Aston-on-Trent is first recorded in 1086 in Domesday in the form Acetum, the East farm. Although it was a single settlement, there were two estates there, one a Berwick or outlying farm of the royal manor of Weston, and the other a tiny estate held by Henry de Ferret. The original settlement probably dates back to the early days of the Anglican invasion in the mid 6^th century. Its name East Farm suggests a very early relationship with Weston, the West Farm. They were possibly twin settlements. The lie of the land suggest however, that Weston, nearer the river but sheltered from it by a slight bluff, was a better site for original settlement and that Aston was probably colonized from Weston.

The main village of Aston lies along the 125 feet contour. The low lying land to the east and south between the village and the river must have presented considerable difficulties to the early settlers and it seems likely that they first cleared the slightly higher land north and west of the village for their arable/. The belt of arable lying between the lower marsh and meadow and the higher moor and heath cannot have been large.

Both settlements must have suffered during the first wave of Danish occupation after the battle of Repton in 873, and probably also during the later Anglo-Saxon counter campaign which resulted in the capture of Derby in 917 by Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercian's, daughter of Alfred the Great. This was followed by the campaign of Aethelfraeds brother Edward the Elder, to secure his northern borders. He strengthened Derby and built new forts at Nottingham and Bakewell to control the lines of possible Norse and Northumbrian invasions. Great tracts of land flung across Derbyshire were reserved to the crown for strategic purposes, as lines of supply and defense. These in the later forms of royal manors could still be traced in mid and north Derbyshire as late as 1066, but only fragments then remained of the line along the river Trent. This was split up probably before the end of the 10^th century. Even so, as late as the mid 17^th century there were three chains of manors along the Trent. Starting in the east with the manors of the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, in whose diocese Derbyshire lay, and then, interlinked the manors of the king and Earl of Alfgar. Earl Alfgar was head of one of the two most influential families in pre-Norman England, and head of the only family to have held high office in England before the Danish conquest. He was the third of his family to be appointed Earl of Mercia, a post that gave him almost regal powers throughout the Midland where lay his vast inherited estates. Very few men outside the families from which the Earls were appointed were able to acquire more than tiny estates of one or two manors. It is probable that Earl Alfgar’s string of manors along the Trent were originally given to the family by the Crown for strategic reasons. It was almost certainly strategic reasons that William 1^st took these Trent manors held by the Earl Alfgar into his own hands, adding them to those held by Edward the Confessor.

In 1086 Aston was a Berwick of the Royal manor of Weston, formerly held by Earl Alfgar. The Earl’s estate was assessed to the gold at 10 carucates and 2½ bovates, a bovate being the eighth part of a carucate, and a carucate being the land which could be tilled by eight oxen in a normal farming year, usually reckoned to be 120 acres. At the conquest the 1066 the manor was reckoned to have enough land to support a many ploughs as the gold assessment indicated. As the gold assessment was fossilized, dating from the late 10^th or early 11^th century there can have been little or no colonization for several generations. By 1086, the picture had changed. There were three ploughs in demesne, on the lands retained by the Crown for its own use, and a further 12 ploughs shared by 24 villeins or peasant farmers, and six borders or small peasant farmers. These villains must have had substantial farms of three or four bovates each, very large by the standard of the day. There were also four Censaril, tenants, who paid money rents totaling 16s. Money rents in 1086 indicated a high degree of personal freedom. The Censaril were probably equivalent to the free men recorded by Domesday in other counties. They were rare in the extreme in Derbyshire. These few tenants were probably active colonists on a fairly big scale. There were two churches and a priest, a mill rendering 19s 4d yearly, a fishery and ferry rendering 13s 4d yearly. 51 acres of meadow and pasture one league in length by three furlongs in breadth. In 1066, the whole lot was worth £8 yearly and doubled to £16 in 1086.

It is clear that this entry for Weston manor covers land and other hereditaments in the hands of the king, his peasant farmers and his tenants as formerly held by Earl Alfgar throughout the settlement of Weston, Aston, Shardlow and Wilne. From architectural traces in the present churches of Weston and Aston, it is obvious that they are the two Domesday churches of the royal manor. The ferry is known to have been at Wilne later in the middle ages, and it is extremely unlikely that its site has been changed. Landing stages, rights of access and roads, one established, are not easily moved. It had probably linked Wilne with Earl Alfgar’s estate across the river at Castle Donington for many years before it was recorded in 1086. The fishery obviously ran the length of the river, and the meadow and pastures were far too expensive to have been confined to the settlement at Weston.

