SOUTH DARLEY (or WENSLEY) is a parish, formed 20 Aug, 1845, from Darley, and comprises the hamlets of OAKERSIDE, DARLEY BRIDGE, CROSS GREEN, and SNITTERTON ; and is 153 miles from London and 4 north-west from Matlock, in the Western division of the county, hundred and county court district of Wirksworth , Matlock district of Wirksworth petty sessional division, Bakewell union and rural deanery, archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Southwell. The parish is connected with North Darley by a bridge over the Derwent, and is governed by a local board of nine members, formed in 1863. The church of St. Mary, erected in 1843, is a building of stone, in the Norman style, consisting of a chancel, nave of one bay and a tower on the south-west, containing one bell : the chancel was added in 1886: there are 150 sittings. The register dates from the year 1845. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £105, including 10 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the rector of Darley, and held since 1882 by the Rev. John William Watney Booth M.A. of Pembroke College, Oxford. There is a Wesleyan chapel at Wensley, and another at Oakerside, built in 1854. The Oakerhill and Cross Green inclosure charity of 97 acres, let at £213 13s. yearly, is applied in part payment of the poor rates, the ratepayers paying a very small rate for the remainder. The parish participates with North Darley in Garratt's and Gisborne's charities. Ann Phynney's charity now consists of four cottages in Wensley Dale for the poor widows. In the parish is a lead mine, one of the richest in the kingdom. Miss Ashworth is the principal landowner, and Frederic C. Arkwright esq. J.P. of Willersley, is lord of the manor. The soil is loam; subsoil, limestone. The chief crop is grass. The acreage is 2,005 ; rateable value, £3,823 ; the population in 1881 was 679, chiefly employed in mining

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