Ockbrook was an early Mercian settlement of the 6th century, (recorded in the Domesday Book as Ochebroc or Occa's Brook)

The number of historic buildings within Ockbrook have led the centre of the village to be designated a conservation area, which includes the Church of All Saints, with it's 12th century tower and the 17th century timber framed Church Farm. The Moravian Settlement makes up the second Conservation Area in the village.

Jon Hus, a Bohemian Christian reformer was burned at the stake in 1415. His followers founded their church in Moravia, Eastern Europe, in 1457. 300 years later the Moravian community was set up in Ockbrook after a local farmer was inspired by a Moravian influenced Anglican curate.

In a separate area from the original village, the principal buildings of the Settlement are built in a formalised arrangement and include two Grade II listed buildings - the Moravian Chapel and The Manse. Adjoining these is the Ockbrook Moravian School, a very old established private school for girls.

Factoids

• Ockbrook origins date back to the 6^th Century.

• The Church of All Saints tower was built in the 12^th Century.

• Timber framed Church Farm dates from the 1550's.

• The Moravian Settlement was built in the 1700's.

• There are several traces of the 'Ridge & Furrow' method of cultivation.

• Queen Victoria’s wedding stockings were made at the Cross Keys.

My grateful thanks go to the Minister, Rev Kathryn Woolford and her husband Roy Woolford, for supplying me all this wonderful information and for showing me the Chapel during my recent visit

The residents of The Settlement, members of the congregation, led a communal life of worship, fellowship and work and aimed to be self-sufficient. Their enterprises met with varying success for years, but their cottage industries were eventually overcome by the challenges of the Industrial Revolution.

Thereafter the members became engaged in work and commerce outside The Settlement.

The Moravian Church was originally founded in 1457, in Bohemia, and was based on simplicity in life and worship.

In 1739 after hearing one of Rev Jacob Rogers sermons, Isaac Frearson a local farmer invited the Rev to come to his home and preach one of his sermons to the village. Some years later in 1750 a Congregation of the Moravian Church was established in the village and a church was established two years later on land purchased from Isaac Frearson.

Despite its chequered history, the society was the forerunner of the congregation, which was 'settled ' by Bishop Peter Boehler some ten years later.

Grange Lodge opposite was originally built as the Lodge House to the Swallows Rest, which is now known as The Grange

The Grange, originally called Swallows Rest which was built in the early nineteenth century as a retirement home for William Mallalieu, who was a descendant of the Huguenots

The first houses to be built on The Settlement are situated on land which was known as 'The Hill'

One house was built in 1752 for John Howe who, having moved from from Nottingham to Ockbrook to develop a hosiery business, occupied his new house in May and died that same month. A later tenant, for some 20 years, was a former Minister of the congregation, Br. Ignatius Montgomery, brother of the hymn writer James Montgomery.

This house dates from 1752, and was built for Joseph Horsley and his wife and a plaque above the door  commemorates this - "Joseph and Mary Horsley 1752. Bless our going out O God, when we come in also bless us. Amen".

In 1784 this house was occupied by Br Jacob Planta and his wife. In 1780 they had returned to Ockbrook from Jamaica having served there as missionaries for twenty years. Br. Planta, a Swedish surgeon and apothecary, was also a deacon of the Church. In renovating the house, a shop was created for his medicines. He continued to practise his profession and served as a preacher both in Ockbrook and outlying places.

In 1781, following an outbreak of smallpox, he inoculated two girls and two Single Sisters. This was successful and during later outbreaks in the 18^th Century there were no deaths from smallpox among members of the congregation. (Edward Jenner is credited with this discovery in 1796).

Opposite is one of the many wells that were dug on the Settlement, only the sites of a few are known. Digging them in the heavy clay soil was always difficult and the Single Brethren who found water at a depth of 9 yards felt themselves very fortunate. Many were two or three times deeper.

From the earliest days the importance of education prompted the provision of schools within The Settlement. The highly successful school which exists today is their successor.

The main building of the School was built in 1822 as the boy's boarding School and the headmasters house, which is now the school's administrative block, which was added in 1907. By that time it had been reduced to a preparatory school and in 1915 it closed with the boys and masters transferring up to the other Moravian school at Fulneck in Yorkshire. The girls and their teachers moved in the next day.

The school has grown both in numbers and buildings since then,  and shortly after the 2nd World War two large houses were bought: the Mount just outside the Settlement gate, and Ockbrook Grange with its Coach House, Lodge and housekeeper's cottage

The first Ministers House was built behind the Chapel in 1752, the present building was built in three separate parts. The back part was built by Mrs Creswick, a widow from Sheffield whose son was the shopkeeper, she came to live in Ockbrook in 1806. After her death Mrs Elizabeth Bates bought the house and built on the front. During her stay in Ockbrook she financed many of the buildings which were either built or extended in the 1800s and 1820s.

The simple style of the Chapel is one which is common to the Moravian Church. The foundation stone of this building was laid in 1751 and in less than two months the roof had been raised. The chapel was consecrated by Bishop Peter Boehler on 5th April 1752. Originally the interior was laid out with pews aligned North/South and the pulpit set on the West wall. For Lovefeast, a table was set up in the middle of the Chapel.

Brethren and Sisters entered by separate doors and sat separately in the congregation. Each end of the Chapel was galleried but now only the one at the North end remains. This was also the musicians' loft where the organ was installed. A replacement organ, purchased in 1791, required that the gallery be supported by pillars.

The clock with its bell bears the date of 1827 and was made by Whitehurst and Son of Derby. The villagers of Ockbrook donated to its cost.

The path known as ‘Bishop’s Walk,’ is a collection of flagstones brought from Dale Abbey, the stonemason who recently replaced some of the original flagstones stated that the new stone had come from the same quarry that the original Dale Abbey stone was sourced from.

The house on the left of the block was originally built as the Single Sisters' House. The first had been in a small cottage just outside The Settlement, and it was here also that the earliest day school for girls began in 1751. The sisters moved into their new home in April 1760. From the beginning the Sisters engaged in spinning, embroidery and framework knitting and later tambour work. They also farmed and the large plot nearby is known still as 'Sisters' Field'.

This building, now known as 'The Old Post Office', stands on the site of a barn complex used by the Brethren to preach when they first came to Ockbrook in 1739. When in 1768 there was a proposal for a congregational shop this site was chosen and following conversion work business commenced on 19th July 1768. It operated under the "strictest rules for honest trading, best quality goods and reasonable prices". The business was closed during the 1920's when the shopkeeper Mr John Orchard died.

The correct name for this type of post box is a lamp box and this one on the left shows GR (George V 1910 -1936) whilst on the right was the home of William Frearson, which was built in 1750

An inn was built in 1792 at the junction of the Settlement Road. The first tenants were George and Esther Holme who opened their business in June 1793. A brewhouse was added in 1798 where the Lecture Hall now stands. Enlarged in 1820 by the addition of a third storey, the business fared well until the mid-19^th Century when the impact of the Temperance Movement caused it to be changed to a guest house only until its closure in the 1920's.

The lecture hall, built as a boys Sunday school in 1867, was built on the foundations of the inns brewhouse. The vaulted roof cellars still remain. It was dedicated with a simple service on 29th September of that year. The newer wing at the West end was built as a Girls Sunday School in 1880. The kitchen at the rear is of a later date and was the gift of Mrs Harriet Mallalieu who resided at the the large building now known as 'The Grange'

During the 1914-18 War the Lecture Hall was used as an Auxiliary Hospital by the Red Cross. A commemorative plaque outside the building records this. The Hall remains in use by the congregation for Church activities and is also used by other organisations.

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