Domesday shows three other estates in the area. One in the Kings hands inherited from an unknown source consisted of two thirds of two carucates in Weston and four bovates in Smalley and Kidsley. This was not valued. It is likely that for administrative purposes it was managed with the main royal manor, and silently included in its value. There was a small estate at Aston and Shardlow, berewicks of outlying farms of the manor, held off the King by Octabrand. It had probably long been a separate though dependent estate for it was assessed in the gold at six and half bovates. Colonization was very much in hand, because although the Domesday value was only 5s, Octabrand had one plough in demesne, and his four villains and two borders shared another between them. The rich meadows and pastures of the little settlement had obviously been reserved for the Crown because Octabrand’s estate had only four acres of meadow and no pasture. The third estate was a manor held by Henry Ferrers, the Kings close friend. Before the conquest, Octabrand had held it assessed at one carucate in the gold, together with five acres of meadow. At the conquest, it was worth 6s, but in 1086, its value had increased to 8s. It was apparently in Ferrers own hands, but possibly Octabrand managed it for him. It has been suggested that the lost manor of Nero or marsh lay in the Weston / Aston area. This had been a tiny manor assessed at four bovates in the gold, with enough land for four oxen at the Conquest when Levenot held it. In 1086 it was waste and in the hands of one of the Kings theigs. Its site has never been located.

In 1086 therefore Aston lay in at least two manors, one belonged to the king and the other to Henry Ferrers, and a sub-manor held from the king by Octabrand. Octabrands hall and the farmsteads of the peasants and possibly one or more of the censarii formed a single nucleated settlement. Their arable lands must have lain intermingled in the great village fields, and the meadow of the two manors and sub-manor was probably intermingled. The pasture was reserved for the crown. The meadow and pasture were even then much more valuable than the arable. The land in Aston held by Ferrers and Octabrand cannot have been vastly inferior to the lands of the crown scattered through Weston, Aston and Shardlow yet the value of Ferrers one carucate and 55 acres of meadow was 8s, the value of Octabrands two carucates and four acres of meadow 5s and the value of the crowns 15 ploughs, 51 acres of meadow and great stretch of pasture £13.19.4d after providing a priest and two churches. Even if it seems likely, Octabrands land in 1086 was very newly colonized and still requiring much work to bring it into full production the value of the arable carucate was very much less than that of the meadow and pasture. These figures make it plain that the doubling in value of the manor of Weston between 1066 and 1086 was not simply due to the extensive colonization of arable land. Meadows and pasture were either being increased or more intensively developed.

The medieval and modern place names of Aston indicate clearly its physical setting and its wealth of pasture. Fleatlands, land bordering an inlet or stream, and Cramlands, lands in the bend of a river, point to its river boundary. Many names indicate water logged land and water meadows. Marsh flat occurring in 1535 and very tentatively identified as the lost moors of 1086. Forkadmere in the early thirteenth century. Hipalmereholm and Ylmerholm in the mid thirteenth century combining mere and holm or water meadows. Lockholm and Galtmeer in 1750. Bradmore Pool (broad moor pool) in 1757. Cokeswall in 1228-40. Wetclose and Wetclose Flash in 1763. Thormeleisich or ditch in 1228-40. Redeput or reed pit from 1225 to 1585, and Fluggy Leys, meadows thick with flags in 1763. There are several leys and meadows named from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century including Foggy Leys, named for the fog or aftermath. Long grass left standing during winter, a very valuable feed before the introduction of roots as animal fodder. Londrum pasture survived until 1750. Horfeld in the mid thirteenth century and Cow lane in 1763 hint at the sees made of the pasture.

The village lay on slightly higher ground, a nucleated village with a village green, called le grene in 1226. Hall green in 1885 suggests that the green perhaps lay at the south end of the village. Beyond the village lay open arable fields, which late eleventh century values suggest were on then difficult soil. Field names such as Bloody-Land, Breakback, Hunge hill, and Thirsty Cliffs occurring in the mid eighteenth century and some traceable back to the thirteenth century tell their own story. Longerudinck or landrydding points to original clearing from woodland, and several names include elements based on old English forms of thorn and thornbush. Beyond the village fields the ground rose to Aston moor the remains of which were finally enclosed in 1757.

The medieval history of Aston is a little confused, no doubt because of the early split between the royal manor of Weston with its sub-manor of Octabrands estate at Aston and Shardlow, and the Ferrers manor of Aston, all three with land in Aston. Soon after 1086, William 1^st gave the whole chain of early Alfgars Derbyshire manors along the Trent, including Weston, Smalley, and Kidsley to his nephew, Hugh, for whom he had created the county palatine of Chester in 1071. As Earl palatine of Chester, Hugh d’Avranches had special military responsibilities and powers. Whether the Derbyshire manors along the Trent, were given to him to simply enlarge his estates, or whether there was any military significance in this additional gift is not known. Certainly after his troubled early years in Normandy the Conqueror was well aware of the importance of key positions in trusted hands.

