Newton Solney, Derbyshire Genealogy

England Derbyshire

Parish History
Newton Solney is an Ancient Parish. NEWTON-SOLNEY (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Burton, hundred of Repton and Gresley, S. division of the county of Derby, 2¼ miles (N. E.) from Burton; containing 311 inhabitants. The manor was held at an early period, under the earls of Chester, by the ancient equestrian family of Solney, whose coheiress married into the Longford family, of whom the property was purchased by the Leighs, about the reign of Henry VIII. The heiress of the Leighs brought it to the Everys; and about 1795 Abraham Hoskins, Esq., purchased the principal estate. The parish is bounded on the west by the river Trent, and comprises 1401 acres, of rich strong land: on the Earl of Chesterfield's property are 120 acres of wood and plantations. The village is pleasant and well built; and there are several good mansions in the parish. On a commanding eminence is a large castellated building, called Hoskins' Folly. The living is a donative; net income, £20; patron and impropriator, Sir Henry Every, Bart. The church consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with a low tower and short spire.From: 'Newton-Rigny - Newton, Wood', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 413-415. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51179 Date accessed: 09 March 2011.

The castellated folly referred to above as Hoskins Folly became known as "Bladon Castle". On the summit of Bladon Hill the Local High Bailiff built his folly, designed by leading architect Sir Jeffrey Wyatville, which looked like a castle with pointer armoury windows and full battlements but was in fact, no more than a single long wall, rather like a film set.

In the climate of the Napoleanic war in mainland Europe, England was suffering hardship and was under serious threat of being invaded by Napolean’s Grande Armee. Hoskins had completely under-estimated how antagonistic his fake ‘castle’ would be and there was absolute upcry. In order to defuse this rooms were added and family members moved in to try to overcome criticism.

The building subsequently passed into the ownership of John Gretton of the successful Bass Ratcliff and Gretton brewery and with improvements became a comfortable country house in the Newton Park estate lands.

The War Office requisitioned Bladon Castle during the Second World War following which, it was purchased by Air Chief Marshall Sir Ralph Cochrane who most famously, led the dam busters raid and Berlin airlift and who became Managing Director of Atlantic Shipbuilding Co. (1953 – 56), Rolls Royce Ltd. (1956 – 61) and Chairman of RJM Exports Ltd. (1962).

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Census records
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Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Derbyshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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