Ellastone's History

The village dates back to Anglo Saxon times and features in the Domesday Book, where it is listed as Edelachestone, Elachestone and Princestone (after the great Prince James who fought in the battle of Ashbourne (1066) against the marauding Bainbridge hordes of the Northern territories). Ellastone (and the earlier versions of the name - Edelachestone, Elachestone, Ethelaxton, Ethelaston, Adlaxton, Athelaxton, Adelachestone, Adalacheston, Edelestone) is thought to be named after an Anglo-Saxon named Aethelac or Ethelac.

Ellastone Parish Hall

Ellastone Parish Hall dates back to 1910 and is a building with a special history including its time as a hospital during the First World War. It has been beautifully preserved whilst accommodating our modern needs making it an excellent venue for clubs and private functions such as birthdays (adults and children), weddings and meetings.

The Hall was given to the Parish by the local estate-owners, including Col. Bromley-Davenport of Wootton Hall, and Col. Bertram Heywood of Wootton Lodge, also part of the Heywood family of Doveley's, (who was also the driving force behind the project). He was a soldier, and an architect by profession and he donated half of the funds for the hall.

Within just four years war broke out, and it was transformed into an auxiliary hospital to care for wounded soldiers. In total 345 injured servicemen were treated in the Hall during its time as a hospital, and whilst the war ended in 1918, treatment and convalescence continued until February 1919. The Hall was finally handed back by the Red Cross in April 1919.

We have a lot of information on the opening of the Hall, including a full report from the Ashbourne News Telegraph which, in those days, was a comprehensive and accurate source of local information.

Not only was the Hall built to the very highest standards of the time, it was actually a piece of social engineering. When it was originally handed over by the Trustees in 1910 it was said to be one of the finest Parish Halls in the country. It was designed to encourage local people to meet up for social activities and stem the tide of people moving from villages into cities.

In his speech at the opening, Col. Heywood emphasised the importance of having a local facility like this – somewhere for people in Ellastone and the other local communities to meet up and socialise. Otherwise how would it be possible for younger and future generations to resist the lure of the cities?

After more than 100 years, mobility of people has probably increased 100-fold, but Colonel Heywood would no doubt be very pleased that his creation is alive and well and still seeking to respond to social change.

Today the Hall is still at the heart of the community, with weekly classes in yoga, tai chi, painting and fitness, as well as regular social events, and is increasingly attracting users from further afield following recent modernisation and improvements.

2019: 100 years since Ellastone Parish Hall was returned by the Red Cross

Local villagers celebrated a very special milestone on Saturday 6th April 2019. One hundred years ago the people of Ellastone had the Parish Hall returned to them after 5 years of service as a local auxiliary hospital during WW1. This special occasion was marked with a ceremony to commemorate the moment when, on April 4th 1919, the Parish Hall was handed back by the Red Cross. Light refreshments were served and there were displays of local historic photographs, including the history of the Hall.

One hundred years on the Hall hosted a special tea party for residents, past and present from Ellastone, Stanton, Wootton, Ramshorn and Calwich. This beautiful and historic building is still at the heart of the community today.

St Peter’s Church – 1163

St Peter’s is a beautiful grade 2* listed building with an interesting history dating back to 1163 and stands proudly in the centre of the village.

In the spring the churchyard is a riot of colour – snowdrops, crocuses & daffodils.

Ellastone Church Clock

The “new” clock in Ellastone Church Tower was installed in 1841. It was made by one of the Ashbourne Clock-makers, Elleby’s in Dig Street, in a very old building now known as “Cheddar Gorge”. While no-one in the Church can see it, people outside can and it is a lovely feature of the village.

The clock is a fine piece of engineering, but has always had to be wound by someone climbing up the Tower once a week. At last, a modern electric winder has been installed. After a few teething troubles the clock is now keeping good time.

We are grateful for all the efforts of Michael Bailey and others who have taken the trouble to keep the time correct by operating the winder over the years. We also thank Councillor Ed Barker for a grant from the Community Fund to help with the cost. Most of the money has come from the Ellastone Church Heritage Fund

The Church Bells

Did you know that two of them are older than the Church Tower in which they reside?

The Tower is dated 1586 but two of the bells are remarkably old – they are dated 1502 and 1525. They could have been from an earlier tower, but it is believed they were moved from the Priory of Calwich by John Fleetwood, the new owner. He bought the closed Priory in 1543 and made it a home. Old documents record that “he made a parlour of the chancel, a hall of the church and a kitchen of the steeple.” Bells would no longer have been needed there, so they were most likely moved and installed when John Fleetwood built the Church Tower some forty years later.