Hugh, Earl of Chester, grew devout in his later years, and he in turn gave the manor of Weston, including the ferry and other appurtenances, to his new founded Abbey of St Werburgh at Chester. He also seems to have given the Abbey the advowson of the rectory of Aston, for this was in the gift of the Abbot as early as the reign of Henry I, 1100 – 1135.

The gift of the ferry and fishery led to disagreements between the Abbey and the Lacy lords of Earl Alfgars manor of Castle Donington, who also claimed rights in the ferry and in the Trent fishery. Their contending claims were settled in an agreement of 1310 between the Abbot and Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln in which each conceded to the others rights of way to the ferry over their respective lands, the Abbot recognized the Earls right to a fishery, and the Earl recognized the Abbots right to one third of the profits from the Ears barge and boat employed on the ferry, subject to the Abbots meeting one third of the cost of building and repairing the boats and barges.

It is not clear from the agreement whether the Abbot also ran a boat or whether the only boats and barges belonged to the Earl. It is clear that the Abbot was far from enjoying exclusive rights to the ferry because of Hugh’s gift. Similarly, though the Abbot held the manor and appurtenances of Weston, he did not own the whole of Aston. About 1200 Sir William de Verdon held a substantial estate in Aston by right of his marriage to Alice, daughter and co-heiress of Robert, son of Walter and his wife, Divena. Octabrand’s sub-manor, which may not have been included in Hugh’s gift, was probably the core of Verdon’s estate. It is difficult to see what other origins the Verdon estate could have had. Litigation between Verdon and the Abbey concerning four acres of meadow supports this deduction. Similarly the Verdon estate must have been the nucleus of the alter estate of Thomas de Chaworth who was described as holding the village of Aston in 1101. The Ferrers manor was split up quite early when Robert Ferrers the younger, Earl of Derby, gave two thirds of his manor and tithes of Aston to the Priory of Tutbury. By the reign of Richard II, the Abbey of Dale is also said to have had an estate there. Several small estates were also built up at Aston by laymen in the later middle ages, though little is known of them except for the most important, the future Aston Hall estate. Deeds for this exist from the thirteenth century. The earliest ones involve the Smith family but from the latter part of the fourteenth century to the early sixteenth century, they concern the Tikhill or Tikhull family. What the connection between the Smiths and the Tikhulls was and is unknown and, despite the survival of these records, the development of the estate is obscure.

The Tikhull line ran out in the early 16^th century. In 1513 the last of the family, Thomas Tikhull of Aston, gentleman, sold his manor of Shardlow and all his property in Shardlow, Aston and Wilne (Great Wilne) to John Hunt of Overton in Ashover, gentleman for £60 passing over the property in Aston and Wilne immediately but retaining for himself and his wife, Elizabeth, for life the manor of Shardlow and all his lands there. Unfortunately, the conveyance described the estate only in general terms but two later documents throw more light on its possible extent. A deed of John Hunt’s son, Christopher, referred in 1532 to the manor of capital vessuage of Aston upon Trent, which was almost certainly Tikhulls old home, for which the Hunts were claiming the status of a manor. Christopher Hunt’s inquisition post mortem in 1538, by which time the Hunts had obviously acquired Tikhulls Shardlow property, reported Hunt to hold at his death a capital messuage (Aston Hall), two cottages, 100 acres of arable, 10 acres of meadow and 120 acres of pasture in Aston, as well as a messuage one fifteenth part of a knights fee, the latter probably the remains of the old Ferrers manor. Hunt also held the manor of Shardlow, a manor which was late in origin, with a cottage, three tofts, 100 acres of pasture, all held of the king as of his manor of Weston, and until recently held of the Abbey of St Werburgh. Though the Hunts may well have bought other parcels the bulk of this property was very likely the old Tikhull estate, unlike the lands in Chellaston which the Hunts had acquired before 1538, and which were listed in the inquisition.

