Tissington and Lea Hall is a civil parish within the Derbyshire Dales district, which is in the county of Derbyshire, England. Named for its settlements and sparsely built up with much rural expanse, its population was 134 residents in the 2021 census. The parish is north west of London, north west of the county town of Derby, and north of the nearest market town of Ashbourne. It shares a boundary with the parishes of Ballidon, Bradbourne, Fenny Bentley, Kniveton, Newton Grange, Parwich and Thorpe. The parish is wholly within the Peak District National Park.
Geography
Location
Placement and size Tissington and Lea Hall parish is surrounded by the following local Derbyshire places:
Newton Grange and Parwich to the north Fenny Bentley and Thorpe to the south Bradbourne and Kniveton to the east Ilam and Stanshope to the west.
It is in area, in length and in width at its broadest, within the far western portion of the Derbyshire Dales district, and is also to the far west of the Derbyshire county, resting against the boundary. The parish is bounded by features such as the Bradbourne and Bentley brooks to the east, Bletch Brook to the north, Thorpe Pastures to the south, and the River Dove to the west.
Settlements
There are a number of areas of built environment within the parish, outside of this comprises substantial rural expanse and farmland. The main locales are:
Tissington - this is to the centre of the parish and consists of a sparsely populated village Lea Hall - this is a hamlet in the east of the parish near the Bradbourne brook comprising a farm and manorial farmhouse converted to a guesthouse Routes The A515 road is the primary road within the parish, running north-south through the centre of the parish between Ashbourne and Buxton. The parish briefly touches the B5056 road which runs to the east and south east of the parish from Longcliffe, paralleling the Bradbourne brook and meeting the A515 near Fenny Bentley village. The unclassified road from the B5056 called Bent Lane notably runs through Tissington Ford by the parish eastern boundary, over the aforementioned brook.
Environment
Landscape The parish is positioned between the River Dove in the west and the Bletch/Bradbourne/Bentley brooks to the east, the ground slopes upwards from these towards the centre, close to Tissington. The wider region is classified by Natural England as being within the White Peak and Peak Fringe character areas. The west of the parish alongside the river is the Dovedale valley, and the land rises sharply from there, forming a plateau. Several natural features along the valley include Reynard's Cave, and the Lover's Leap and Twelve Apostles pinnacles, the land undulating somewhat as it nears the A515 road. The parish is sparsely urbanised, mainly to the middle along communication routes, but is otherwise overwhelmingly rural and farmland. Substantial areas of trees are few; Dovedale Wood surrounds the River Dove, a valley-side coppice is alongside the Bradbourne brook to the south east, also there is a shaped cluster known as Pegg's Walk, surrounding parkland at Tissington Hall. Geology The bedrock of the parish is complex with several limestone layers found. In the parish to the west is the Milldale Formation, dated between 358 and 330 million years ago during the Carboniferous period, alongside the Hopedale Formation, comprising sedimentary bedrock formed between 337 and 329 million years ago during the same period. To the east is substantially taken up by the Widmerpool Formation, which is bedrock formed between 337 and 329 million years ago during the Carboniferous period, and this is overlain in places by a volcanic layer named for the village, Tissington Member - Hyaloclastite, this is an igneous bedrock formed between 330.9 and 329 million years ago during the same period.
Hydrological features The River Dove forms all of the parish western boundary, the surrounding area creating the Dovedale valley, the parish not quite reaching as far as the stepping stones water feature. Other watercourses are along the eastern parish edge, Bletch Brook forms the north eastern section, Bradbourne Brook the east area and Bentley Brook is to the south east. Wash Brook is to the west of the A515 road. A former millrace known as Woodeaves Canal abuts the Bradbourne. There is a village pond.
Land elevation The south of the parish surrounding the Bentley Brook valley along the parish boundary contains the lowest area, at ~. The area along the south west by the River Dove is marginally higher, at . The land rises from these watercourses towards the settled areas, Lea Hall is in the range of and Tissington village ranges between , Notable local peaks include Wibben Hill at which is east of Tissington, Hunger Hill which is and is north of Tissington, and the highest location Tissington Hill, which is west of the village and measuring .
History
Toponymy Tissington was the only settlement to be listed in the Domesday 1086 landholding survey. It was described as Tizinctun, which was thought to be named after a local person, the Old English name being Tidsige's farm or settlement. Lea Hall was first termed as Lie and variations thereof in the 13th century (such as 'Lee by Bradbourne') to help distinguish it from similarly named settlements (such as Lea), and meant 'the clearing' or meadow.
Prehistory to medieval times The parish holds several artefacts of its prehistoric past, with relics from that era recorded from the Neolithic era (5000–4000 BC) such as Reynard's Cave on the cliffs of the Dovedale valley, which has been occupied since and several items have been discovered there including flint scrapers and pottery of the era, Iron Age (800 BC–100 AD) findings such as a potsherd influenced by Hallstatt culture, Roman (43 AD–409 AD) period items including a bronze fibula, ox goad and Castor ware pottery from the 2nd to 4th century, along with a coin hoard. Medieval relics include a coin from Henry III's reign.
