Wirksworth Wapentake

History

What’s a Wapentake? A wapentake is an old form of democracy originating from very ancient times, but most associated with the Dane Law (the period when the Vikings had invaded England). Everyone in an area was called together once a year or so to make decisions or judgements on behalf of that community. If you had a weapon (wapen) to touch (take) with others in agreement at the meeting, you were entitled to a vote. This was because weapons were expensive and were a mark a person’s importance.

Historically, wapentakes are recorded in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire. Before the Dane Law, the administrative divisions of a district were known as Hundreds, and all the Wapentakes of Derbyshire were originally Hundreds dating back to early Saxon times. These divisions survived until the 1800s, but by then all the Derbyshire Wapentakes had reverted to their “Hundred” names, except for that around Wirksworth, which was often just known as “The Wapentake”. Also by then, the Wapentake had just become a kind of council district, there hadn’t been actually meetings of the community acting as a “Wapentake” for a very long time.

The Wirksworth Stone: Saxon carving in Wirksworth Church

Interpretation Guides:

(pdf downloads, may take a few minutes)

The Soke and Wapentake of Wirksworth

Origins & History of Wirksworth before the Norman Conquest

Abstract of Domesday Book for Derbyshire

For those interested in the detail of history, it should be remembered that the shire counties are a “modern” creation, well, modern in the sense that they were an idea which King Edward the Elder had in about 930 as a tax idea to pay for his forts. In fact Derbyshire isn’t mentioned until it first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1048. Now, you may say, if Derbyshire wasn’t created until the end of the Saxon period, what was there before? This is easy, the relevant administrative district of the Kingdom of Mercia was The Province of the Peak. The Peak, whose capital was Wirksworth, not Derby, stretched from the eastern half of what is now Cheshire, around Macclesfield, all the way across Derbyshire as far as the River Idle in Nottinghamshire. So, in the Mercian period the Hundreds of the Province of the Peak were probably:

The Hundred of Hamenstan (later the Hundred of Macclesfield)

The Hundred of Totmanslow

The Hundred of Blackwell (later the Hundred of High Peak)

The Hundred of Hamston (later the Wapentake of Wirksworth)

The Hundred of Scarsdale

The Hundred of Litchurch

The Hundred of Morleyston

The Hundred of Walecros (later the Hundred of Repton and Gresley)

The Hundred of Appletree

The Hundred of Bassetlaw

The Hundred of Broxtowe

The Province in Mercian times was run by a Mercian Lord or Aeldorman, under the king of Mercia. For those wishing to know a little more, historical and archaeological investigation has been undertaken by the Wirksworth Roman Project on the Roman and Mercian history of the town and its district. See this link for more information: Wirksworth Roman Project.

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