The Hunts activities seem to have overstretched them financially and they began to sell off property. The manor of Shardlow and probably all or the bulk of their Shardlow property was sold in the late sixteenth century. By 1617, their estate in Aston consisted of the capital messuage called Aston Hall with dovecote, gardens, and two orchards. Malt mill, ‘cunnygrey’ (rabbit warren), eight cottages, eight closes, 5½ yard lane of arable land containing 140 acres in the several fields of Aston and 20 acres of meadow and pasture, all in Aston and in Robert Hunt’s tenure – that in, he farmed his property himself. The family’s financial difficulties continued and parcels of land in Aston were sold off. At last in 1630 John Hunt, the last of his family, sold the Aston Hall estate to John Gregorie of Nottingham, gentleman, for £350 although John and his wife Anne were to remain as tenants for life. By the time the Hunts financial difficulties had reduced, the property to Aston Hall, its garden, two orchards, malt mill, cunnygrey, six cottages, two closes, 3½ yardlands (said in 1665 to contain 100 acres) and the 20 acres of meadow and pasture. Gregorie in his turn sold the property three years later in 1633 to trustees of Anthony Roper of Eltham esq., already the owner, in right of his first wife of the manor of Weston upon Trent and the extensive lands in Weston, Aston, Shardlow and (Great) Wilne which went with the manor.

The Abbey of St Werburgh owned the manor of Weston with its lands in Weston, Aston, Shardlow, and Wilne at the beginning of the sixteenth century, which was the greatest landowner in Aston. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the manor with the advowsons of Weston and Aston fell into the hands of the King, only to be given about 1541 to the newly created Bishopric of Chester as part of its endowment. Five or six years later, the bishop was forced to give the manor and advowsons up, so that Henry VIII could sell them to Sir William Paget, his secretary for £5.70s 18s 5½d, an indication of the size and richness of the manor. Sir William settled the property on a younger son, Charles who probably came into his inheritance in 1569. He was a fervent Catholic whose involvement in the religious politics of the day drove him into exile in France where he became a prominent member of the English ‘émigré’ Catholic group. In consequence, he was attainted of High Treason and his lands reverted to the Crown, in whose hands they remained (though leased out) until 1603, when James I pardoned Charles and restored his lands to him. From Charles Paget they descended to his great niece Mary Gerard, who married Anthony Roper of Eltham in Kent, esq., in 1612. Mary died ten years later leaving an only child, another Mary, her heir, but Anthony remained in possession of his first wife’s lands until his death, when he left all his Derbyshire lands to be sold. By then, he was also the owner of the Aston Hall property, which he was free to sell, but his daughter Mary stepped in to claim the Weston inheritance. On 1^st October 1647, she sold to Nicholas Wilmot (or Willymot) of Grays Inn, esq., most of the lands belonging to Weston manor, 18 messuages (houses), over 40 and 10 cottages in Weston, four messuages, 73 yardlines and a cottage in Wilne and Shardlow, and seven messuages, 11 yardlands and three cottages in Aston. It cost him £3,150.

In February 1648 Roper’s trustees sold the Aston property bought from Gregorie to Nicholas Wilmot’s cousin, Robert Holden, of Shardlow, gentleman. He was the son of Henry Holden, husbandman who had settled in Great Wilne from Findern in or before 1569, had prospered and died styling himself Yeoman. Robert seems to have made his money out of rearing beef cattle. He paid £400 for the Aston property, which was to remain in his and his descendents possession for 250 years. On 6^th March following he paid Rogers trustees £3,436. 5s. 4d for Weston Hall, the manor, well over 200 acres of meadow and pasture, some of it in Aston, and three messuages with yardlands in Shardlow and Wilne. In June of the same year, he bought the advowsons of the church of Aston and Weston, for £300, and bought out Anne Hunts surviving rights in Aston for £320.

It is difficult to say exactly what the acreage of a yardland was, but in Aston, it seems to have been no more than 24 or 25 acres, including the meadowland belonging to each yardland. The ten Aston farms with their 15½ yardlands of the old Weston manor therefore contained probably between 350 and 400 acres, in addition to which the \Weston estate owned within Aston a number of meadows; including the 20 acre Lockholm or Lackeholme, and a part of the six yardlands said to lie in Aston and Weston. There was then probably over 400 acres of Aston Township in the ownership of the Weston estate split to disintegrated further, as Wilmot sold his Aston properties chiefly to the sitting tenants, Whilst Holden sold one of his Aston farms likewise. Holden also settled Weston Hall, with some Weston land, on his son, Samuel, his principal heir. The 1651 settlement and the overwhelming predominance of the Wilmot holding in Weston ensured that the future Holden estate should centre on Aston Hall, rather than Weston Hall. A dispute between William and Robert Holden, finally settled in 1681, left Samual Holden with two farms containing two messuages and three yardlands between them, a number of meadows, two yardlands (40 acres) in the common fields and some lands in Weston (including five acres of New Close there), Wilne and Shardlow, and the advowson of Aston. The lands within Aston probably represented an accession of the Aston Hall property of less than two hundred acres. The advowson was chiefly used to provide for younger sons, or in one case a nephew, and between 1681 and 1916, a period of 235 years, members of the Holden family (including the eighteenth century Rector, John Rolleston, a Holden through his mother) were Rectors of Aston for 170 years.

