46 LITTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OLD HOUSES. 



houses are unoccupied and ruinous, and the old men and women 

 look back with regret to the days of their youth and manhood 

 when, as lead-miners and little freeholders, they worked short 

 hours in the mines, kept a cow or two each, and were as happy 

 as the day is long. 



For more than two centuries the number of houses in the 

 township has remained stationary. When the hearth-tax was 

 imposed between 1663 and 1689 there were fifty houses, and 

 the inhabitants of eight of them " paid to church and poor." 

 Of these eight persons half were Poyntons — viz., Adam 

 Poynton, whose name occurs first in the list, and who was 

 probably the owner of the house which I shall describe further 

 on; and Ellis, William, and Edward Poynton. Only four 

 persons — viz., Adam Poynton, Adam Fumiss, Rowland Smith, 

 and Willow Alleyn, had as many as two hearths each.* In 

 1 85 1 there were 49 houses and 235 inhabitants.! In the present 

 year (1905) there are 49 houses, of which 15 are unoccupied, 

 and 105 inhabitants.! 



NO' distinction is made in Domesday between Great and 

 Little Hucklow, the former being locally known as Big Hucklow. 

 The word Hucklow (in Domesday Hochelai, and in the 

 Hundred Rolls Hokelawe) means the burial-mound of Hoca, 

 and the older form of the word would have been Hotan-hldw . 

 Hoca, or Hocca, is a man's name, and Mr. Searle gives five 

 examples of it in his Onomasticon. 



There are indications that the village had an organized 

 community of landowners at an early time. There was an 

 officer called the headborough, § known at a later time as the 

 constable, and he, according to some, held two pieces of land, 

 by way of salary, so long as he retained his office. These 

 " headborough lands " lie in different parts of the township, and 



* From information kindly supplied by Miss Lega-Weekes. 



t White's Gazetteer of the County of Derby, 1857, p. 629. 



X Information kindly supplied by Mr. Martin Chapman, Assistant 

 Overseer. 



§ In 1833 the neighbouring township of Abney was " governed by a 

 headborough." — Glover's History of Derbyshire, ii., p. 3. 



