Hi Kay,
Re your query concerning Bonsall. Upper Town (as you can imagine) is situated right at the top of the village, on the edge of Bonsall Moor. The lane that most of the cottages and houses are built on is called Upper Town Lane, and the postal code for it is DE4 2AW, so if you go on Google Maps, satallite, and type in that postal code you will see the top of the village as it is today. It is situated on around the 800 foot contour (sorry I still work in the old imperial system, my brain hasn't got around to transcribing what the metric should be), jolly cold in winter, and when we had colder snowier winters was often cut off. In the bad winter of 1978/79 there was a 14 foot snowdrift which completely covered the front of the cottage that I recently lived in, fortunately at that time I was living lower down in the village. Briefly Bonsall is a very straggling and ancient village, one travels westwards out of Cromford (where Sir Richard Arkwright built his first mill) following a road which was a Toll road constructed in the early part of the 18th century along the valley bottom of the very beautiful Via Gellia along side of which the Bonsall brook flows, this brook incidently is the parish boundary between Bonsall and Cromford. It's a very bendy road and when a large mill is found on the south side of the valley there is a junction (the "Pig o'Lead" pub now closed is here) and from here the road to Bonsall called the "Clatterway" climbs very steeply northwards up to the Recreation ground called "The Park". Here there is a monument in the road called "The Fountain", to the west the road goes up "The Dale" and finally climbing a steep bank called "Warmside" circles back to Upper Town, whereas if one continues northwards up Yeoman Street to the "King's Head" pub and Bonsall Cross, one can follow the road north (High Street) to Town Head, Upper Town, Bonsall Moor, Brightgate and onto Winster (one is then on part of the old Salt Way from Cheshire at this point), and the other road (Green Hill) doubles back by the Cross back to Town End, the Church (St. James) and the school. I hope I haven't confused you too much. Copies of the picture map of Bonsall (of which I was a contributor) can still be purchased and it shews the village in colourful layout and explains the layout far more than I can verbally. Details of where to purchase this map also the book can be obtained from the Bonsall Village website.
Re John Marple's shop for locating the LOXLEY family, I don't know where this is, sorry. However, to this day LOXLEY and ALLSOPP families still live in the village. In the Bonsall book there are many references in the index to these two families which I'll try and look at later. I've looked at the book and have extracted some information from it for you concerning the ALLSOP family which says that:-
Chapter 8 - Architecture and Buildings.
page 173 Chestnut Farm
"Josiah Allsop first appears in 1826 paying £2. 16s. 2d. (note by me - as rent) .......... The Tithe Map of 1848 shows that the farm was occupied by a Josiah Allsop, but owned by the executors of the late Robert Harding. Josiah rented sixty-one acres from the estate, twenty-one being pastures or meadows plus three arable fields: Ferney Dale, Pump Pringle and Pye Croft Side. Josiah also rented another eleven acres from another estate, making a farm of over seventy-two acres."
page 173 (continued but further down the page)
"The Electoral Rolls 1832-1900 show that a Josiah Allsop was the occupier of land above £50 rent, and therefore entitled to vote. Josiah remained at the farm from 1826 until 1864, when the property was sold. He was born in Darley, according to the 1851 census, and was a farmer of seventy-three acres, employing one indoor labourer - a servant girl/dairy maid from Carsington, who lived in the house. A cheese press is now in the garden. Josiah and his wife, Ellen, had seven children, the youngest being born when Josiah was sixty."
Incidently I have a copy of the Bonsall Tithe Schedule (which can be found on the Bonsall website) and also a copy of the map accompanying the Tithe Schedule which names and numbers all the fields, so I can find the location of the fields that were worked. Chestnut Farm has now been turned into holiday cottages, and if you go on the internet and search you will find the website of the firm advertising the holiday complex which is illustrated by photographs. I have some photos of Bonsal Moor looking westwards from the rear of my cottage in Upper Town, I will try and post one onto this site.
Incidently (from memory) was it on this website or DerbysGen where you were enquiring concerning lead mines that your ALLSOP ancestors from Darley owned, they were mentioned in an old Will that you had? Was anyone ever able to help you? The one at Wensley was the Old Mill Close mine and being interested in lead mining history and industrial archaeology I have a lot of information concerning this mine. Were any other mine names mentioned in the Will that you have, as well as Old Mill Close? You do know that an ALLSOP was a lead smelter and owned a lead smelt in the Via Gellia and went bankrupt in about 1849?
Trust all this helps in your research.
Best Wishes,
Margaret
