CRICH PARISH

which consists of the villages of Crich, Fritchley and Whatstandwell.

Crich Manor House/Wheeldon House

Drawn by Irene Sinclair from a painting of Crich Manor House. Reproduced with permission.

Drawing of Crich Manor House

Thomas Lord Beler of Kirby Bellers, Leicestershire acquired the Manor of Crich in 1324. However, Thomas, 1st Baron Beler of Crich got little out of it, as he was murdered in the following year. His son Roger, 2nd Baron Beler, is of much more importance to Crich.

He built a great house where the Baptist Chapel now stands, most of it of course destroyed, but there still remain some parts of an ancient house and its buildings behind Victoria House and the Loaf bakery.

What is now called "Baker's Cottage", next door to Victoria House, has a newer frontage build onto an old building which is believed to belong to the old Manor House.

Bakers Cottage in Crich
Showing the "new" extension on the older building at Bakers Cottage.

Old windows at Bakers Cottage
At the side of "Bakers Cottage"

Scattered around the Glebe "old" vicarage are stone pieces believed to have come from the demolition of the Manor House.

stone seat at the Glebe
Stone seat at the Glebe – the upright stone is thought to come from the Manor House

Stone wall at the Glebe
Stone embedded in the Glebe garden wall

There is a painting of the Manor House in Chiddingstone Castle, dated 1708, shown below.

Crich Manor House

© Reproduced with kind permission of the Denys Eyre Bower Bequest, Chiddingstone Castle.

In the grounds of the Manor was a Watch Tower, (see in the painting) the ruins still remain.

Roger Belers also enclosed a Park which covered Plaistow Green and the land down to Culland (known in later times as Culland Park), the eastern boundary presumably being the ridge from Edge Moor to Parkhead.

Source: A. B. Watkins "The Manor of Crich"

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