EXTRACTS FROM MY FROGGATT FAMILY HISTORY BOOKS

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1 There are Froggatt family deeds in the Derbyshire Record Office at Matlock that prove that our ancestors owned a considerable amount of land and several farmhouses and farm cottages in the centre of the hamlet of Froggatt, Derbyshire from before 1296 to After 1618 my great grandfather x 8, Thomas Froggott, a younger son, moved to Folds Farm Calver where the next four generations of our branch of the family were tenants of Folds Farm. Three generations then farmed at Moorside and Robin Hood Farm in the Robin Hood area of Baslow. From the latter half of the 19 th century our family was centred nearer to Chesterfield at Eastmoor and Stonelow, near Wadshelf. From 1900 to 2015 my grandparents, my parents and I lived in Chesterfield itself. 14

2 From what I can gather from original documentary evidence, some of our ancestors, 13 th to 18 th centuries, would have lived in the village of Froggatt, Derbyshire where the cottages shown on the next few pages stand. A number of documents relating to the purchase and sale of the properties are held in the D3331 and D1490 Collections at the Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock. John Froggott, head of the Senior Branch of the Froggatt family, settled three cottages and some land in Froggott on his new wife, Mary Eyre in They lived in Froggatt until The documents show that the houses were all semi detached. Bridgefoot Farm has been made into one house but it is just possible to make out signs of a second doorway on the right of the cottage. Bridgefoot is close to a two arched bridge that gives access to the Stoke Road. There is some debate about when the River Derwent was first bridged at Froggatt. There are several articles on the internet that suggest that Froggatt always had a bridge, the early ones being wooden. Edward Jervoise researched Derbyshire bridges and concluded that the small arch built in 1635 was the original bridge. For over a century the bridge had only one arch. A second arch was added when the river was widened in order to facilitate the working of the newly built Calver Mill. Interestingly, although the Baslow Manor Court Rolls show that villagers were expected to repair the highway between Froggott and Curbar they do not mention a duty to repair a bridge. Experts believe that this is significant. Some of the Froggatt lands eventually belonged to a Charity - the Barlborough Hospital Trust. A 19 th century Enclosure Plan indicates the position of these lands. 15

3 This plan was produced in 1824 when John Henry Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland, Lord of the Manor of Baslow was in the process of seeking permission from Parliament to enclose land that he owned in Froggatt. Three arrows point to the lands that belonged to the Trustees of Barlborough Hospital. From the late 13 th century to the mid 18 th century these lands were owned by my Froggatt family For the first time I can see the extent of our family lands in Froggatt. It included the riverside meadows around Bridgefoot, Derwent House Farm and Hollowgate Farm and the large piece of land on the opposite side of the road that was connected to Malthouse Cottage. There was also some land to the west of Froggatt where the open fields were situated. In 1280 the land belonged to a Thomas Bassett. It was part of the Manor of Baslow which came to the Bassett family through marriage to an Avenell heiress. The Bassetts held many other manors in various parts of England by gift of the King. Thomas leased some of his Froggatt lands and property to a tenant, Walter del Hage. At some point in the next fifteen years my ancestor, John Froggecotes of Froggecotes bought the land. John gave the land and property to his son, William, in

4 Lands in Froggatt owned by the Froggatts of Froggatt The tree line left denotes the bank of the River Derwent Derwent Cottage and Farmhouse Bridgefoot Barn Bridgefoot Cottage Inside Bridgefoot Cottage Note the stone stairs. The millstone grit bedrock is very close to the surface here and it could be that some of the stone used for building the houses was cut from the land on which the houses stood. On the other hand there were several quarries in the vicinity 17

5 Rockview and Stonecroft were originally accessed from Spooner Lane. Subsequently several houses were built facing the river on Spooner Lane. There is now no access to Rockview and Stonecroft from Spooner Lane. Malthouse Cottage 1932 top left standing Malthouse Cottage 2014 on Malthouse Lane. Picture taken from Taken from a raised Malthouse Hollowgate. The stone structure in the Lane. Several houses now stand foreground covers a well or water course on the Froggatt family plot and the cottage can no longer be seen from Hollowgate. The Malthouse on Malthouse Lane, Froggatt. 18

