SURVEY OF THE MANOR OF EGGINGTON, 1775

1775. Hard Cover. Very Good. SURVEY OF THE MANOR OF EGGINGTON, 1775. Contents Leaf, with Names of the Proprietors, and Folios where found. Sir John Every, Sir Henry Harpur, E.S. Pole, Abraham Hoskins, John Handford, William Kirkham, Jos. Burrows, Mary Astill, Robert Shorthose, Michael Downs, Henry Newton, John Beardsley, Mr Rawson, James Philips, John Bradbury, Joseph Swift, Revd Mr Burslem, William Badkin. 41 leaves written one-side, with columns for reference number, proprietors, tenants, names of pieces, contents (value). Mounted on the inner front board is a large multi-folding estate plan (or field map), with index numbers linking it to the manuscript survey. The contemporary calf binding is worn with the upper board nearly detached. The vellum plan is rather mellowed and has some dustiness, but the text pages are clean. Loosely inserted is a hand-written note relating to a forthcoming application "for inclosing and dividing the common and open fields, common meadows, common pastures, common and waste grounds within the Parish of Egginton in the County of Derby... Sunday the 15th Sept. 1776 put upon the Church door for the first time." This survey was made just prior to the rebuilding of the Hall, and improvements to the estate. National Archives note that "only a small number of rentals and surveys have survived, and they do not form a continuous sequence. Perhaps the best survival is a survey and valuation of the Egginton, Newton Solney and Etwall estate dated 1831." 8vo. 190mm x 125mm. 1775. ~ A fire destroyed much of the Tudor Egginton Hall in 1736, and after several false starts and much delay, it was rebuilt around 1780 by Sir Edward Every 8th Bart to a design by James Wyatt, who also designed Shugborough Hall. The new Hall was built in the fashion of the times in that it stood alone except for its stable block. The surrounding cottages of wattle and daub were cleared away to provide a fine 50 acre park with lake, known as 'the fishpond'. New houses and farm buildings, built in brick, were sited along Main Street, Duck Street and Fishpond Lane, which surrounds a slightly higher piece of land believed to have been the original site of the early settlements. The major dwellings had a small piece of land enclosed for garden crops and handy for rearing calves. These enclosures were known as 'crofts'. The field map shows examples of names such as Flax Croft, Far Croft and Rye Croft, which are retained in the names of certain houses. So the process of starting to fence in open land was happening in Egginton well before the Egginton Enclosure Award completed in 1791. At this time Egginton was a 'closed' village with all the houses and farms owned by the Estate and let to tenants, most of whom would have worked on one of the 11 farms or supplied food, clothing or other services to the community.