DRONFIELD, once a market-town, in the parish of its name, in the hundred of Scarsdale, is 156 miles from London, 38 S.E. from Manchester, 23 E. by N. from Buxton. 6 N. from Chesterfield, and the like distances from Sheffield. The town is pleasantly situate in a valley, and remarkable for its salubrity, which has occasioned it to become a place of residence for many respectable inhabitants. Edge-tools, scythes, sickles, and other agricultural implements, together with nails, are manufactured here and in the neighbourhood, to a very considerable extent; there are also iron and chymical works, and several corn mills in the vicinity.

The places of worship are the parish church, and chapels for independents, Wesleyan methodists, and the society of friends. The church, which is dedicated to John the Baptist, is a handsome building, having a tower at the west end, terminated by a spire. Opposite the west end of the church was formerly a chantry, now the Dragon public-house. The living of Dronfield is a discharged vicarage, in the patronage of the crown. A well endowed free grammar school, founded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Henry Fanshawe, Esq. and another free school, are the principal charities. The market, which was formerly held on Thursday, has been discontinued; the proximity of Sheffield and Chesterfield markets having long caused it to decline. A fair is still held on the 25th April, principally for cattle and cheese.

The entire parish of Dronfield contained, in 1821, 3,680 inhabitants, and in 1831, 3,974, of which last number 1,653 were returned for the town.

BEAUCHIEFF ABBEY, a village extra parochial, in the same hundred as Dronfield, is situate in a beautiful vale, about three miles and a half from that town. The abbey was founded between the years 1172 and 1176, for regular canons of the Premonstratensian order, by Robert Fitz-Ranulph, lord of Alfreton, in expiation for having conspired with the other knights who slew Thomas-a-Becket.

Only a small part of the chapel is now remaining, in which service is performed by the Rev. William Pashley, of Holmesfield; it is a donative, in the gift of the lord of the manor, Peter Pegge Burnell, Esq. The manor house, Beauchieff-hall, was erected in 1671, and is the residence of Broughton Steade, Esq. the nephew of the proprietor.

The population of this place has been on the decrease for the last thirty years; in 1801 it contained 102 inhabitants, and at the last census (1831), the number amounted only to 88.

NORTON is an agricultural parish, containing a village of the same name, about two miles and a half from Dronfield and four from Sheffield. About one mile south-east is Hazelhurst and Oaks, the seats of William John Bagshaw, Esq. magistrate. The church, among which is an altar tomb, to the memory of the parents of John Blythe, Bishop of Salisbury, and Geffrey Blythe, Bishop of Lichfield, both of whom were born here: a place of worship for unitarians, and a grammar school, of ancient foundation are in the parish - which contained, in 1831, 1,747 inhabitants.

HOLMESFIELD township and village, in the parish of Dronfield, is very pleasantly situate, about one mile from that town, and between seven and eight miles north-west from Chesterfield: it cannot be marked as a place of trade, but the neighbourhood is highly respectable, and contains several very genteel habitations. The population of the township in 1831 was 499, being the exact number of inhabitants as returned at the preceding census.

DORE is a hamlet, also in the parish of Dronfield, about a mile and a half therefrom, and nine miles north-west from Chesterfield; it is a place of no consideration in the way of trade. The number of inhabitants, in 1831, was 527.

TOTLEY is another hamlet, in the parish of Dronfield, about three miles north-west from that town, containing 351 inhabitants.

UNSTONE is a township, in the parish of Dronfield, about two miles south therefrom, containing 586 inhabitants.

POST OFFICE:- DRONFIELD, John Fowler, Post Master:- Letters arrive from SHEFFIELD, &c. every morning at seven, and are despatched every afternoon at two.

Description(s) from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835.
Transcribed by Rosemary Lockie in May 1996.