64 EARLY HISTORY OF WIRKSWORTH AND ITS LEAD MINING. 
Henry de Ferrers, and Belidene (Ballidon) by Ralph Fitzhubert. 
This may have been the origin of the title, ‘The King’s Field.” 
It formed at this period a part of the Wapentake of Hammenstan. 
In the reign of King John, Wirksworth passed from the Crown to 
William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby. It subsequently became a part 
of the Duchy of Lancaster, and has continued so to the present 
time. 
Long before the Norman Conquest, lead mining must have been 
carried on in the district of Wirksworth, for in the year 1777 * 
there was found on Cromford Moor, a foot from the surface of the 
ground, a pig of lead bearing an inscription as follows: ¢ 
No 1. 
mM P ES WAD RIANWY GMEIWN 
SO TEE PEELED IED 
It weighed 126lbs., and was believed to have been cast about 
A.D. 130. A second pig of lead was discovered in 1783, at 
Matlock, which was presented to the British Museum by the late 
Adam Wolley, Esq., as was the one found at Cromford, probably 
by the Nightingale family. The second pig was lettered as 
below :— 
No. 2. 
J ACABNCO RIVERE@ND MEAMIMIND\O\ 
This pig weighed 84lbs. <A third pig of lead was found on 
Matlock Moor in 1787, having upon it the following inscription :— 
TI, CL. ER. LVT, BR. EX... ARG: 
* Gough’s ‘‘ Camden,” vol. v., p. 369. 
+ Lettering after Lysons—Magn. Brit., vol. v., p. ccvi. 
