its west door. The visitor would be shown into the cloisters-a square garden with a covered and paved walk around it-on the sunny south side of the church. In the cloister walk opposite the church Hugh, Dean of Derby would find the Refectory (canteen), and on its east side doors to the Chapter House (Council Chamber), the library and other rooms. In the storey above the monks slept together in the great dormitory, with a staircase leading down to the church. Somewhat apart, perhaps north of the church, he would be shown an infirmary where sick and aged monks were cared for. On the east, almost on the river-bank, were the workshops, the brew-house, the bake-house, the stables and so on, for the monks cultivated land and were their own builders.

Within a hundred years Derby Abbey held land all over Derbyshire which had come to them by gift or purchase. Small men, such as Ralph, the Derby saddler, who gave the monks a plot by the Markeaton Brook, were benefactors. Ralph FitzRalph gave part of the rent of Alvaston Mill to buy wine for the sacraments, whilst Fulcher set aside land in Youlgreave to provide the monks with shoes and clothing. Where they held much land the monks had their own farms, called "granges," as in Wirksworth or near Derby as present-day Grange Street tells us. 

Within Abbey Street, the monks maintained barns. These structures served a multifaceted purpose, catering not only to the religious community but also to a substantial workforce of servants, labourers, and craftsmen. Beyond their own ranks, abbeys often hosted esteemed individuals such as nobles, knights, abbots, bishops, royal officials, and even the monarch during their journeys. Additionally, charitable provisions were made for the poor, who received daily meals at the abbey gate. Consequently, these facilities were abuzz with extensive brewing and cooking activities. It's quite unsurprising that an eighteenth-century traveller once reported that the ruined oven at Darley Abbey was capacious enough to shelter eight live sheep.

During the era of King Henry II, a resident of Derby named Peter Sandiacre entered the Abbey as a monk. In accordance with the customary practice, he, with the consent of his family, bequeathed his land in Derby to the Abbey.
As a monk, his daily routine consisted of multiple services, beginning with the first service at midnight when he was roused from sleep to join the monks. This was typically done with the aid of a modest rush-light, descending the chilly staircase into the church. Meals were simple, typically comprising bread and beer, while a monk read from a religious text.

Chapter meetings, which occurred daily in the Chapter House under the supervision of the Abbot or the Prior, involved the reading of details about saints and benefactors to be prayed for during the day's services. This was also a forum for addressing and rectifying any transgressions, such as oversleeping, unauthorised conversations, or inattentiveness during services, with appropriate punishments administered. Matters pertaining to the monastery's welfare were discussed during these gatherings. The remainder of the day was devoted to various forms of work, whether in the garden, workshop, or the laborious task of copying books in the cloister. Given that all books were meticulously handwritten by monks in the days before the advent of printing, there were no printed schoolbooks for the boys at Derby School. The cloister served as the bustling heart of monastic life, serving as both a workplace and a common thoroughfare to different rooms. Novice boys from Derby who joined the monastery were taught Latin and the art of singing church services by a schoolmaster-monk. On occasion, they could engage in games with their younger brethren in this space. Additionally, Peter and his fellow monks found time to converse after supper during the only leisurely part of their day. Within this context, he became acquainted with various figures, including Abbot William, who had admitted him, the Prior, who acted as the Abbot's deputy, the Sacristan responsible for overseeing the services and receiving rent for a field in Boulton to maintain lights on the altar, and the Cellarer in charge of provisions and beverages.

When Derby Abbey was originally constructed, a small number of monks remained in the Oratory, which eventually evolved into St. Helen's Hospital. This institution provided shelter and sustenance to travellers. Similarly, a comparable hospital was affiliated with the small Priory of St. James in the Market Place, established by Waltheof. Another hospital, the Hospital of St. Leonard, was established outside the town along the Osmaston Road which is now Leonard Street. It was intended to care for lepers, individuals afflicted with a repugnant, incurable, and contagious disease believed to have been brought back from the East by crusaders. However, because this "lazar house," as it was commonly referred to, was endowed for only two monks and two lepers, the disease's impact was relatively mild in this context.