More information on the bells can be found HERE

Ellastone, Stanton, Calwich, Stanton & Wootton in September 1914

September 1914 was a time of great change in the parish of Ellastone, and everyone in the village was even busier than normal because of the extra work incurred by the nearby war in Europe that began the previous month. The village doctor Dr Covey had incurred severe extra duties and he was to take on an even heavier workload in the very near future. Dr Covey was already the Medical Officer for Denstone College and he had a surgery in Rocester as well the surgery & dispensary at his home - Adam Bede Cottage on the Wootton Road, but now he also turned his attention to giving Nursing Instruction classes in the Parish Hall twice a week. His classes were very well attended, fifty people came from Ellastone, Denstone & Rocester! One of the classes was preceded by French lessons given by Mrs Hartley. Presumably a large number of women in our village and nearby, hoped to volunteer as nurses in the war - whether in Belgium, France or England.

Local men were also leaving their homes and jobs behind to enlist and answer the call of their country for men to take up arms against Germany and defend Belgium. The Ashbourne Telegraph of Friday, 11th September 1914 (which is available to view on microfiche at Ashbourne Public Library), reported that “Stirring scenes were witnessed at Norbury & Ellastone Station on Thursday morning when 33 more recruits answered their country’s call. The platform presented a remarkable scene, being crowded with enthusiastic villagers, and as the train steamed out, hats and handkerchiefs were wildly waved, and cheer after cheer given. The Vicar, Rev’d E H Birley and Dr Covey witnessed the departure of the men, bidding them ‘Godspeed’.

The same edition of the Ashbourne Telegraph also reported that the Wootton Hall Cricket Club is to disband for the duration of the war, owing to the number of members enlisting, and added that it was hoped that the club will resume after the war.

At churchwarden Alfred Duncombe’s home of Calwich Abbey, eight promising young men enlisted and the homes of other gentry in the village were also affected. Life was never to be quite the same again in many big houses and small cottages throughout our area…and October was to bring even more radical changes

Ellastone in September 1914 by Margaret Taylor

Anzac Day Centenary – Local WW1 Heroes

Anzac Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) is the most significant commemoration of military casualties in those two countries. On April 25th in 2015 it had its centenary, remembering 100 years since the start of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in what is now Turkey. There were special events here in the UK, for example at the Cenotaph in London.

Locally we should remember two heroes on April 25th.

In Ellastone Church there is a memorial tablet to Capt. Edward Unwin who lived at the family seat at Wootton Lodge during the post war years. He was awarded the VC on April 25th 1915 as Commanding Officer of the SS River Clyde at the landings at Gallipoli. He was a well-known war hero, so much so that his coloured picture appeared on a cigarette card. You can see this and read about his incredible bravery by typing his name into a computer search engine.

Not as well-known was Arthur Charlesworth. He grew up at Calwich Bank Farm which his mother ran (She had grown up at Thorswood Farm, Stanton). Arthur attended Ellastone School but left the area shortly before WW1 to find his way in the world. He went to Canada in 1912, then to New Zealand. He joined the Auckland Infantry and the Gallipoli campaign, but his time in action lasted only 12 hours and he died along with hundreds of others on 25th April 1915. He was mourned locally with the Vicar of the time paying tribute on behalf of the commu-nity. He was the first local lad killed in WW1.

You can read the story of Arthur Charlesworth and all the others whose names appear on the Memorial Plaque in St. Peter’s Church and the Ellastone School Roll of Honour in the book “A long way from Ellastone” by Sue Smith and Paul Machen, which is available for £4 from Ellastone Church.

(Thanks to Margaret Taylor for all her dedicated research on the First World War, without which this item and the one above would not have appeared)

Adam Bede

Adam Bede was the first novel by English author George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans, first published in 1859. The fictional village of Hayslope is based on Ellastone.

In the 19th Century, Ellastone had the biggest building business in the Ashbourne area, that of the Evans family of which the writer Mary Ann Evans was a part. She visited the village and it found fame as Hayslope in “Adam Bede”.

You can also find more information about Adam Bede in this document which was written by Rob Watkin, one of Ellastone's residents.

The Adam Bede Walk

A delightful booklet on the Adam Bede Walk has been produced by Ed Barker. If you wish to do the walk it will be invaluable to you, with lots of information about the route, but also about George Eliot’s book and its characters.
Even if you are not walking, it is a lovely booklet to have with excellent photographs.

The booklets are available in Ellastone Church porch (suggested donation £2).

Some famous visitors to Ellastone & Wootton

Did you know that Ellastone and Wootton have had some rather famous visitors over the years? Rob Watkin has also created a rather lovely document about some that came in the 1600-1800s. Intrigued to find out who they were? Well you if you click HERE then you can read all about them!

Wootton Lodge and the Unwin family’s connection to Gainsborough

One of British art’s most famous paintings is The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough.

