Monument record MDR5747 - Kidsley Park (site of), Smalley

Kiddersley Park has been recorded as a deer park belonging to the Abbot of Chester in 1235 and extant in the early 14th century. The manor of Kiddersley, the site of which is called Kiddersley Park, was no longer esteemed a manor by 1817. (1, 2) All that remains on the present OS map to indicate the site of the park at Kidsley is Kidsleypark Farm. The golf course north of Kidsleypark Farm occupied a tongue of land projecting out from Smalley. This parcel of land, easier to spot with the early hedge lines shown on earlier maps, is bounded by a footpath in the south and seems likely to have been the medieval park. The golf course, in existence by 1911, appears to have protected the imprint of the ancient parkland here. The bridle track, leading south from the Sir John Warren Inn through the park, continues as a footpath via Bank's Barn to join the A608 where it makes a sharp turn, had the name Glew Lane, possibly named after John Glew, a church warden of Codnor. Until the 16th century this was the main road between Loscoe and Smalley. Hogg Barn Lane (SK 429 482), which led from Woodlinkin to Loscoe, joined in to Glew Lane, making it the principle thoroughfare for packhorses carrying coal from the pits of Sir John Zouch of Codnor Castle, passing through the park to the markets at Derby. In the 16th century a dispute between Sacheverell, who owned Kidsley Park, and Zouche over this right of way led to Sacheverell succeeding in closing the road permanently to all traffic. The present bridle way and footpaths fossilise this once important and busy thoroughfare. The first documentary reference to Kidsley Park was in c. 1200. Charles Kerry, writing in 1907, noted that Heanor Gate Farm was known as The Old Park in 1691, with a deer leap or freeboard visible on the Enclosure award of 1784 as a narrow strip around some of its fields. Fields behind Gate Farm were known as Near and Far Deer Hay. In Smalley there are two other areas of later parkland; that around Smalley Hall and Stainsby House existed in 1791 and are marked on Sanderson's Map. No early references have been found for either of these. (3)