Leonard Street

The sole nunnery in Derbyshire was situated in King's Mead, dedicated to St. Mary. Typically, the Prioress hailed from a notable county family, such as the Curzons, the FitzHerberts, or the Gresleys. The first Prioress was named Margaret. Derby (Darley) Abbey provided a chaplain and managed the nunnery's property. Nevertheless, the proud prioresses frequently clashed with the Abbot, leading to the Bishop of Coventry's intervention to dissolve the arrangement.

The Abbey Pub, Darley Abbey, Derbyshire.

A traditional English pub is now set in the old Travellers rest building of a former Augustinian Abbey located in leafy Darley Abbey on the banks of the River Derwent. The Augustinian monastery of Darley Abbey has a rather confused foundation. In 1154, Robert de Ferrers, 2nd Earl of Derby made a donation to St Helen's Priory, Derby for them to establish a new religious house. He donated the churches of Uttoxeter and Crich, an oratory and cemetery at Osmaston, and tithes from his property in Derby and land in Oddebrook and Aldwark. A new monastery however was not constructed, as no suitable location was identified.

Around 1160, Hugh, the rural dean of Derby, donated his land at "Little Darley" to St Helen's Priory for the establishment of the monastery.

Darley Abbey was a daughter establishment to St Helen's Priory, however, shortly after its establishment, many of the canons of the Priory transferred to Darley, St Helen's serving as a hospital. 

(Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo.)

Grey Friar

Sometime after 1220 there appeared in the Market Place a new kind of monk, or so he seemed to the people there, dressed in a black cloak with an alms-bowl hanging at the girdle. He preached in the common tongue to the people, who stood agape hearing him. He was a friar, or brother, a follower of St. Dominic. The friars originated in a revival, which the work of St. Francis of Assisi had stirred in the Roman Church. Friars like monks were unmarried, but unlike them, they did not live in monasteries. They went into the world tending the sick and preaching to the people. They lived by begging, owning neither house nor goods. The Brothers of St. Francis wore grey cloaks and were nicknamed "Grey Friars." 

Black Friar

The Dominican Friars, who wore black cloaks like the one who came to the Market Place, were called "Black Friars." The people gladly heard them, for the parish priests were poor preachers and Church services were in Latin. Like the Nonconformists of a later day, the friars brought religion to everyday folk. Notwithstanding the ideas of the founders, the friars became wealthy and built houses. In Derby the Black Friars (Dominicans), with the encouragement and help of King Henry III, built a "Friary" on the site where the Friary Hotel now stands.

The Friary Hotel

At this location resided thirty friars, distinct from the communal lifestyle of monks, as each occupied an individual cell or room. The friars were driven by the desire to deliver sermons to the public, leading them to construct a church designed to accommodate a sizable congregation. Unlike monks who were typically affiliated with specific monastic institutions, the friars lacked such attachments. They traversed from one friary to another, alternating their places of residence. No further monastic establishments were established, either because the existing ones sufficed or because the trend had waned.

In surrounding Derbyshire there were also several monasteries. As mentioned there were Yeaveley Preceptory and Barrow Camera, there was also: Repton Priory, Beauchief Abbey, Locko Preceptory, Bradbourne Priory, Lees Priory, Breadsall Priory, Gresley Priory, Calke Priory, Derby Priory (Cluniac), Dale (Stanley Park) Abbey, Deepdale, Darley Priory, Derby Blackfriars, Derby King's Mead Priory and Derby Priory (Augustinian).

The Friary in Derby marked the final one of its kind. St. Alkmund's College of Priests was disbanded. The church of All Saints was given by King Henry I together with that of Wirksworth to God and the church of St. Mary of Lincoln,  to be held in praebendam. . . . From the names of the witnesses to this charter, and from others mentioned in the document itself, it becomes evident that its date lies between the years 1100 and 1107.

