2 SOUTH SITCH, IDRIDGEHAY. 



sight, in the house known as South Sitch, at Idridgehay, the 

 residence of Mr. Bemrose, F.S.A., a member of the Council of 

 this Society. Idridgehay (Iderich-hay or Ithersay according to 

 Lysons, and to local pronunciation, fast dying out) lies in the 

 prettiest part of the Ecclesbourne valley, and the picturesque 

 situation and delightful old garden combine with the quaint 

 character of the house to make an ideal summer residence. 



With respect to the name, Mr. W. J. Andrew writes : — " The 

 name Sitch very frequently occurs in old field names ; I have 

 always thought it meant a marshy dell ox valley. It no doubt 

 comes from the Saxon SICH, which means a furrow, gutter, 

 watercourse, etc., so if you combine the furrow and the water- 

 course you have what I thought it meant. In either case the 

 name is appHcable to South Sitch."' The house is supposed to 

 have been built by a member of the family of Mellor, who' held 

 considerable estates at Idridgehay until recent times. The family 

 came originally from Mellor in the High Peak; Robert Mellor, 

 of Mellor, is mentioned in the Hundred Rolls of 3 Ed. I. (1274). 

 Lysons considers that the Mellors, of Idridgehay, who were settled 

 there as early as the time of Henry VII., were a younger branch 

 of this family; their pedigree is given fully in Glover's 

 Derbyshire.* The direct line ceased with the death of Samuel 

 Mellor in 1795, whose granddaughters and co-heiresses married 

 Cresswell and Cock, from the former of whom the 

 present owner of South Sitch, Mr. F. Thornley, 

 is descended. In 1638 a member of this family 

 became the first Mayor of Derby; in 1637, accord- 

 ing to Simpson's History of Derby, but in 1638 

 according to Hutton, King Charles I. granted to 

 the town a new Charter, under which the two 

 bailiffs were to become in succession the first 

 Mayors ; Henry Mellor was the first to take office, 

 ^^ but died during his mayoralty, and was succeeded 

 n'tawT by his colleague, John Hope. Simpson's History 



Vol. ii., p. 561-2. 



