Eckington, Derbyshire
| Eckington | |
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_-_geograph.org.uk_-_113673.jpg) Eckington town centre |
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 Eckington
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| Eckington shown within Derbyshire | |
| Population | 11,152 (civil parish, 2001) |
| OS grid reference | SK434749 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SHEFFIELD |
| Postcode district | S21 |
| Dialling code | 01246 |
| Police | Derbyshire |
| Fire | Derbyshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Eckington is a town in North East Derbyshire, 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Chesterfield and 8.5 miles (14 km) southeast of Sheffield on the border with South Yorkshire. It lies on the B6052 and B6056 roads close to the A6135 for Sheffield and Junction 30 of the M1. It had a 2001 population of 11,152, increasing to 11,855 (including Bramley, Renishaw and Troway) at the 2011 Census.
Ten Roman coins discovered in December 2008, near Eckington Cemetery may be evidence of a Roman settlement or road in the area. The oldest of the silver and copper coins is from the reign of the emperor Domitian (AD 81 to 96) while the others are from the reigns of Trajan (AD 98 to 117) and Hadrian (AD 117 to 138).
Eckington is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Echintune, a manor given to Ralph Fitzhubert. Some parts of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul date to 1100.
George Sitwell, son of George and Mary was baptised in 1601 in Eckington. George's father died whilst he was a child but as an adult he acquired the freehold of land in Eckington and exploited it by mining iron ore. In 1625, he built Renishaw Hall which is now owned by Sir Reresby Sitwell's daughter, Alexandra and her family.
Sitwell exploited the minerals beneath his estate, chiefly iron and built a blast furnace at Plumbley a mile north west of Eckington in the 1630s with his mother's second husband, Henry Wigfall. In 1652 Sitwell built a furnace at Foxbrooke, close to Renishaw, which became the core of the largest ironworks in Derbyshire. Sitwell made saws at Pleasley and in 1656, installed a rolling and slitting mill at Renishaw to supply the rod iron used by numerous local nailmakers.
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