Alfreton in 1833

ALFRETON, a town in Derbyshire, 14 miles N.N.E. of Derby, and 140 N.N.W. of London. The whole parish contained a population in 1831 of 5,691. The inhabitants are engaged in the manufacture of stockings and brown earthenware ; or in the neighbouring collieries. At Riddings, within a short distance of Alfreton, are some considerable iron-works, the property of Mr. James Okes, which, in the excellence of their arrangements, and the skill with which they are conducted, are inferior to none in the country. The houses of Alfreton are irregularly built, and some of them very old ; the church, a rude, ancient structure, has an embattled tower with pinnacles. At Swanwick, a hamlet in the parish, is a free school for educating twelve boys and eight girls of Swanwick and Greenhill Lane, endowed in 1740, by Mrs. Turner.

There is a weekly market on Friday, chiefly for grain ; and two fairs, one in July ; the latter, a statute fair, in November. The living is a vicarage in the gift of the Morewood family.

Old Towns is a resource of 19th century English historical data, extracted and digitized from articles written between 1833 and 1848 which were originally published in 'The Penny Magazine' by The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.