Brassington Halls 1

On 22nd October 1825 my great great grandparents, Joseph Hall and Sarah Truman, were married in the tiny church at Hognaston, Derbyshire. Today, there are what were two churches - both now converted into private accommodation, and I'm not sure when they were built. I would think the Primitive Methodist Chapel would not have been around in 1825, and so I favour the other (the one with the St George's flag in the photo below) - which has probably been re-built and renovated several times over, although probably and hopefully on the same site..

Joseph Hall was born in Brassington on 22nd June 1804, whilst his wife Sarah Truman was born in Hognaston in 1807. Hognaston is only about five miles from Brassington, and I'm assuming that they lived in Brassington when married or soon after (their children were born in Brassington and they were certainly living at the family farm in 1841). Both Joseph and Sarah came from farming families, and appeared to own the farms rather than being just labourers. Joseph inherited his fathers farm (of 35 acres in 1851) which is on Kingshill in Brassington.

These two photos of Kingshill or Kings Hill were taken in 2006 and I suspect these buildings are over 100 years old, although probably not around in the first half of the nineteenth century when my family lived there. The right hand photo (looking down) is slightly further up the hill than the left hand photo (looking up), so the houses you can see are on the same side of the road. Behind these houses is farmland and there is a modern farmhouse at the top of the hill. This is not to say that the Hall's farm was a predecessor of this modern day farm. But I like to think that the farmland behind these houses might well have been the land farmed by my great great grandparents and their children almost two hundred years ago. But, if not that land, then somewhere quite nearby.