A further development of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a growth in the number of owner-occupiers, partly occasioned by the sale of the Sacheverelle of Hopwell property there in 1595, but chiefly by the break up of the Weston estate within Aston after the sales to Wilmot and Holden. The Sacheverelle had interests in Aston even in the fourteenth century, the 1595 sales consisted of two farms, one a messuage and three yardlands etc., the other a messuage and one yardland, perhaps about 100 acres in all. If the Sacheverelles had other property in Aston it too must have been disposed of, for the family seems to have disappeared from the township.

Samuel Holden’s son Robert (1676 – 1746) was a highly successful lawyer and considerably extended his patrimony (after initially selling much of what he owned in Weston). Most of his purchases were outside Aston in Foremark, Long Eaton, Sawley and Little Wilne, Great Wilne and Shardlow, but he bought two farms in Aston (Both of them formerly part of the Weston property). His trustees added another farm in 1747 and 23 acres in 1767, both in Aston, besides buying land in Leicestershire. In 1797 when Roberts Grandson, the Reverend Charles Edward Holden was in possession of the estate, it consisted of 564 acres in Aston, in addition top property elsewhere.

The most spectacular growth of any Aston estate in the eighteenth century, however, was the Rectors glebe. In the seventeenth century (and probably for long before) it consisted of 3½ yardlands in Aston and a few small closes in Aston and Shardlow, the acreage of which is difficult to determine, but was probably about 90 acres in all. When Aston moor was enclosed in 1757, 50 acres was allotted to the Rector, partly as his proportion for 3½ yardlands and partly in lieu of great tithes payable within the moor. The 1756 globe Terrier shows that the Rector had in addition 241 acres in Ashfield and 67 acres in Nether field (besides 100 acres in Shardlow and Great Wilne), all of which had been allotted to him at the enclosure of the common fields of tithes. In 1822-3, the globe was said to consist of 450 acres (of which 350 acres must have been in Aston) and the Rectors income was claimed to be £1500.

Otherwise, the eighteenth century seems to have been an era of stability in the pattern of land ownership. The surnames of the chief free elders in the township who entered into an agreement in 1747, were nearly the same as the surnames of the greater owners as set out in the 1763 enclosure award, whilst the 1763 names reappear in the 1780 land tax assessment. At the enclosure of the open fields, meadows, pastures etc., said to contain 14,520 acres, there were 41 proprietors (owners) of land, held estates valued at over 400s (£20). The Holden name was temporarily missing from this list. Robert Holden’s second heir was his daughter Mary, wife of James Shuttleworth whose son the Reverend Charles Shuttleworth succeeded to the estate in 1791 having changed his name to Holden. The Shuttleworth estate was by far the largest (8,112s) nearly a third of the 25,915s, total for the township. The Rectors came next at 4,912s; about three times the size of any other holding. The land tax assessment of 1780 assessed 40 proprietors for tax, 14 of them for £1 and over, and these 14 correspond exactly with those whose properties were valued at over 400s., in the enclosure award, except that the smallest holding of this group broke up between 1763 and 1780. By 1808, five of these names had gone to be replaced by five others (amongst them James Sutton esq.) and there had been some shuffling of holdings, but it was after this date that substantial changes occurred. By 1832, although the Holden estate, assessed for £23.5s tax was still much the biggest in Aston, and the Rectors glebe (at £14.16s.8d) came next, James Sutton esq. was challenging the Rectors position with land sufficient to be assessed for just over £12 tax, and there were only six others assessed over £1 (one of them the Burton family estate). The number of proprietors remained much the same however, because of an increase in the number of very small owners, holding just a tenement or house and land, probably related to activity in building new houses and cottages. The number of lesser landowners owning more than a house but not enough to be assessed over £1 – also changed little from 1780 – 1832. Some of the biggest farmers at this period such as the Morleys and the Bothams – owned very little land, for not only the Holdens but also smaller proprietors leased out their estates.