Thomas Gainsborough was a friend of the Unwin family who lived in Wootton Lodge, which had become the family home by 1768, when Gainsborough wrote to James,

‘I suppose your Country is very woody — pray have you Rocks and Water-falls? for I am as fond of Landskip as ever’

Gainsborough met his future wife at a social event in the Unwin’s London home. He visited Wootten Lodge in 1771. His portrait of Frances Unwin survives. There are two memorial plaques in St. Peter’s church.

Click this Link to read more about the return of the Gainsborough painting.

1000 Years of Ellastone

11th Century

Ellastone was mostly wasteland like much of Staffordshire, but with some farming. It was divided into two manors Edelachestone and Elachestone, both named after an anglo- saxon called Ethelac. The Normans came and took all the land.

12th Century

The Norman Barons who now owned the land and ruled here were Nicholas and Margaret de Longford from nearby in Derbyshire. They built the Priory at Calwich and its Church at Ellastone. They gave both to the Priory of Kenilworth in Warwickshire where Margaret’s guardian had his castle. He was Geoffrey de Clinton, Lord Chamberlain to King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror. Priory and Church would remain part of Kenilworth for two centuries.

13th Century

A triangle of Norman Buildings were made when some of the de Longford's built a fortified property surrounded by a moat. They were knights who supported the barons in the feudal system and kept the peasants in line, working for their masters. The property was between Bentley Fold and Mill Street. The name Bentley came from Longford where it is still in use today. The moat did not finally disappear until the 20th century. You can see where it was on an old map in the Parish Hall.

14th Century

The plague known as the Black Death came in 1349 killing more than a third of the country’s population. The number of deaths in Ellastone is unknown but probably high as it killed two successive vicars.

15th Century

A time of struggle - after the Black Death there were fewer to work the land but fewer mouths to feed. The Priory at Calwich was struggling to survive. As well as running the Church and a huge estate of land, the Canons of Calwich Priory had supported the poor and aged in the community, but they themselves were now poor and aged (and few). The Longfords left their fortified building.

16th Century

Calwich Priory closed in 1531 and the new owner of the Calwich Estate (John Fleetwood) built the present Church Tower and Chancel in the 1580s. Both survived the great storm of 21 Marche 1593 which destroyed many houses in Ellastone, which were made of wood or wattle and daub. The Church records in Ellastone Parish began in 1538*.

17th Century

Civil War. The battle at Wootton Lodge saw parliamentary forces take it from the royalists. Fatalities are recorded in the Church Records. The parliamentary forces damaged the church, which was Catholic at the time – damage can still be seen to the Fleetwoods’ tomb in the church. This century saw the start of a long history of metal-working in Ellastone when copper smelting began near Dove Bridge. The mill was built, or modified from an existing building in 1660-1 and was owned by Sir Richard Fleetwood, who owned Calwich Hall and Wooton Lodge. The copper was brought from Ecton in Derbyshire on packhorse trains for Sir Richard Fleetwood to his estate at Calwich.

18th Century

The new owner of Calwich, Bernard Granville, built a magnificent new house and many famous visitors came including Handel and Rousseau. Two new Turnpike Roads passed through Ellastone; the “Spath to Hanging Bridge” and the “Darly Moor and Ellaston”. The Turnpike Trusts built new bridges at the edge of the village (which are still in use) and improved communications greatly.

19th Century

A time of growth, when the village was at its peak. It was well-populated and a National School Room opened in 1812 to take 200 children (Education for 5-10 year olds wasn’t made law till 1870.) The Uttoxeter Canal was close by in the early part of the century with a large wharf at Rocester to serve Ashbourne (and also Ellastone) with bulky materials; there was also a coal wharf at Quixhill. This was replaced mid-century by the Railway, with a station and goods yard at Norbury and even better communications, including a telegraph office. Ellastone had the biggest building business in the Ashbourne area, that of the Evans family of which the writer George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) was a part. She visited and the village found fame as Hayslope in “Adam Bede”.

20th Century

The Parish Hall was built, but then came World War 1 and Ellastone declined. The important estates of Wootton Hall and Calwich Abbey, which had provided employment and leadership to the community through the Bromley-Davenports and the Duncombes were sold off and split up and the great houses demolished. (Most of Ellastone had been part of the Wootton Hall Estate until the 1920s.) The Railway closed and, in 1983 the village school closed, changing the character of the village irreversibly. Some determined people began to develop new facilities including a bowling green and tennis court.

21st Century

The last shop/post office closed but there has been progress and modernisation. Improvements made to the leisure facilities:- Parish Hall; Bowling Club pavilion; new children’s play equipment; a modernised church; also a re-opened pub/restaurant (part of the new Wootton Hall Estate); modern communications with broadband and a village website.

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