Winster in 1837
Winster is a market-town and chapelry in the parish of Youlgrave, in the hundred of High Peak. It lies between two roads which lead from Derby to Manchester, one by Wirksworth, the other by Ashbourne : by the former it is 24 miles from Derby, by the latter more than 25.
This little town runs along the side of a steep eminence. The houses are. built of limestone, and are partly thatched and partly covered with stone : they are intermingled with orchards and gardens. The church is small ; it has preserved some features of Norman architecture, but it has been much altered. The market is on Saturday.
The population of the chapelry in 1831 was 951 : that of the whole parish (which is large, and extends into Wirksworth hundred) was 3,681 : the inhabitants are chiefly engaged in mining.
The living of Youlgrave is a vicarage, in the gift of the duke of Devonshire, of the annual value of £214, with a glebe-house : the perpetual curacy of Winster is worth £104 a year, and is in the gift of the freeholders. The chapelry contained in 1833 one infant school (with above 40 children) ; three day-schools (one partially endowed), with more than 120 children, and two Sunday-schools, containing 120 boys and 160 girls. There is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel. In the whole parish there were (beside the above) 9 day-schools (some of them partly supported by donation or endowment), with 233 children, and 7 Sunday-schools, with 524 children.
There are several barrows on the commons in the neighbourhood of Winster ; in one which was opened in 1768 several antiquities were found.
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