70 THE LOST MANOR OF MESTESFORDE. 



To begin at the beginning. The official translation of the 

 record in Domesday as to this manor is as follows : — 



" In Mestesforde King Edward had two carucates of land 



without geld. It is waste. There are eight acres of 



meadow and a lead work. Wood, pasturable in places, 



three miles long and two' wide. Adjoining this manor 



lie these berewites : Meslach, Sinitretone, Wodnesleie, 



Bunteshale, Ibeholon, Teneslege. In these are seven 



carucates of land paying geld. Land for seven ploughs. 



There, eleven villeins and twelve boors have six ploughs 



and twenty-two acres of meadow. Wood, pasturable, 



two miles long and one mile wide. Underwood as 



much." 



As to the origin of the name of Mestesforde, the Rev. Dr. 



Cox, in his CJiurches of Derbyshire, Vol. II., page 517, quotes 



the following note from LI. Jewitt's extension and translation 



of the Domesday Book of Derbyshire (187 1) : — 



" Mestesforde, or Nestesforde, I believe to have been near 



what is now called Matlock Bridge, which was formerly 



a ford. ' Nestes,' ' Nestus,' or ' Nesterside,' are names 



of the mountain now known as the ' Heights of Abraham,' 



on which is situated the Nestor Mine (now called the 



Rutland Cavern), which is undoubtedly a Roman mine, 



and was probably the one alluded to in the Domesday 



Book as ' one lead work.' The little village at the foot 



of the hill has always been known by the name of Nestes 



or Nestus."* 



There is a note to much the same purport in Adam's 



Gem of ike Peak (1838), though that of Jewitt is fuller, and for 



a time I regarded the late Mr. William Adam, of Matlock 



Bath, as the author of the idea it contains. Further search, 



however, has convinced me that this was a misapprehension, 



* What village is here referred to it is difficult to say, as that at the 

 foot of the south side of the hill, the side on which the Rutland Cavern is 

 situate, never bore any recorded name but Matlock Bath. On the north, 

 east side of the hill there is no great mine. 



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