129 



Wi)t IWanov of ^Ijueg: its ISountfavies anH 

 Court HoUs, 



By C. E. B. Bowles, M.A. 



HE Manor of Abney consists of two separate hamlets 

 — Abney and Abney Grange — which are about a 

 mile apart. Together they form one township in 

 the Union of Bakewell, containing about 1,400 

 acres. 



The existence of the Poor-house — ^necessary to each town- 

 ship before the " Union " system was in force — and at least 

 one inmate is within the recollection of the oldest inhabitant. 



Prior to the year 1875, when, much against its will, this 

 township was included in the new ecclesiastical parish of Brad- 

 well, it formed part of the large and widely-straggling parish 

 of Hope. 



In the Domesday Book, Abney is included among the 

 numerous manors bestowed by the Conqueror on William 

 Peverel; and is thus described: "In Habenai, Swain had one 

 carucate of land to be taxed land to one plough. It is 

 waste. "1 



Presumedly it passed out of the possession of the Peverel 

 family, together with the rest of their vast estates, in 1155, 

 when William, the third of his name, was banished in conse- 

 quence of the murder of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, of which 

 crime he was accused. During the next four centuries the history 

 of the manor is not very clear. About half a century after it 

 passed out of the possession of WiUiam Peverel it appears to 



1 Glover's Derbyshire, vol. ii., p. 3. 



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