Early History
Although it is not known exactly when the village was founded, it existed at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. St Wilfrid's Church is over 700 years old. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, West Hallam had a reputation for Catholic sympathies at a time when Catholics were persecuted.
Until the early 20th Century West Hallam was a small rural village and the property of the Newdigate family. Most jobs were in the agricultural area with mining work locally in the Erewash Valley coalfield. There was also a West Hallam railway station, connected to the Great Northern Railway and Derby Friargate Station.
Read more about this topic: West Hallam
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or history:
“Yet, haply, in some lull of life,
Some Truce of God which breaks its strife,
The worldling’s eyes shall gather dew,
Dreaming in throngful city ways
Of winter joys his boyhood knew;
And dear and early friends—the few”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)