Nat Gould

Samuel Belfield 1805-1855

The Dove valley between Crowdecote and Longnor

Samuel Belfield was born in Hartington parish in Derbyshire in 1805, probably at Crowdecote, the son of Joseph and Ann Belfield.

He was baptised at Hartington church on 25 August 1805.

He married Mary Gould in 1839. She was born in 1816 at Longnor in Staffordshire, the daughter of Richard Gould 1780-1843 and his wife nee Alice Horobin 1796-1887.

It was at Crowdecote where Samuel Belfield was farming when he was married and where his first children were born. However at some time between 1844 and 1846 he and his family moved to Dinting Vale near Glossop in Derbyshire, where Samuel Belfield became employed on the new railway there as a goods porter.

They had the following children:

Thomas Belfield. He was born in 1839 at Crowdecote. In 1851 he was working as an errand boy at Dinting Vale where the family were then living.

Nancy Belfield. She was born, presumably at Crowdecote, in either January 1841 or December 1840. She was six months old when the Census was taken on 6 June 1841.

Dinting Church

Mary Ann Belfield. She was born in 1844 in Hartington, presumably at Crowdecote. She was baptised at Hartington on 12 May 1844. When the 1851 Census was taken, she was aged eight and staying with her grandmother Alice Gould at Biggin Hall in Derbyshire.

Thompson Belfield. He was born in 1846 at Dinting Vale, Glossop.

Thomasin Belfield. She was born in 1847 at Dinting Vale, and baptised at Hartington on 13 September 1847.

Alice Belfield. She was born in 1849 at Dinting Vale, and baptised at Hartington on 12 September 1849.

John Belfield. He was born in 1853 at Dinting Vale, and baptised at Hartington on 14 September 1853.

Their father Samuel Belfield died in 1855 at Glossop.

His widow Mary Belfield died in 1877 at Glossop.

Samuel Belfield brought his wife and family to Dinting Vale just as industrial development began with the coming of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway in 1844.

This railway attracted workers from the countryside in the rural depression of the 1840s, and Samuel Belfield found work there as a railway goods porter.

For the Belfield family the contrast with the scenery of Dove valley would have been stark indeed.

Sadly Samuel Belfield did not live long to enjoy any new-found prosperity.