King Henry I

On the accession of Henry II, in 1154, the gift of his grandfather was formally confirmed. The important Derbyshire churches of All Saints, Wirksworth, Chesterfield, and Ashbourne, which were royal gifts to the minster church of Lincoln, as well as the advowsons of Matlock, Kirk Ireton, Thorpe, Fenny Bentley, and others of minor importance, were from an early date considered to pertain exclusively to the dean of Lincoln, and with them the chapter of Lincoln was in no way concerned. It is therefore fruitless to expect to find any reference to the history of this important church in the exceptionally early and exceptionally perfect series of Act Books in the chapter muniment room. There is, however, one folio volume there of particular value to the Derbyshire antiquary, which is an early chartulary of the dean's possessions and privileges. It is entitled Chartularium Decani, and the longer title within the cover is Carte tangentes Decanatu Ecclie beate Marie, Lincoln.

From the various charters in this collection it is clear that the gift of Henry I constituted the dean of Lincoln dean also of this collegiate church. He is sometimes described as rector of All Saints; sometimes as parson (persona), and in two instances he is described as 'Dean of Lincoln and Dean of the free Chapel of All Saints, Derby.' The estates specially attached to the dean or presiding canon of All Saints were reckoned as an intrinsic part of the endowment of the deanery of Lincoln. The dean of Lincoln, however, did not interfere with the estates attached to the office of sub-dean of All Saints, or with those pertaining to the remaining six prebends (save so far as memorial rights were concerned), but all those clergy were nominated and instituted by the dean instead of being co-opted by their own chapter, and instituted by their diocesan, which would have been the normal course under canon law.

Some confusion has arisen from Hugh, the founder of Darley Abbey, c. 1160, being described in their charter as dean of Derby. The chartulary of that day also names other deans of Derby, such as Henry and Robert, about the beginning of the next century; but it is quite clear that these were merely the (rural) deans of the town at large and had no connection as deans with All Saints.

The Grammar School, after being awhile under Darley Abbey, was finally attached to All Saints'. A business man of the town, called Walkelin, and his wife Goda, gave their own house to the school in 1160. Its large hall was to be the schoolroom, whilst the chambers (bedrooms) were to be a hostel for the master and some clergymen. The name of the schoolmaster was William Barbe Aprilas, or "April Beard." 

Boys could also enter the novice schools of Darley and other abbeys, if they wanted to become monks. What about the girls? Some education was available, chiefly for daughters of well-to-do families, at St. Mary's Nunnery. They were taught spinning, embroidery, other domestic crafts and to read. Girls of the poorer families received no schooling at all. 

What a town of churches Derby was! There could hardly have been less than ten towers rising among the houses that began at St. Mary's Bridge in the north and ended at St. Peter's Church in the south, and stretched from the river in the east to the Friary in the west. How the bells must have clanged then for weddings, for burials, for baptisms, for saints' days, when the bishop came, as well as for daily services! Besides processions on holy days, there were spectacles when a new abbot was inducted at Darley, when the bishop or the king visited the town or a high official of the Dominican Order came. Some of Derby's clergy won preferment, and became great men in Church and State. 

About 1150 Froger, the Archdeacon of Derby, was appointed Almoner to King Henry II, and as such gave away the king's alms to the poor. Henry made him a bishop, and sent him to protest to the Pope in Rome against the conduct of Archbishop Thomas Becket. We hear little else of Norman Derby, except that the mint was closed and that there were bakers in St. Mary's Gate. This means that Derby housewives, instead of home-baking, were beginning to buy bread. One of the bakers brought all the food and clothing he could spare after satisfying the family wants to St. Mary's Church each Saturday and gave to the poor. Because of Froger’s charity and piety, the Virgin Mary came in a dream and told him to go to Depedale (Dale Abbey) and live there as a hermit, so that hereafter he would "inherit the Kingdom of Love."

