I04 COURT ROLLS OF THE MANOR OF LITTLE CHESTER. 



is still known as " Hieron's Wood." With the bankruptcy of John 

 Hieron Radford of Little Eaton, Tanner, and the admittance to 

 his house and tanyard of the assignees' purchaser in 1822, the 

 name passes away. 



On 19th April, 1788, Joshua Reeve surrendered to trustees a 

 small piece of land in Little Eaton, " In trust that they should 

 and might erect and build thereon a Chappel or Building for 

 publick divine worship." The old chapel had been for some 

 time in a ruinous condition, and used as a blacksmith's shop ; 

 but in 1791, a new chapel was erected on its site, and the trustees' 

 land was disposed of to a purchaser. In a preface to a Baptismal 

 Register of 1791, it is said that the patronage of the curacy of 

 Little Eaton was with the Deans of Lincoln in consideration of 

 their having given the remains and site of the old church : but the 

 incumbent of the parish church of S. Alkmund's nominates at the 

 present time. 



The recent development of this manor may perhaps be attributed 

 to the highway passing through it to the coal-fields on the north. 

 The Rolls tell of the coming of the Derby Canal and Tramway in 

 1798. It was here that Outram laid the first stone sleepers, and 

 here possibly some of the fragments from Horsley Castle to which 

 Mr. Kerry referred in a recent Journal have found their way. By 

 the Canal Company's Act of 1793, no stone was to be taken from 

 the castle hill without the consent of the Earl of Chesterfield. 



There is no record of the turnpike road brought through the 

 manor in 1802. It followed in part an old highway known as " Lee 

 Lane" and "Wind Arse Road," but deviations were made over 

 adjoining copyholds and the lords seem to have been somewhat 

 unmindful of their interests in allowing these to pass unnoticed. 

 The first of the North Midland Railway purcliases was made in 

 1845 ; the Ripley Branch followed in 1855 ; and in 1882, the 

 Great Northern Railway enfranchised a small tenement at Little 

 Chester for their Derby and Nottingham line. 