6 The houses that have been built in Froggatt in modern times face the river. This enables residents to benefit from the superb view over the river and beyond. The oldest houses in Froggatt face South and are side on to the River. This ensured that the main rooms had the maximum daily benefit of light and heat from the sun. Kitchens and pantries that needed to be cool were at the back of the houses where the sun did not reach These close up views of Derwent House Farm and Derwent Farm Cottage show them standing side on to Hollowgate and to the River Derwent. A very ordinary couple of cottages from the back but improved at the front possibly to match Moorseats Hall when Mary Froggatt nee Eyre used this as a Dower House in the 1670s. The House on the Green. This lovely old house stands on the road that is shown as Froggatt Green Road on the 1824 Enclosure Map. Now the road is just called The Green. Standing to the East of the other Froggatt lands could this be the site of the land and house that William Froggott of Froggott gave to his second son Thomas in 1574? 19

7 Bearing in mind that the early Froggatt family property was clustered in the centre of the hamlet I think this is likely. It looks as though the sixteenth century heads of the family extended their land as and when neighbouring land and property was available for sale. There are indications that they may have leased the property before buying it. Thomas was the head of a line of Froggatt blacksmiths and lead merchants. There are documents at Matlock that record the purchase and sale of properties connected with Thomas. The Welles lead merchant family of Holme Hall Bakewell bought property in Froggatt in the first half of the 17 th century from the descendants of Thomas. The Welles family leased Stoke Hall just across the river Derwent from Froggatt from 1608 to Roy and I were looking for signs of old landmarks in Froggatt one day in early January Mrs Ann Thomas, the owner of this house, was doing some gardening and heard us talking about the old water channel that ran past her house. She invited us in for coffee. Her house was detached but it was clear that it had been semi detached. There were stone stairs as in Bridgefoot but the stonework was much smoother and the house was generally more up market as you might say. Ann had thought that the lower part of the house had been used to house animals and had no idea that the house had originally been a pair of semis. She was able to tell us that her neighbour used to have a long strip of land attached to her property. This was interesting as it confirmed information contained in the 17 th century Thomas Froggott land documents at the Derbyshire Record Office. The local Church for inhabitants of Froggatt was St Annes, Baslow. When I looked at a transcript of the Parish Registers for 1570 to 1750 there were surprisingly few family names entered for Froggatt village. This led me to believe that Froggatt village contained no more than six or seven semi detached dwellings providing housing for as few as twelve or fourteen families. Putting two and two together from wills, marriage settlements and land sale documents it seems that for a period of time in the 17 th century a majority of the houses were owned by members of the Froggatt family. 20

8 Froggatt Old Bridge from both banks of the River Derwent. On the Enclosure Map it is called Stoke Bridge. From Bridgefoot From the Stoke Hall side of the River Derwent. The original 17 th century bridge had only one rounded arch. The larger pointed arch was built years later when the river was widened to improve the flow down river to the cotton mill in Calver. Bridgefoot Farm lost some of its land in the process. For some time I was puzzled by an entry in Baslow Parish Registers for a 17 th century John Froggatt of Froggatt who did not seem to belong to any of the known Froggott families. Then I came across a document in the Derbyshire Records at Matlock that provided the answer. He was the son of John Froggott of Beeley and was the Froggott family heir. He had been brought up in Beeley. His father had moved there after his marriage to Elizabeth Greaves of Beeley in When John Junior came of age he set up his own home in one of the family properties in Froggott that he would eventually inherit. His Uncle Thomas, our ancestor, had to vacate a family cottage. He moved a couple of miles away to Calver where he was granted the tenancy of a large farm with outbuildings and a lot of land. 21