Froger was a Norman in favour with Henry II, who appointed him his Almoner. Accordingly he occurs no earlier than 1155. In 1159, he was appointed Bishop of Séez. "While yet Archdeacon of Derby he transmitted to the Abbey of Mortimer en Lions a copy of the Old Testament in two volumes."

King Henry II

In 1252 a dispute arose between the canons of All Saints and the abbey of Darley relative to tithes, which was eventually referred to the papal court for settlement. Innocent IV appointed Giles, archdeacon of Berkshire, to act as papal commissary. The archdeacon, after summoning before him the representatives and witnesses of both parties, gave his decision in the conventual church of St. Frideswide, Oxford, on 7 May, 1253. The canons claimed, in the names of the churches of All Saints and St. Alkmund, that the abbey should pay tithes to them of all their demesne and other lands, of hay, of the profits of the mills and fisheries, and of all other titheable articles within the limits of the two parishes. They stated that the boundaries of these parishes were coterminous with the royal demesne; that the abbey of Darley had been erected and lands bestowed on it within those limits; and that they specially claimed tithes of the cultivated land called Abbotsflat, between Derby and the abbey on the west side of the Derwent, and of the tilled land within the field of Little Chester on the other side of the Derwent likewise known as Abbotsflat, and also of all that part of the pasture of Kings Mead that pertained to them. The canons of All Saints further protested that the Austin Canons of Darley obtruded themselves into their churches, where they celebrated mass, heard confessions, injoined penances, performed the rites of sepulture, and administered blessed bread, holy water, the Eucharist, and extreme unction, not only to their own servants, but to certain others. The archdeacon, associating with himself in the judgement the prior of Frideswide and John the Constable, decided most conclusively against the abbey, ordering the abbot and convent of Darley to make an annual payment of not less than one or more than two marks to the canons of All Saints in recompense for the loss they had sustained, and a further annual sum of 20s. to cover the cost of the suit. The interesting fact I learnt from studying this is, that St. Alkmunds was the other collegiate church of Derby named in the Domesday Survey, and that it had by this time become united with All Saints.

In the following year Henry III addressed the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, warning him not to collect the tithes of the prebendaries of All Saints, as Ralph de Bakepuze and John de Sutton had been by him appointed receivers, with the assent of the papal legate, and that 6 marks were to be paid by them into the treasury through the hands of the dean of Lincoln. In this document, as well as in the Patent Rolls of that reign, the dean of Lincoln is described as 'Persona hujus ecclesie pro se et canonicis libere capelle.' It was on the ground of All Saints being a free chapel that exemption from ordinary episcopal control and from the usual way of taxing emoluments was claimed. The expression 'Free Chapel' seems to have originally implied that the church thus designated stood on the royal demesne and was therefore free from wonted jurisdiction; but in later times it came to be applied in a wider sense to various chapels that were not subject to the mother-church of the parish within whose limits they stood.

The diocesan addressed on this occasion by Henry III was Roger de Weseham, who had been dean of Lincoln from 1239 to 1245 and was then consecrated bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. It seems likely that disputes, which about this time kept recurring as to jurisdiction over All Saints, were at least in part owing to the previous control that Roger de Weseham had exercised as dean, and which he was loth to part with when bishop. 

King Henry III

Henry III kept Easter 1267 at Derby, and finding that one of the prebends of All Saints, that had become vacant through the death of Elias de Heminbury, had remained unfilled for some time, he appointed one of his chaplains named Roger to the vacant stall in the quire, and to the seat in the chapter-house, with full possession of the prebendal farm attached thereto. Roger was instituted by proxy, his representative being a priest named Thomas de Thurgarton. The king having performed this semi-ecclesiastical function, sent word of the same to the dean of Lincoln by letters patent dated from Derby, wherein he addressed him as dean of Lincoln and of the chapel of All Saints at Derby. It should be remembered in connection with this incident, that the dean claimed the income of these various All Saints prepends during vacancy.

