STAVELEY is a parish, in the hundred of Scarsdale, the village being about five miles E.N.E. from Chesterfield, and three S.W. from Barlborough; situate near the banks of the river Rother, and the Chesterfield canal. In the neighbourhood are mines of coal and iron-stone, with furnaces for smelting the ore; and in the village is a manufactory for painting brushes of a superior description, and brushes for machinery, belonging to a Mr. Fletcher.

The church, which is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, contains several monuments of the Frecheville family; and the east window exhibits some stained glass, presented by Lord Frecheville in 1676. The living is a rectory, in the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire. Here is a place of worship for Wesleyan methodists. The charities comprise a free grammar school, of ancient foundation, and alms-houses, at Woodthorpe, for four aged persons of each sex, erected by Sir Peter Frecheville in 1632. The parish of Staveley (including the township of Great Barlow), contained, in 1821. 2,759 inhabitants, and in 1831, 2,926.

WHITTINGTON is a small parish, in the same hundred as Staveley, about three miles and a half west from that village, and about two and a half north from Chesterfield. The village is one to which some note is attached, as having been the place where the Earl (afterwards Duke) of Devonshire, the Earl of Derby (afterwards Duke of Leeds), Lord Delamere, and Mr. John Darcy, eldest son of the Earl of Holderness, assembled to concert measures for effecting the revolution of 1688.

The Cock and Magpie public-house was where they concluded their deliberations; there is a house still bearing the same sign in the village, but the building used by these great friends to liberty and the protestant religion is now occupied by a shoemaker. A jubilee, or centenary, of the great event, took place here in 1788, when a procession was formed, consisting of upwards of fifty gentlemen's carriages, many clubs, with their bands of music, and a large assemblage of the most distinguished families of the county: they partook of refreshments at the original 'revolution house', and then proceeded to Chesterfield to dinner.

On Whittington moor are several extensive manufactories for stone-ware, in which many of the inhabitants find employment. The church, which is dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is an ancient building; the living is a rectory, in the patronage of the dean and chapter of Lincoln:- the Rev. - Gordon is the incumbent, and the Rev. R. Robinson is the present curate. The free school here was founded in 1674, by Peter Webster, and endowed by him with lands, which together with subsequent bequests, produce an annual income of about £32.10s. for which twenty boys and ten girls receive instruction.

The parish (which has no dependent township) contained, at the last census, 740 inhabitants.

POST:- Letters from Chesterfield arrive every afternoon, and are despatched every morning.

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