HENOVERE AND THE CHURCH OF HEANOR. 2^ 



"As early as the reign of Henry II. there was in Derby a 

 church dedicated to the Blessed Mar)', and the parish belonging 

 to it was of a very large extent." . . . "The Church of 

 Eanor (Heanor) was subject to it {Mon. Angl., vol. ii., p. 617)." 

 On p. 225, referring to Heanor: "There was a church here 

 at the time when the Domesday Book was compiled. From 

 the history of the foundation of Dale Abbey it seems that 

 there was a chapel as well as a church at Heanor in the reign 

 of Henry II., and that they belonged to the parish of St. Mary 

 in the to\vn of Derby." 



Simpson's History of Derby, p. 307, states that " A church 

 dedicated to St. Mar)', together with Heanor, which seems to 

 have been a chapel of ease to it, was given by William the 

 Conqueror to the Abbey at Burton." 



Dr. Cox realised the difficulty more than his predecessors. 

 In the Derbyshire Churches, vol. iv., p. 233, he says : " The 

 manor of Heanor ... at that time possessed a church, 

 and this church of Heanor was in the eleventh centur)' given 

 to Burton Abbey, being to a certain extent subsidiar)- to the 

 ancient church of St. Mary in Derby. On the lapse of the 

 Royal Grant of these churches to the abbey, in a manner that 

 has not hitherto been ascertained, the Church of Heanor would 

 seem to have reverted to the Crown, and to have been after- 

 wards granted to the Greys of Codnor by King John." 



On p. 70 of the same volume St. Mary's Church is referred 

 to thus : Of the church we know little beyond the fact of its 

 gift to Burton. At all events, neither Burton Abbey nor any 

 other body apparently possessed it in the thirteenth century. 

 William I. had inchided, in his grant of the Church of 

 St. Mary to Burton, certain lands at Heanor, whence arose the 

 subsidiary position of the Church at Heanor to that at Derby. 



It will be observed that until Dr. Cox took the subject in 

 hand writers founded their statements entirely on Dugdale's 

 interpretation of the Dale Chronicle. And the questions arise, 

 Was Dugdale's interpretation of " ecclesia de enere '" correct ? 

 If so, to what does it refer? It is perhaps worthy of notice 