King Edward I

King Edward I caused it to be formally put on record in 1278 that the church of All Saints was a free chapel of the king, exempt from all episcopal and archidiaconal jurisdiction, and immediately subject to the pope.
In the following year, he strenuously maintained the rights of All Saints as a royal free chapel, for when Jordan de Wynburn, archdeacon of Derby, claimed jurisdiction and, on resistance, excommunicated the ministers of the church, the king intervened, and by letters patent prohibited Master Oliver de Sutton, dean of Lincoln, and all the canons of the church (asserting that in this he followed the example of Henry III) from obeying the bishop and the archdeacon or their officials, claiming to exercise such jurisdiction. Further, as the king had heard that, on pretext of a contention of this kind touching the liberties of this free chapel, certain appeals (to Rome) had been lodged whereby prejudice might arise to the king, he prohibited the said archdeacon from setting on foot any such plaint or appeal without the realm.

Bishop Longespée was not, however, content to obey the letters patent of the crown, and on his persistently attempting to interfere with the administration of All Saints, he was summoned at Michaelmas 1285 before the king's court at Winchester, for presuming there to exercise his ordinary jurisdiction to the prejudice and contempt of the king, and of the apostolic see, and in direct defiance of the royal inhibition. The dean of Lincoln, who appeared in person, complained that Robert de Redeswell and two other clerks of the bishop had cited Roger and Thomas, chaplains, and Robert, deacon of the church of All Saints, and other vicars and ministers of the same church to render due obedience to the bishop. The bishop, who appeared by attorney, not only contended that All Saints was within his jurisdiction and sought judgement in his favour, but also raised the point whether the question of his jurisdiction could be argued in the king's court. The objection was overruled, and the dean then produced proof that All Saints had been exempt from diocesan control from time immemorial; that when any prebend was vacant he instituted to it; that he held visitations there; and that he was the ordinary for the correction of abuses. The jury found that the bishop and his predecessors (instancing Alexander Stavenby, 1224-40) had always had certain jurisdiction within All Saints, such as the holding there of ordinations, the taking of synodals and the exercising discipline over the chaplains, clergy, and parishioners; but that the dean of Lincoln had the power of collating the prebendaries or canons, and instituting whomsoever he wished without any presentation to the bishop.

Neither bishop nor king appears to have been satisfied with this mixed verdict; for when Edward was at Lincoln in 1288, he again issued letters to Longespée prohibiting his interference with All Saints and its dependent chapels, and warning him against holding visitations therein; the latter being a point that was left somewhat vague in the Winchester decision. However, at Easter 1292 the matter seems to have been definitely arranged for the time being, as a composition was then entered into between the king and the bishop to the effect that the latter was definitely excluded from all visitation powers within the whole of the royal free chapels of the diocese, which in addition to All Saints, Derby, included those of St. Mary, Stafford, Penkridge, Tattenhall, and one or two others.

The decision of 1288, as amplified and confirmed by the composition of 1292, was carried out with good faith for about ninety years, but the dispute broke out again both in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There is not a single institution to All Saints or to the subject church of St. Alkmunds to be found in the whole of the pre-Reformation diocesan registers; but there are several instances of bishops holding ordinations within its walls. In the earliest volume, that of Bishop Walter de Langton, there are two such instances, in both of which John Halton, bishop of Carlisle, acted for the diocesan. The bishop of Carlisle, having a palace at Melbourne, Derbyshire, not infrequently acted as suffragan for Lichfield. The first of these ordinations was held at All Saints in December 1301, when the bishop of Carlisle admitted sixty-four candidates to the subdiaconate, diaconate, and priesthood. In September of the following year there was again an ordination at All Saints, when the same bishop admitted 139 candidates to the three grades of the sacerdotal office.