In 1833, Edward Anthony Holden, son of the Reverend Charles Edward Holden embarked on a long series of purchases of farms, closes and cottages, by which he eliminated all holdings of any size in the township (after 1838 a parish) except for those of the Suttons and the Earls of Harrington. He appears even to have bought much of the glebe land when all but six acres of it were sold. In 1873, the return of owners of land gave his Derbyshire acreage at 1,546 acres with a gross estimate rental of £4,031. Further small purchases brought the acreage to 1,595 acres by 1897, when Colonel Edward C.S. Holden, Edward Anthony Holden’s grandson, agreed to sell his estates to the Manchester book-cloth manufacturer, William Dickson Winterbottom for £96,232. The purchase was completed in the following year. The reference to a map of the estate produced at this time shows 1,319 acres in Aston township, 170 acres in Shardlow and Great Wilne, and 132 acres in Weston (though much of the ‘Shardlow’ land actually appears to be within Aston township). The map also shows that the Suttons largely held the land in Aston not owned by the Holden’s. The Earl of Harrington also held an estate in Aston, though it was probably substantially smaller than the Sutton’s. Why Colonel E.C.S. Holden decided to sell the estate can only be guessed at. There was a heavy burden on it due to settlements made on his many uncles and aunts, but it may be that he was not interested in running the Aston property. He was an officer in Southern Africa, taking a prominent part in the events leading up to the Jameson Raid and in the Raid itself. He later lived at Doveridge and died in 1916, leaving an only son, Anthony aged eight years.

This tale marked the end of the years of the Holden family’s domination of Aston, of which few obvious signs remain. A modern road is named Holden Avenue. Their chief monument however is their home, Aston Hall. This is not the old hall of the Hunts and the first Holdens, which Robert Holden II presumably pulled down when he built the present Hall. A rainwater head on the 18^th century house bears the date 1735, otherwise nothing is known of its building. It has three storeys high with central Venetian windows on the two main facades. Inside there is a good 18^th century staircase and 16^th or 17^th century panelling in two rooms on the top floor. Ionic porches were added in the 19^th century, later probably in the 1830’s, the stables and outbuildings were remodelled, and at some time in the 19^th century, considerable additions were made to the house. These included a fine ballroom with bay windows. The conservatory at the back was probably built on in the 1900’s. A park had been created about the Hall by the 1760’s and a map of the 1790’s shows gardens, a fishpond (which may already have been very old) and a long narrow plantation of six acres nearby, Kelly’s directories speak of ‘extensive’ grounds, and pleasure gardens were part of the property in the 1898 sale to Winterbottom. T.H. Mawson redesigned the garden for Winterbottom in the 1900’s. There has always been a farm attached to the Hall, but after the 18^th century, rebuilding farming operations were probably confined to outbuildings. By the 19^th century when Winterbottom sold there was a bailiff’s house and extensive farm buildings belonging to the home farm. Aston Hall and its grounds were bought by Nottingham Corporation in the 1924 sale and it has been a hospital ever since. ******* current position with house and grounds *******

After Winterbottoms death in 1924, the Aston Hall estate was broken up into lots and sold. The sale catalogues describe it as contains 1,561 acres and consisting of Aston Hall, its grounds and Home farm, altogether 88 acres, eight dairy and stock farms (two of them described as being in Shardlow), 14 small holdings, Alderslade House, the greater part of the village of Aston including 64 cottages, the village hall, Post Office, Blacksmiths and other shops, the White Hart Inn, the Malthouse Buildings in Derby Road, the Brickyard Plantation, the Globe or California mine at Chellaston (but within the boundaries of Aston) with the plaster mill, engine house etc., and mining rights for gypsum, the advowson of Aston Church, the reputed manors of Weston and Aston and fishing rights in the Derwent, Trent and the canal (Trent and Mersey). The two ‘Shardlow’ farms contained 180 acres, though the Glebe farm appears to have been in Aston; with the exception of these farms and 100 acres and more in Weston, the whole estate appears to have been in Aston.

Their tenants at the 1924 sale purchased the village post office, the White Hart Inn, and many of the cottages and smaller properties, whilst the Gotham Co. Ltd bought the plaster mine and mining rights. The fate of the extensive accommodation, lands, and farms is not known, but Kelly’s Directory of 1928 gives Edward Sutton and the Earl of Harrington as the principal landowners.

Agriculture has always been the principal business of Aston. Until the 18^th century enclosures, a farm normally consisted of a messuage with its associated outbuildings, yard, garden and perhaps an orchard or croft, the whole often containing an acre or more of land, and situated in the village, with one or more yardlands made up of numerous strips in the open arable fields and a few acres of meadow in the common meadows. Whether these were also in scattered strips is uncertain. In addition, each yardland had certain rights of pasture in the wastes and commons (the greatest area of common pasture was on Aston moor), and most farmers probably had a close or two of pasture or meadow. At the enclosure of the common fields, there were 1,818s. It seems to have been normal to have 1½ or 2 yardlands (40 to 50 acres perhaps) rather than one only, but there were always also smaller owners, holding less than a yardland and approximated to the modern smallholder.

