ANCESTRAL PLACES IN DERBYSHIRE

Now I had the car I was able to drive to the areas my Gee family came from. Once I got used to driving a manual car it was a lovely drive through the Peak District. The weather was nice. The views were magnificent but the roads were so narrow I needed to watch out for oncoming vehicles. So many stone walls between fields. They are made with two side layers of rock and small stones in between with a capstone on top.

First stop Chapel en le Frith. Frith is an old English word for forest.The first church was built here in 1225 by foresters from the Royal Forest of the Peak. The tower of the church was erected in 1733 and most of the rest was built in the 14th century. Parts of the old village still survive around the church.

I used the satnav to find the church. It led me up a very steep cobbled road then expected me to go down a narrow driveway that had a “Public Footpath” sign. No way was I attempting that. I found a place to park and walked back. The church was closed so I just walked around it. The only events I am aware of happening there was the baptisms of my third great grandfather John PARKER and his brother James PARKER in 1819.

Road to church

Public footpath to church

Church at Chapel en le Frith

Then off I went to Chinley. A few of the GEE children were baptised at this independent chapel. It was closed so I walked around the cemetery and peaked through the window.

Chinley Independent Chapel

Through the window at Chinley Chapel

Next stop Hayfield. Many of the GEE family were baptised, married and buried here. It was a chapelry of the parish of Glossop. They had a perpetual curate, not a vicar. Many of the memorial stones are now used as the pathways around the building. Another closed church so I could only photograph on the outside. It was hard to get a photo of the building as there were so many tall trees around it.

Hayfield Memorial stones

Hayfield Church

Hayfield Church

At Mellor there was a wedding when I arrived. I waited until they started leaving the church and got inside before the vicar left. She was delightful and very helpful. Opened up the cupboards for me where the parish registers were kept and showed me the burial registers. Someone has typed a transcript of all the registers. The baptism font in this church dates back to he 9th or 10th century according to the carvings which could be Saxon or Norman. That means before William the Conqueror.

Inside Mellor church

Mellor font

View from Mellor churchyard

The vicar showed me where there was a map on the wall of the church of the cemetery. From that map I was able to find a few Gee graves. Some of them needed a lot of cleaning up to take a photo.

Mellor tombstones

She also told me that the local archivist lived in the old vicarage house next door.

I went to visit Ann Hearley, formerly Ashworth. Another delightful lady. She invited me in and told me a little about the local history and gave me a couple of books she had written to do with the history of the area. The oldest part of this house was built in 1512. It never did belong to the church but the perpetual curates lived in it.The view from her kitchen window of the dales is incredible.

In 1995 Ann and her husband John noticed lush grass growing in a line after a drought. Archaeological digs followed and discovered evidence of people living at Mellor through all periods of time from the Mesolithic [10,000 to 5,000 years ago].

Replica iron age round house

My final stop was Glossop. Another closed church so I could only take photos outside. This was the parish church for Hayfield and Mellor. My 4th and 5th great grandparents were married there.

And there I finished my ancestral wanderings in Derbyshire.