Loscoe Land Records |
Compared to the richness of documents for Elvaston and Ockbrook, the paucity of material dealing with the manor of Codnor as a whole and Loscoe village in particular is striking. This may have something to do with the area's deterioration through coal-mining, with old fields used for spoil heaps, houses demolished after subsidence and few gentry families nurturing its past or keeping its archives for posterity. The bulk of the extant early land documents are those retained by mining investors who wished to prove their entitlement to minerals, and at least one of those records openly mentions the deliberate destruction of any documents that might have compromised such claims.
The Piggin family clearly owned land at Loscoe, and there is a field in the area (I do not yet know the precise location) called Piggin Piece. Documents from outside the area may prove to be the best source of information on the family landholdings at Loscoe. The Ockbrook Piggin family kept a great many documents, one of which in particular, not yet seen, may reveal how close their links with Loscoe were:
The earliest detailed map of the manor of Codnor, surviving in four copies at the Derbyshire Records Office, is the 1792 enclosure map, which mainly gives names of those in the community who were allocated blocks of what had formerly been common pasture land, but does not name the ancient closes or enclosed fields or indicate the locations of the earlier farms (mostly known locally as crofts). No Piggin received an allocation, so it seems likely the family had ceased to farm at Loscoe and Codnor by 1792, but this should of course be checked. Nottinghamshire Archives has a copy of the Heanor and Codnor enclosure act and award (Charlton papers, DD/CH/33/50).
The late Fred S. Thorpe reproduced this enclosure map (he does not say from which original) in his 1990, self-published, personally autographed book, The Heritage of Codnor and Loscoe, dividing the map into sections and writing his own notes on it. A small selection of Thorpe's maps can be viewed online in Google Maps by following the links below. The facsimiles are approximately at the places which they concern, but you will need to use Google Earth as a viewer if you wish to see the 1792 maps correctly rotated. Google Earth can make them semi-transparent, so that it is possible to see from the aerial photograph that many of the hedgerows still exist, more than 215 years later.
Codnor Town | North-East | |
North-West | Cross Hill | Hill Top |
Codnor Breach | Loscoe | Woodlinkin |
South-West | Heanor North | South-East |
Kenneth Cameron's The Place-Names of Derbyshire (1959) obtains most of the Codnor field-names from an unidentified 1853 survey map, probably the Codnor & Loscoe Tithe Map 1854 (D2360/3/124a) or the Codnor & Loscoe map 1850 (D2526) at the Derbyshire Record Office (for a full list of the maps, in addition to that above, see a pdf summary catalogue). One of the fields thus named is Piggin Piece.
The following is a list of documents in the Charlton Papers at Nottinghamshire Archives which deal directly with the Heanor collieries, but may also have a bearing on early ownership of other land at Loscoe and Codnor. The Nottinghamshire Archives indexer noted (Catalogue Ref. 157 DD/CH): "Of particular interest is the series of Heanor (Derbyshire) colliery papers. Title to most of the minerals in the parish of Heanor was somewhat confused, chiefly because the wording of the 1615 Zouch grant of minerals (DD/CH/32/14) gave rise to later doubts about the exact extent of the property and how far rights in the commons were affected by ancient enclosures. Furthermore almost from the first, these minerals were owned in two half shares by the Charlton and Stanhope, later Mundy families, entailing joint action both for working the pits or taking legal means to prove title. A long series of suits and negotiations preceded a suit in the 1850s, which seems to have finally established the claim of Mundy and Charlton to the minerals, as distinct from surface ownership. These investigations led to a thorough historical search for all documents from 1086 onwards that concerned Heanor, and the whole provides a detailed picture of land ownership in the parish from the Middle Ages." I have not examined any of the 32 documents analysed below, but have only seen catalogue descriptions of them online:
Document | Towns mentioned | Farms or Crofts, Fields or Closes | Potential use |
---|---|---|---|
32/2 | Ripley, Pentrich, Codnor, Heanor, Butterley, Alfreton, Langley and Loscoe | Deans Close; various premises in towns | heirs and assigns (not extracted) |
32/3 | Ripley, Pentrich, Codnor, Heanor, Butterley, Alfreton, Langley and Loscoe | with additions compared to 32/2, quoting deeds 1542-1836. | |
