Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire 1899

SHIRLEY is a township, parish and picturesque village, 4 miles south-east from Ashborne station on the Churnet Valley section of the North Staffordshire railway and 10 north-west from Derby, in the Western division of the county, Appletree hundred, in the petty sessional division, union and county court district of Ashborne, rural deanery of Ashborne, archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Southwell. By Local Government Board Order a detached part of Shirley was transferred in 1887 to Hollington. The church of St. Michael, a building of stone, situated upon an acclivity, consists of chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled tower with four pinnacles, erected in 1861 and containing 3 bells, two of which are dated 1688: in 1842 the north aisle was added and the church refitted, the chancel arch. the only remnant of the Early Norman church, being replaced by a Pointed arch; all the ancient parts of the church now remaining, including the south aisle and its windows, and the arcade separating it from the nave, are Decorated: the chancel retains a piscina, and in the opposite wall an almery; there is also a piscina in the south aisle: the font is an octagonal work of the 15th century: such ancient monuments as remained appear to have been destroyed in the repairs of 1842: at the east end of the north aisle is a portion of the Norman tympanum once placed over the principal entrance: in the north aisle is a handsome marble monument to the Right Rev. W. A. Shirley, Bishop of Sodor and Man; and previously archdeacon of Derby and vicar of Shirley, d. April 21, 1847: and in 1873 a brass was erected to the late Canon Walter Waddington Shirley, of Christ Church, Oxford: some of the communion plate is dated 1620; but two pieces date from the reign of Henry VII. : the chancel, which (with the great tithes) became the property of the late Sir Andrew B. Walker bart. on his purchasing the Osmaston estate, was redecorated by him in 1886, and there is a brass plate to that effect within the chancel: there are 200 sittings. The churchyard contains the remains of an ancient stone pillar monument, and a fine yew tree, the circumference of which, at four feet from the ground, is 17 feet. The register dates from the year 1658 for all entries and is in excellent condition. The living is a vicarage, with 9 acres of glebe, net yearly value £240, with residence, in the gift of Mrs. Shirley's trustees, and held since 1886 by the Rev. William Richardson Linton M.A. of Corpus Christi college, Oxford. The vicarage is about a quarter of a mile from the church. Here is a Wesleyan chapel, erected in 1855. A reading room was opened January 1st, 1877, and is well supplied with daily papers, periodicals and magazines, and possesses also a library containing 300 volumes: the vicar is president. Here are charities amounting to £1 6s. 8d. yearly. Mrs. Shirley is lady of the manor. Sir Peter C. Walker bart. of Osmaston, and the trustees of the late Rev. W. W. Shirley D.D. are chief landowners. The soil is light; subsoil, gravel and sand. The land is chiefly kept in pasture for dairy produce. The area is 1,617 acres of land and 13 of water; rateable value, 2,697; the population in 1891 was 240.

Parish Clerk, Frank Harrison.

Post Office.— Thomas William Strong, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Derby via Brailsford, at 8,30 a.m.: dispatched. at 5.30 p.m. weekdays only. Postal orders are Issued here, but not paid. Osmaston is the nearest money order & telegraph office

National School (mixed), erected with residence in 1844, &; enlarged in 1893, by subscription, assisted by a parliamentary grant, for 80 children; average attendance, 60; William Henry Lees, master

Linton Rev. William Richardson M.A. (vicar), Vicarage

COMMERCIAL.

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