Dalbury Lees

Dalbury Lees is a parish in south Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 Census (including Trusley) was 306.[2] It is about six miles (10 km) from both Burton-on-Trent and Derby and just under four miles (6 km) from Egginton. The parish contains the villages of Dalbury and Lees which are just under 2 miles (3.2 km) apart from one another. Dalbury Lees has been known as Dalbury and as Dalbury with Lees, but Dalbury Lees is the preferred term [3]

Dalbury Lees
All Saints' Church, Dalbury' [1]'.
Dalbury Lees Location within Derbyshire
Population	306 (2011)
OS grid reference	SK265348
District	South Derbyshire
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ASHBOURNE
Postcode district	DE6
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands

History

In late Victorian times the name was said to have developed from the Old Norse deity name Dellingr,[4] Dalbury is mentioned twice in the Domesday book where it is spelt Delbebi and Dellingeberie. The book records [5] firstly that there were three bovates which are berewicks of the manor of Mickleover which at that time belonged to the Abbey of Burton. The Abbey held various manors including Appleby Magna, Winshill and Stapenhill - these were all within Derbyshire at that time.

Later the book lists under the title of “The lands of Henry de Ferrers[6]

”In Dalbury Godric had two carucates of land to the geld. There is land for four ploughs. There are now two ploughs in demesne and six villans and one bordar with two ploughs. There is a priest and a church and twenty acres of meadow, woodland pasture one furlong long and half a league broad. TRE[7] worth forty shillings now sixty shillings. Robert holds it.“

Dalbury is the smaller of the two villages with a handful of houses, a church, and during the nineteenth century a school that could take sixty children.[8] The small church is said to have the former tower of Trentham Priory... "The small church tower formerly belonged to Trentham Priory, in Staffordshire".[9]

Lees on the other hand is larger with around 70 houses and several farms. The Cow pub is the communal centre of the village and the green opposite is frequently used for village fêtes and car boot sales. A new village hall was recently completed on the main road through the village.

'The Black Cow' [1].

Notes

1. Image from Wikimedia Commons May 2007
2. "Civil Parish populalation 2011". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
3. Vision of Britain – Naming and boundaries
4. Karry (1897:63).
5. Domesday Book: A Complete Transliteration. London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.744-9
6. Henry held a considerable number of manors including several in Derbyshire given to him by the King. These included obviously Dalbury, but also included lands in Youlgreave, Stenson and Twyford.
7. TRE in Latin is Tempore Regis Edwardi. This means in the time of King Edward before the Battle of Hastings.
8. Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland Published London May 1891, p.105
9. The History of the County of Derby, Part 2 (1829), page 337.

References

• Barber, Henry (1968). British Family Names: Their Origin And Meaning. Genealogical Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8063-0021-4.