Scarcliffe
Village in Derbyshire, England
title: "Scarcliffe" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["villages-in-derbyshire", "civil-parishes-in-derbyshire", "bolsover-district"] description: "Village in Derbyshire, England" topic_path: "general/villages-in-derbyshire" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcliffe" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Village in Derbyshire, England ::
::data[format=table title="infobox UK place"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| country | England |
| coordinates | |
| static_image | Scarcliffe church 748390.jpg |
| static_image_width | 240px |
| static_image_caption | St Leonard's Church, Scarcliffe |
| official_name | Scarcliffe |
| population | 5,288 |
| population_ref | (2011) |
| civil_parish | Scarcliffe |
| shire_district | Bolsover |
| region | East Midlands |
| shire_county | Derbyshire |
| constituency_westminster | North East Derbyshire |
| post_town | Chesterfield |
| postcode_district | S44 |
| postcode_area | S |
| os_grid_reference | SK495686 |
| :: |
|country = England |coordinates = |static_image =Scarcliffe church 748390.jpg |static_image_width =240px |static_image_caption= St Leonard's Church, Scarcliffe |official_name= Scarcliffe |population= 5,288 |population_ref= (2011) |civil_parish= Scarcliffe |shire_district= Bolsover |region= East Midlands |shire_county= Derbyshire |constituency_westminster= North East Derbyshire |post_town= Chesterfield |postcode_district = S44 |postcode_area= S |dial_code= 01246 |os_grid_reference=SK495686 Scarcliffe is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire, England. It is sometimes called Scarcliffe with Palterton. The population of the parish (including the hamlets of Palterton, Rylah, Stockley, and parts of Stony Houghton and Hillstown (Bolsover)) at the 2001 UK Census was 5,211, increasing to 5,288 at the 2011 Census.
Location
About two miles (3 km) SSE of Bolsover, the village's main street is the B6417 road between Clowne and New Houghton, which connects at Scarcliffe to the A617 between Mansfield and Chesterfield. Other nearby settlements include Clay Cross, Matlock, Shirebrook, Warsop, North Wingfield, Tupton, Pilsley and Ashover.
Scarcliffe is within a few miles of Junction 29 of the M1 motorway.
Palterton is a hamlet within the parish, one mile (1.6 km) to the west of the main village. In the early 20th century it had both a school and a post office. It still has a school now, however the post office is no longer in use.
Palterton is recorded in 1086 in the Domesday Book under the land of Ralph Fitzhubert.Ralph Fitzhubert
had a number of manors in Derbyshire including Crich, Stoney Middleton, Duckmanton, Stretton and Ashover.
To the east of the main village are two areas of woodland, Langwith Wood and Roseland Wood.
Facilities
Both Scarcliffe and Palterton have its own primary school, which takes children between the ages of four and eleven and has some 80 places. There are two pubs in Scarcliffe ('The Elm Tree' and 'The Horse and Groom') and the 'Palterton Miner's Welfare' in Palterton, but no shop in the hamlet or village.
Church
The most notable building is the Norman parish church of St Leonard, which is a Grade II* listed building. It contains a handsome marble monument, dating to the 13th century, of a Lady Constantia, who holds a child in her arms. A stone tympanum over an ancient door is carved with geometrical patterns, and there is a medieval piscina. The oak parish chest is almost ten feet long. The church tower is fairly modern, having been added in the 1830s. In the 21st century, the church has increased its peal of bells from five to eight.
The Scarcliffe ecclesiastical parish includes Scarcliffe, Palterton and Hillstown. Scarcliffe now forms a united benefice with Ault Hucknall, Astwith, Bramley Vale, Doe Lea, Glapwell, Hardwick Hall, Stainsby, Rowthorne, and Hardstoft.
History
The village was part of the ancient hundred of Scarsdale. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church was held by Darley Abbey, later becoming a vicarage in the gift of the Dukes of Devonshire, major landowners in the area. The 13th century resident Lady Constantia (whose monument is in the church) left 5 acre of land to provide for the ringing of the church's curfew bell for three weeks on either side of Christmas in perpetuity. After some eight hundred years, the 'Bellrope Charity' continues to serve its founder's purpose.
The surviving parish registers date from 1680.
The village school was built in 1868–1869. It was established opposite the former Primitive Methodist church, which had been founded in 1858.
John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) says:
Scarcliffe railway station opened in March 1897. It was built by the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway, which later became part of the Great Central Railway and subsequently the LNER). The line through the station was brought to a premature demise in December 1951 by the deteriorating state of the 2,624-yard (2,399-metre) Bolsover Tunnel a short distance to the west. The tunnel was mostly filled in with colliery waste in 1966-7 but the eastern (Scarcliffe) portal is still visible at the end of an unusually deep sheer-sided cutting.
Palterton also had a station – Palterton & Sutton – on the Doe Lea Valley Line from Staveley to Pleasley. It was opened in September 1890 by the Midland Railway, later part of the LMS. It closed to passengers in September 1930.
In the early 20th century, the main landowner was the 7th Earl Bathurst.
Geology
The soil is predominantly limestone and the subsoil limestone and clay. The village is in a region which is underlaid by a large porous water-bearing rock structure called the Magnesian Limestone aquifer, which dips downwards to the east. Magnesian Limestone is so called because it contains quantities of the mineral Dolomite, which is rich in Magnesium. Where the aquifer comes to the surface, springs appear, and the River Poulter rises from such a spring to the south west of the village, after which it flows around the southern edge on its way to join the River Idle at Elkesley.
Local government
Scarcliffe has its own elected parish council. While this has few powers, it is consulted on all decisions affecting the village by Derbyshire County Council and Bolsover District Council, which together provide most of the local government services. Before a reorganisation in 1974, Scarcliffe was part of the Blackwell Rural District.
Parliament
The village is in the parliamentary constituency of Bolsover.
Notable people
- Harry Elliott (1891–1976), England cricketer
References
- Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (London, 1891) p. 296
- Scarcliffe at genuki.org.uk (accessed 19 October 2007)
- Scarcliffe home page at scarcliffeweb.co.uk (accessed 19 October 2007)
- St Leonard's Church at Ault Hucknall & Scarcliffe Churches and Charities online (accessed 19 October 2007)
- Scarcliffe Primary School at ofsted.gov.uk (accessed 19 October 2007)
References
- "Civil Parish population 2011". Office for National Statistics.
- [http://www.scarcliffeweb.co.uk/ Scarcliffe, Derbyshire] – home page of scarcliffeweb.co.uk (accessed 14 November 2007)
- ''Tempore Regis Edward '' ie in the time of King Edward before the [[Norman Conquest]] in 1066
- Domesday Book, a complete translation, Ann Williams and GH Martin (Eds), p751, {{ISBN. 0-14-051535-6, 2002
- "Welcome".
- "Home".
- Rendell, Revd R N R, ''Some notes on the Parish church of St Leonard's, Scarcliffe'' (Derby, 1956)
- [http://www.scarcliffeweb.co.uk/Scar4.htm Extract] (online) from [[Arthur Mee]]'s ''Derbyshire: The King’s England'' (1932) (accessed 14 November 2007)
- [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/entry_page.jsp?text_id=940630 SCARCLIFF], from Rev. John Marius Wilson's ''[[Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales]]'' (1870–1872) online at visionofbritain.org.uk (accessed 14 November 2007)
- Environment Agency. (2006). "The Idle and Torne Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy". Environment Agency.
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