Monument record MDR15109 - Sycamore Farm, Hazelwood

Hazelwood was, until the 19th century, a township within the large parish of Duffield. In the early 19th century, part of Hazelwood was sold to George Benson Strutt of Bridge Hill House, Belper. It had come to the Strutts through the Bainbridge family and then the Wards, Derby silk throwsters, by inheritance and sale respectively; John Ward being a friend of cotton pioneer Jedediah Strutt, George Benson's father. Jedediah had started buying up land on either side of the Derwent between Milford and Makeney from 1782. This was partly because the Strutts required large quantities of timber and partly to supply their workers with subsidised milk, food, etc. That Sycamore farm was part of the Strutt family acquisitions at this time is clinched by Herbert Swift's account of the village written over 70 years ago, when he writes of it: 'This farm belongs to the Strutt estates of Belper and is tenanted by Mr Samuel Land'. Tenants of Sycamore Farm can be traced in published sources form 1827 until 1941. Unfortunately much of the Strutt estate was sold following a number of family deaths and the associated death duties that were required. (1)