Hognaston

In 1675, John Ogilby compiled the first practical road map of England. On his map, the only road in Derbyshire is shown going through Hognaston, when it would have been little more than a cart track. People have lived on the site of the village for at least 1,000 years and it was entered in the Domesday Book as ‘Ochenaueston’: King’s land. It used to be a busy place in coaching days when the London to Manchester coaches passed through, also the famous stagecoach ‘The Devonshire’ used to call here en route from Wirksworth to Ashbourne.

According to some of the old village records, Hognaston was not always as picturesque as it is today. One court order read, ‘Every person who has a Dunghill Town Street to remove it out of town’. While another order required a villager to remove his ‘Necessary House’, to stop the fouling of a neighbour’s water.

The Parish Church of St Bartholomew, dating back to the late 12th century, has some extraordinary Norman carvings over the doorway in the tympanum, and an early Norman font. Two of the bells date back to the 13th century. The clock was a gift from John Smith and Sons, the famous Derby clock-makers as a memorial to John Smith who lived in the village. John Smith and Sons maintain the clock each year.