9 A close up of Derwentwater Farmhouse and Cottage. This rather grand looking pair of semi detached houses could be on the site of the Froggatt family dwellings that were used by the family heirs. I imagine Mary Froggatt nee Eyre of Moorseats Hall, Hathersage using this as her dower house. We have a copy of the inventory taken after she died in Froggott in Amongst her goods and chattels is a saddle I can imagine Mary as a rather grand lady riding side saddle around the lands owned by the family. When she married John Froggatt in 1647 the Marriage Settlement included money provided by her family and three cottages in Froggott provided by her husband. John and Mary lived in Froggott for a long time and only moved when they bought Moorseats Hall in 1669 Froggatt, like many other ancient places, was not mentioned in Domesday but there may have been people living continuously in the area of Froggatt for thousands of years to the present day. The map on page 15 shows a Bronze Age Stone Circle and there are signs of an ancient field system. Finds in Froggatt recorded by the Archaeological Data Service include a Mesolothic Microlith, a Bronze Age Cairn and four associated Funerary Urns, a Bronze Age flint barred and tagged blade, an Upper Paleolithic flint cache and a Prehistoric or Roman scraper/ knife. Recent research into pre and post Conquest Britain suggests that ancestors of the Froggatts could have lived by the River in Froggatt for hundreds of year 22

10 before the Conquest. This area is in Danelawe /Viking territory. The Froggatts could have been native British, Anglo Saxons or Vikings or a mixture of several races. Could they have been of Norman origin? Another possibility but thought to be very unlikely. So are we descended from the people who built the stone circles and farmed on the high gritstone edge or late comers like the Angles and Vikings. Red hair is very common in our family. My father had red hair. Do these photographs of Andrew and Lizzie provide the answer? 23

11 The reason why the area around Froggatt was inhabited over a long period must be that it is positioned where there was a gap between the Edges giving access to land and trackways on and across the Big Moor. There were also freshwater streams running down to the river. Site of the prehistoric field system above Froggatt The Bronze Age Stone Circle on Froggatt Edge 24

12 One of the streams that flow from Froggatt Edge, through Froggatt Wood and the village into the Derwent. At some point the streams were channelled underground through the village. A path through Froggatt Wood to the gap in the Edges. Some parts of the paths are lined with massive stone slabs. It is incredible to think that these were quarried, shaped and laid by men with hand tools and sledges / carts. The Froggatt Wood lead smelter. So far no one has discovered who owned or ran the smelter. Apparently the Lords of the Manor, the Manners of Haddon, rented out pieces of land and tenants could build their own smelters. Some members of the Froggott family owned woodland in Froggatt. Perhaps the Froggatts who were connected to the lead trade started out in Froggatt Wood. 25

13 Froggatt from across the river. Near the river there is meadow and pasture land. As the land slopes upwards the soil is thin and the rock is close to the surface. This is ideal for grazing sheep and cutting stone blocks for building houses. Note the trees. These provided white coal for the 17 th century lead smelting mill that is hidden in the trees. A stream provided the water to power the mill. This is Spooner Lane. It is a continuation of Hollowgate, Froggatt. It leads to Grindleford Bridge. From Froggatt in the other direction there was another narrow lane that connected with Curbar Village. Baslow Court Rolls refer to it as the Highway. The inhabitants of Froggatt were responsible for repairing the road and keeping it generally in good order. In 1628 at St Annes Baslow, Anthony Spooner married Jone Oliver of Froggatt. William Wells (second husband of my Great grandmother x 8 ) left Jone a large sum of money in his 1626 will. Was she possibly his step daughter by his first wife? 26

14 Pasture for sheep and cattle near Froggatt and a field barn. I think the linear feature in the foreground must be Spooner Lane. Some of these fields were owned by our Froggatt ancestors. There were no pathways to individual fields We have two family documents that reveal that in the 16 th century it was customary for farmers to pay a yearly sum of money for the right to access their fields land via a neighbours land. These documents also show that some farmers neglected to pay their dues and sometimes did damage to hedges in order to take short cuts to their fields. On both counts our Froggatts sought justice from the High Court against Richard Bothom of Froggatt and Richard Savage of Stony Middleton. View of the Edges from the across the River Derwent. Probably taken from the Stoke Road 27

15 Froggatt Edge. Not far away from this rock edge is a trackway that was used by quarry men and mill stone makers. An ancient hollow way created by travellers, packhorses, carts and sledges through the ages. Unwanted millstones lie above Froggatt where they were quarried and shaped. 28

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