The great arable fields were called Ash, Alderslad, Grass and Hether fields. Ridenhill and Marsh flat seem to have been the areas of localities rather than of fields. A late 16^th century map shows a Grass Field close to the west of the village, Alderslade Road leading north west to Thulston and Ridenhill to the east of the village, near to Shardlow, Alderslade House, Hoyden Hill Farm and Marsh Flat Farm still preserve some of these old names. There are also several areas including ‘Aston moor’ itself showing where the old pasture of the village was. Aston moor was enclosed in 1757 and the common (arable) fields, meadows, pastures and waste grounds in the township in 1763. The enclosures created the modern landscape though not overnight, as it took time to fence the outer boundaries of the allotments and then to sub divide the larger allotments into more conveniently sized fields. Hedges also needed time to grow. The resultant fields were mainly straight sided and often rectangular. The new fields rapidly acquired names, some no doubt also new, but others ancient, such as the Upper and Lower Grasslands and the Water Furrows poles.

Aston remained an area of mixed farming but with an increasing emphasis on dairy and stock farming. Glover in 1833 commented on the excellent land, one third arable and two thirds meadow and pasture. Kelly’s directories give the chief crop as Oats, Wheat, and Barley. Although a sale catalogue for the 1924 sale describes the farms to be sold as dairy and stock farms, several still had substantial areas of arable. The number of farms varies considerably between 1829 and 1916 from eight to thirteen; in 1928, it was down to seven. The farms sold in 1924 were Cotton Farm 76 acres, Manor Farm 54 acres, Birds Nest (or Moorside) Farm 40 acres, Rectory Farm 149 acres, Aston Hill Farm 150 acres and Royden Hill Farm 78 acres, only 547 acres altogether, but to this total should probably be added one of the Shardlow Farms sold, Glebs with 85 acres, as it really is within Aston, Fox Covert Farm and Marsh Flat Farm, acreage unknown, (the home farm lay largely in Weston, South of Aston Hall). On the Winterbottom estate in 1924, there were 737 acres of accommodation land not included within any specific farm. Cottage and Manor Farms disappeared to leave only seven farms marked on the Aston map in the 1950’s.

The sale of 1924 also included 14 smallholdings, allotments and a market garden at Hanger bank. Market gardening seems to have developed at Moorside in the latter part of the 19^th century. Kelly’s directory records two market gardeners there in 1881 and continues to mention two, usually said to be at Moorside, until and including the 1916 directory (when both were women). In 1928, they have disappeared, but there was a nurseryman at Derby Road and the market gardener at Hanger Bank and both were still there in 1932 and 1936. A second firm of nurserymen had set up by 1936, at Aston Nursery’s, Weston Road, and another market gardener at Aston Lodge. A poultry farmer was first mentioned in 1942 and four years later there were two in Aston. There was even a ‘horse racing establishment’ at Aston Lodge in 1936, though it appears to have been short lived.

The old village farmhouses continued to be used for some time after the enclosures of 1757 and 1763, as it was only very slowly that new farmhouses were built out in the fields. A map of the Holden estate in 1795, then covering about a third of the township, shows buildings at Rider Hill, possibly farm buildings and by 1835 there was a scattering of buildings outside the village at Rectory Farm, Aston Hall, Marsh Flat, Aston moor, Hanger Bank and Riding House. Of these the Rectory farm certainly and Aston Hall, Marsh Flat and Riding House (Riden of Royden Hall) probably were farms, and perhaps one of the buildings at Aston moor, but there was probably only cottages at Hanger Bank. Yet there were undoubtedly more than four or five farms in Aston at this time, so the other farm buildings must still have been in the village. By 1857, at least two more farm names came into existence, Fox Covet and cottage, but the latter’s farmhouse was on the outskirts of Aston village. So were the Manor Farm buildings in 1924, so both probably utilized old premises at least in part. It would seem then that only seven farms were ever built outside the village of Aston; these being Gleb, Ridenhill (Royden Hill), Fox Covet, Moorside, Marsh Flat, Rectory and Aston Hall (the knob).

There is no doubt that some of the village farmhouses began to go out of use before the building of new farmhouses outside the village, probably because of an increase in the size of the farms and a consequent decreased in the number of farmers. Sometimes the old houses were pulled down, sometimes converted to other uses. Thus Robert Clarke, A Derbyshire gentleman (later of Aston) bought in 1763 a messuage with its homestead and orchard adjoining which must have been an old farmhouse with its yard and orchard, and before his death in 1782 had built messuages on the land, each with a garden. He left the original house standing, Jacob Botham of Aston yeoman bought a messuage with three homestead in 1775, and again one suspects that this was a farmhouse and yard, and either he or his son, Joseph, had new building and alterations, converted it into five cottages with a room used as a schoolroom by 1834. Today, there is probably just one village farmhouse left, 16 The Green, the tablet in which suggests it was built by a Christopher Wright; it says ‘ W ‘. It is two stones high in red brick with ‘ C H Lozenge ’ diapering, in black brick. Some of the 1690 windows are modern.

