Ten Roman coins discovered in December 2008,[4] near Eckington Cemetery may be evidence of a Roman settlement or road in the area. The oldest of the silver and copper coins is from the reign of the emperor Domitian (AD 81 to 96) while the others are from the reigns of Trajan (AD 98 to 117) and Hadrian (AD 117 to 138).
George Sitwell, son of George and Mary was baptised in 1601 in Eckington. George's father died whilst he was a child but as an adult he acquired the freehold of land in Eckington[7] and exploited it by mining iron ore.[8] In 1625, he built Renishaw Hall which is now owned by Sir Reresby Sitwell's daughter, Alexandra and her family.
Sitwell exploited the minerals beneath his estate, chiefly iron and built a blast furnace at Plumbley a mile north west of Eckington in the 1630s with his mother's second husband, Henry Wigfall. In 1652 Sitwell built a furnace at Foxbrooke, close to Renishaw, which became the core of the largest ironworks in Derbyshire. Sitwell made saws at Pleasley and in 1656, installed a rolling and slitting mill at Renishaw to supply the rod iron used by numerous local nailmakers.[8]
During the Industrial Revolution coal and iron ore were mined and local streams, such as the Moss Brook, were harnessed to provide power for factories. The Sitwells built a large foundry and ironworks. Scythes, sickles and nails were made in the town for local use and for export.[9] The Moss Brook was dammed to provide water power at eight sites including ChapelWheel, Carlton Wheel and Fields Wheel, to grind the blades. The remains of an old forge and drift mines exist in the valley.[10] Eckington had a coal mine in the eastern part of the village, one of the very few in the country which is still operated.
The oldest school in Eckington is Camms CE Primary School. In 1702, Thomas Camm endowed a schoolhouse and a schoolmaster to teach 24 poor children in the parish. In 1832, Robert Harrison moved the school to a new building which cost £600, and it was moved again to its current location on Castle Hill in 1975.[11]
Eckington School is a large comprehensive school, attracting pupils from the surrounding areas of Killamarsh, Renishaw, Beighton, Ridgeway and Mosborough. Despite being closer to several Sheffield residential areas the admissions policy favours pupils from Derbyshire feeder schools.[12] Eckington Grammar School in Halfway became Derbyshire's first comprehensive school in 1957, changing its name to the Westfield School, and since 1967 has been controlled by the city of Sheffield.
Eckington is also home to Eckington Junior School and Birk Hill Infants.
Amenities
Eckington has a swimming pool[13] near the library,[14] built in the 1970s as part of a town centre improvement. The town has a bus station (halt).
Eckington Woods to the north of the village forms part of the Moss Valley conservation area. They are also known as the Bluebell Wood because of the quantity of bluebells in the springtime.
Eckington Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club with a history of cricket in the village dating back to 1885 on paddocks by the Renishaw Hall.[16] The club ground is located on Staveley Lane[17] and they field 3 Senior XI teams in the Derbyshire County Cricket League,[18] two Senior XI teams in the Mansfield & District Cricket League,[19] an indoor Woman's hardball team in the South Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket League[20] and they run a Junior training section that play competitive cricket in the Ben Jessop Sheffield and District Junior League.[21]
^ abcPhilip Riden, 'Sitwell, George (bap. 1601, d. 1667)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 2 March 2010
^ abLewis, Samuel (1848), "Eckington St Peter and St Paul", A Topographical Dictionary of England, British History Online, pp. 139–144, retrieved 7 June 2012
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_113673.jpg)
