| Description | Papers of the Howard family relating to the Glossop estate, Derbyshire. Papers include a large collection of title deeds to land and properties on the estate, 1795-1925; deeds, agreements and plans for land conveyed to railway companies, principally the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, and similar conveyances and agreemements in relation to the development of roads, water supplies, sewerage works and electricity supplies. Also includes papers relating to the administration of the estate, including plans and schedules of property, 1851-1925, and papers relating to the sale of the estate on 31 December 1925 to John Overend Todd. |
| Administrative History | The Howard family acquired lands in Glossop through the marriage in 1606 between Thomas Howard, 4th Earl of Arundel, and Mary the daughter of Mary Cavendish (herself daughter of Bess of Hardwick) and Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl of Shrewsbury. From the late 17th century the Glossop estate was administered separately from other former Talbot properties in Sheffield (Yorkshire) and Worksop (Nottinghamshire). The Howards were to remain Lords of the Manor of Glossop until 1924.
A new era in the history of the Glossop estate began when Bernard Edward Howard succeeded to the title of 12th Duke of Norfolk in 1815. Improvements in road communications culminated in the completion in 1820 by Thomas Telford of a modern highway over the Snake Pass. In the following six years the Duke, his agent and local mill owners created a new industrial town, called Howardtown, half a mile from Old Glossop. Here the Duke commissioned Matthew Ellison Hadfield to design a neo-classical Town Hall, with shops included, in Norfolk Square in 1838. He had already financed the restoration of the Anglican parish church in 1831 and had built the Roman Catholic church of All Saints in 1836. By the time of his death in 1842 the 12th Duke had guaranteed proper supplies of water for industrial uses by building the Hurst Reservoir in 1837, and had developed Glossop's transport network further by promoting construction of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.
Henry Charles Howard, 13th Duke of Norfolk, continued development by building a new Market Hall in 1844 and arranging Parliamentary approval for the transfer of the market and annual fair rights from Old Glossop to Howardtown. Railway communications also improved with the inauguration of a branch railway from the Manchester-Shefield line at Dinting to a new terminus at Howardtown. Moreover, the 13th Duke encouraged the formation of a gas company and facilitated the supply of piped mains water to houses in the town.
In 1866 the town's new status was formally recognised when Howardtown became the Municipal Borough of Glossop. Edward George FitzAlan Howard, a younger son of the 13th Duke, was raised to the peerage as Baron Howard of Glossop in 1869. Before this, in 1851, he had built a new Glossop Hall, which remained the family home until the death of Francis Edward, 2nd; Baron Howard, in 1924. The family's direct connection with the town ended with the sale of their estates in 1925 to John Overend Todd of Brompton in Yorkshire (1863-1939), to whom these papers passed. |
| Custodial History | These papers were donated to Derbyshire Record Office by a private individual in January and August 2000. |
| Arrangement | PLACES
D5162/1 Bradshaw in Mellor
D5162/2 Charlesworth
D5162/3 Chisworth
D5162/4 Chunal
D5162/5 Compstall Bridge
D5162/6 Dinting
D5162/7 Gamesley
D5162/8 Glossop
D5162/9 Hadfield
D5162/10 Ludworth
D5162/11 Marple Bridge
D5162/12 Padfield
D5162/13 Simmondley
D5162/14 Whitfield
D5162/15 Woodhead
D5162/16 Mixed Townships
COMPANIES AND UTILITIES
D5162/17 Railway companies
D5162/18 Roads
D5162/19 Sewage, reservoirs, water rights, etc.
D5162/20 Electricity companies
ESTATE ADMINISTRATION, MORTGAGES AND TRUSTEESHIPS
D5162/21 Howard family, 1851-1925
D5162/22 Sale to John Todd, etc.
MISCELLANEOUS
D5162/23 |