Join Ann Brown, founding member of the Old Dronfield Society and local historian in this talk about the history of the ancient parishes of Dronfield

Ann’s talk will visit the surrounding villages of the ancient parish of Dronfield. Our placenames and surnames are the first clues to our origins and the central position of the parish in the United Kingdom has attracted people to settle in this area from Prehistoric times to the present day.

Dronfield parish has been on the boundary of the various ways Britain has been divided into regions through Anglo -Saxon Kingdoms and the Norman Conquest to the present day. It has been on the crossroads for communications from the packhorse trails carrying lead and millstones through the Turnpike roads and railways carrying coal and metal goods, to the modern motorways. It has been a good place to live as described in the General Directory of 1795, with its ‘abundant water supply’ and ‘verdant pastures’ and woodland and mineral resources for our predecessors and for the present day residents too.”