In the late 18^th and early 19^th century there was a considerable amount of building in Aston – some of it has already been mentioned, but there was plenty more besides. The Daykins, first Mary in her widowhood between 1785 and 1803 and then her son William 1805 and 1839, built four houses between them of which we have descriptions, all using the old words houseplace, parlour and chamber for the names of the roads. Lovatt Frearson of Aston joiner purchased together with a house already on it. He built three more houses, leaving the existing house still standing in this case, so that at his death, in 1817 he was able to leave his five children two houses each. Altogether, there is evidence of the building of over 20 cottages or houses in the papers of the Holden family (and undoubtedly further building took place in the 19^th century of which no evidence survives). Probably, some of these cottages still exist, but further research and examination of some of the older cottages in the village would be necessary to establish this. The Moorside developed a tiny community in the 18^th century though there was one cottage there in the 17^th century. One of the Moorside houses in 1833 was the house of schoolmaster George Daykin and consisted of house place, parlour, two chambers, and a large garden.

This building activity was presumably related to an increase in the population. According to Pilkington, there were about 92 houses and 452 inhabitants in 1769. By 1811, the Census shows there were 111 inhabited houses, 2 in the process of being built and 2 uninhabited, 112 families and 532 people. Sixty-one of the families were engaged in agriculture, 31 in trade etc., and 20 in other pursuits. The numbers of inhabited houses and the population rose to a peak in 1851, when they reached 150 and 191 respectively, after which they declined, though somewhat more slowly than they had risen. In 1911 the population was only 493 but in 1931 a dramatic 645 was recorded presumably Aston was already becoming a commuter village. However, it took 20 years for the population to rise by a comparable number to 796 in 1951. At the last census, Aston had over a thousand (1067) inhabitants for the first time in its history. Now housing developed along the roads out of Aston to provide for the increased population, whilst old cottages were demolished in 1967, to make a green space in the centre.

Industry in Aston has been small-scale and of local significance with the exception of gypsus (also called alabaster of plaster) quarrying and mining. There was a stocking framework knitter in Aston 1766, called John Whyman; in 1789, there were three stocking frames in the parish (then including Shardlow and Wilne) and forty years later there were a few stocking frames and two lace machines. The evidence for brick making is as sparse; a brick-kiln Close is marked on a map of 1795, north of the village and beside the London Road, two brick makers were named in Bagshaw’s directory of 1857, a brick and a tile maker in White’s directory of 1857, and the Brickyard Plantation, one of the properties sold at the break up of the old Holden estate in 1924. However, by 1932 the Derby Brick Company was mentioned in Kelly’s Directory and was still in Aston in 1941.

There is evidence of some plaster quarrying in the 17^th century by John Hunt, (with reference to a plaister delfe) on 1630, and in the early 18^th century, when no doubt the gypsum was used locally for white washing and flooring, but it was only at the end of the 18^th century that it seems to have been quarried in commercial quantities. Richard Brown and sons in 1796 announced the opening of an alabaster quarry near Shardlow, probably the pits shown on the Holden estate map of 1795. Humphrey Moore, a Shardlow merchant, was paying a rent on the pits in 1809 and he built a railway from the plaster pits on Aston Hill to the canal near Hicken’s bridge. Charles Holden spent £500 building it for Moore acting on Holden’s behalf. The railway was ‘now making’ in 1811 and was probably completed and opened in 1812. Farey records that Samual Storey was working the pits in 1811 and he was probably the first leaser of the railway. John Brookhouse of Derby ‘plasterer’ and Joseph Johnson, coal dealer, leased both pits and tramway in 1818, but by 1825, the closed line was being offered for sale. It seems to have been revived and extended to other pits nearer Aston, and finally closed sometime before the First World War. In its later days, trucks were horse drawn along the line to a small cottage near the Shardlow Road called the ‘Whey house’ where the trucks were weighed before continuing to the Wharf. There the gypsum was transferred to the canal and travelled to the plaster mill at Kings Mills. Meanwhile, other pits were opened near Chellaston and are shown on the 1835 one-inch ordnance survey map. In 1857 Pegg Harper and Co. of Derby and Robert Meakin of Chellaston and its offices, engine houses, shafts etc., together with land and mines, were leased by Winterbottom to the Derby Plaster Co. in 1919 and sold as the Gleb or California mine to the Gotham Co Ltd, in 1924, together with the plaster mill, its engine of dynamo rooms, stone dressing sheds, head to mine shaft, winding house, kiln house with four large plaster and cement kilns and several other rooms. A pre-cast concrete works has now succeeded the plaster works on the site.