2 DENBY OLD HALL AND ITS OWNERS. 



Denby Old Hall is not mentioned, so far as the writer can 

 ascertain, in any of the Derbyshire histories. ' Glover states 

 that the Rossels had a park at Denby in ( the reign of 

 Henry III. and that in the time of Henry VI. the Denby property 

 vested, through an heiress, in Lawrence Lowe ; this park 

 most probably included the Hall which forms the subject 

 of the present paper. Glover's subsequent statement that John 

 Flamstead, the Astronomer Royal, was born at the Old Hall, 

 refers most probably to a house, now pulled down, formerly 

 known as Crowtrees.* The designation of " Hall " seems to 

 be comparatively modern; even as late as 17 14, in the will 

 of Robert Robey, it is described as "Denby Parke," and in 

 earlier documents it is spoken of as " the Lodge or Parke 

 House." Its situation in the Middle Ages must have been 

 very secluded; the village and church of Denby lie a mile 

 away to the south-east; the Derby and Alfreton turnpike road, 

 which now passes about a quarter of a mile to the east, is 

 modem, having been made under an Act of Parliament 

 passed about 1786, and the original approach would probably 

 be from the Rykneld Street, the name of which is still pre- 

 served in the unprepossessing hamlet of Street Lane; Morley 

 Park, in Duffield Forest, came close on the west side. 



Some interesting information concerning the estate can be 

 gathered from the depositions in an action in the Court of 

 Chancery in the reign of Charles II., respecting the ownership 

 of Salterwood and Pryor Leyes, in which there seem to have 

 been witnesses on the one side ready to prove that Salterwood 

 was always considered part of the park and within the pale, 

 and on the other equally assertive that it was not part of 

 the park, and was fenced off from it. Among the depositions 

 we find the following statements : " The messuage house, that 

 is undoubtedly within the parkeand was the Keeper's Lodge 

 formerly " ; " Denby Parke enclosed with a pale 65/68 yeares 

 before, disparked about 4$ years before, and that Salterwood 



* Vol. XIX., p. 109, of this Journal. 