Other historic items include an Early Bronze Age food vessel, a number of barrows also from the period include Sharp Low between Tissington village and Dovedale which held graves and an iron knife, Cromwell's Low near Tissington Hill with iron fragments and food vessel, and Crake Low where urn, gold coins and human remains were found. Boars Low (also known as Rose Low) is just west of Tissington and along with a grave also contained metal fragments from a shield and a sword. A dug-out canoe in good condition was found on the Bentley Brook, with suggestions it could date from the prehistoric era.
In 1066, at the time of the Norman Conquest, Tissington was held by a number of owners, including Gamal who had oversight over a number of manors in Derbyshire, and by 1086, the Domesday Book recorded the lord of the manor was also the wider tenant-in-chief, Henry de Ferrers. At this time there were only 12 villagers and a mill recorded, which was thought to be the Bradbourne mill as both Tissington and Lea Hall were then part of that larger manor. St Mary's was a chapel of ease dating from the 12th century, it was built on a moated fortification with a ha-ha, and the Ferrers gave the local tithes to Tutbury Priory. Geoffrey de Cauceis, a descendant, granted in 1205 to Godard de Bradbourne the manor of Bradbourne. However, All Saints Church in Bradbourne and its four chapeleries including Tissington St Mary's, parish lands, including a tithe in Lea Hall and Aldwark went to Dunstable Priory - Geoffrey's local monastery as he also held a manor near Northampton.
Lea Hall was the seat of the lord of the manor of Bradbourne, and was a moiety of Tissington, both were part of the larger Bradbourne Estate. At the 12th century it was also passed by the Ferrers to the Cauceis family. Also around this time Robert de Ferrers granted some land in Lea to Garendon Abbey in Leicestershire. In the early 1200s, at the Ford of Lee (now Tissington Ford) a chaplain called Elias lived by Bletch Brook. They likely would receive a toll at the crossing and bless the travellers. By 1225 Emma de Bradbourne confirmed the lease to Garendon Abbey of the land from the flats of Lee to the public common area of Bradbourne opposite the church. However, three years later she ended the lease and gave the land to the canons of Dunstable, who were by then residing in Bradbourne.
A community built up in around Lea Hall from the 1200s, with evidence of 24 crofts, and diverse trades such as a bakery and carpenter (crucial occupations for the mill) operating from there. By 1517 enclosure had taken place and no tax was being reported implying the area had become depopulated. William Bradborne passed it on with his other estates to Sir Humphrey Ferrers. In or before 1679, Samuel Swann of Hurdlow purchased it from the Ferrers. and leased out Gorsty Hill, a farm in what was by then Lea Hall manor. The manor passed to John Sanders of Basford in Nottinghamshire, whose wife was a sister and heiress of Swann. By the early 1800s, it too was the property of the FitzHerberts.
During the reign of Henry I, Tissington manor was given by the Ferrers family to the Savages, the co-heiresses of which married Meynell and Edensor and in turn whose heiress married into the Audley family (also known as Audeley). It was in moieties between Meynell and Audley, from 1275 until at least 1330. Meynell's ownership passed, by marriage, to the Francis family, whose heiress brought it to Nicholas, a younger son of John Fitzherbert, who was then of Somersal Herbert Hall. The other moiety came to the Herthulls (of Harthill, Derbyshire), and passed by marriage to the Cokaines; it was sold by them to Francis Fitzherbert towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the manor reunited under their ownership to the present day. Francis built Tissington Hall in 1609 and both he and son John served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire, along with later descendants.
A deer park was reported as existing locally in 1330, it was known as the 'parcum de Tyssington' and possibly created by William de Audley, although there were challenges to the ownership by various families around that period. Located south of Tissington village, the area was eventually disparked and named Bassett Wood in the 16th century, it is presently the location of a farm. Tissington has been an estate village for the Fitzherberts since the 1460s, and directly south of the road through it is the site of a possible depopulated area with small terraced platforms which housing could have been previously built upon. The field was eventually part of Yewtree Farm and adjoining cottage.
The custom of well dressing is thought to have originated from Celtic times, being at first simple floral arrangements or ribbons offering thanks to pagan gods for a stable water supply or its purity. Later this evolved into more elaborate displays of clay fronted boards with embedded flowers, which possibly begun in Tissington from the 14th century, although there are other Derbyshire places claiming the tradition started elsewhere. The popularity of this was variable during the next few centuries, with a sustained revival of the practice in place by the 18th century throughout certain places and counties. Today, the custom is celebrated as a week-long festival at Tissington attracting thousands of visitors.