32/4 | Heanor, Codnor, Langley, Loscoe and Milnhay | ||
32/14 | Heanor, Langley, Milnhay, Loscoe and Codnor | Land bounded by lane going from Derby common along by dwelling of Thos. J., and over Loscoe Dam Head and to Codnor Field and along south side of Adercar Park to Langley Mill | |
32/15 | Heanor, Milnhay, Langley, Loscoe and Codnor | ||
32/16 | Heanor, Langley, Milnhay and Codnor | ||
32/17 | Codnor | Knowchall Close between Boterley Park on west and Codnor Park on east | |
32/19 | Castle of Codnor, manors of Codnor, Loscoe, Langeley and Langwith Basset | 100 messuages, 3000a. land, 200a. meadow, 4000a. pasture, 200a. wood | may contain names? |
32/21 | manor of Codnor, manor of Heanor, Loscoe and Langley | ||
32/22 | castle and manor of Codnor, manors of Heanor, Loscoe and Langley | 100 messuages, 1000 a. land, 200a. meadow, 4000a. pasture, 200a. wood | |
32/27/1 | Heanor, Codnor | rectory and church of Heanor, late belonging to monastery of Dale, and premises there and in Codnor with tithes | |
32/27/2 | parsonages of Dale, Heanor, Codnor and Crich | ||
32/28 | castle of Codnor, manors of Codnor, Heanor, Butterley and Ripley, and premises there and in Pentridge, Loscoe. Langley, Milnhay, Alfreton and Somercotes | ||
32/29 | Codnor, Heanor | Castle and Park of Codnor, Park of Aldercarr, Countries Parke, Clay Crofte, Oke Close, Egreve Hunt Hole, Colepitt Greene, Scarlette Crofte and all demesne occupied with castle, 7 messuages in Codnor; Park and manor house of Alfreton and lands used therewith; all premises in Alfreton used with Codnor Parke called Newe Grounds; grounds in Pentridge called Marehaye and Harthaye with Harthaye Forges; 2 messuages in Heynor; Butterley Parke with all grounds there and in Knowshall | 1596: (all tenants named) |
32/30 | Codnor, Heanor | Castle of Codnor, manors of Codnor, Haynor, Butterley, Rypley and Alfreton and 60 messuages, 60 tofts, 2 water mills, 60 gardens, 60 orchards, 1000a. land, 2000a. meadow, 3000a. pasture, 1000a. wood, 1000a. furze and heath and 100s. rent, in Heynor, Codnor, Ripley, Butterley, Pentridge, Alfreton, Swanwyke Somercoates, Greenyhill, Losa (sic), Langley and Milnhay, with rectories of Heynor and Codnor | |
32/33 | Castle of Codnor, manors of Codnor, Heynor, Ripley, Butterley and Alfreton with premises there and in Pentridge | ||
32/34 | Loscoe | Heanor, inclosures lately made from Heanor Fields, all commons and wastes used by inhabitants of Heanor and Langley, 1 messuage and lands in Langley in occ. (2), 3 messuages and lands in Langley, unspecified messuages and lands in Heanor, and 1 messuage and lands in Loscoe; all with common of pasturage; except coals and ironstone as limited to J.Z., esq., for 80 yrs. Also for £160 for debt of J.Z. (1) to (2) rectories and parsonages of Codnor and Heynor with glebe and tithes, except coals and ironstone as above, with tithes of castle and park of Codnor, park of Oldercarre, Countespark, Clay Croft, Coal Pit Green Closes, Greatest New Close, Little Meadow Close, Hunter Hole Close, Rodes Close, Scarlet Croft, Brunts Close, Bentyl Close, Cadwell Close, Ox Close | all tenants named |
32/56 | Loscoe | Lanes Farm | |
32/58 | Loscoe | Ouders or Mill Closes, Over or Upper Close, Lords Moor Meadow, Little Carr or Little Woodlinkton and Cow Closes | |
32/59 | Loscoe | Little Carr or Little Woodlinkton | |
32/60 | Loscoe? | Great Breach, Great Field, etc., formerly Winter's | |
32/61 | Loscoe, Codnor and Langley | ||
32/62 | Loscoe | ||
32/65 | Codnor, Loscoe, Langley, Milnhay, Ripley, Pentridge and Chesterfield | ||
32/66 | Heanor, Dovebridge, Mackley, Foston, West Broughton, Herbert Brampton, Harwood Grange, Beeley, Bakewell, Chesterfield, Walton, Norton, Newbold, Brimington, Ashover, Lea, Crich, Wheatcroft, South Wingfield, Pentridge, Ripley, Codnor and Codnor Castle, Loscoe, Heanor and Langley | Manors of Chilcote, Eaton (in Dovedale), Sedsall, Somersall and Wadshelfe, with 120 messuages, 1 water corn mill, 1 windmill, 1 dovehouse, 200 gardens, 1800a. land, 700a. meadow, 1800a. pasture, 250a. wood, 1400a. furze and heath, | |
32/72 | Loscoe and Codnor in Heanor | messuage, Home Close, Middle Close alias Cow Pasture, Far Close alias Horse Pasture and The Meadow, Syndry Lane | location? tenants? |
32/76 | Codnor | 2 closes called Overfarley and Netherfarley, lying between the way from Codnor Castle to the moor on north and a close of Hen. Jebb on south, butting on the brook on east and the common pasture on west | |
32/82 | Codnor or Loscoe | Park | |
32/84 | Codnor and Loscoe | ||
32/85 | Codnor | Byrkine Close and barn and lane adjoining |
Other sources of Loscoe area land records which are cited by Cameron include: