Belph Explained

Country:England
Static Image:Whitwell Colliery spoil heap - 117679.jpg
Static Image Width:240px
Static Image Caption:Whitwell Colliery spoil heap, Belph
Coordinates:53.276°N -1.172°W
Official Name:Belph
Shire District:Bolsover
Shire County:Derbyshire
Region:East Midlands
Post Town:WORKSOP
Postcode District:S80
Postcode Area:S
Os Grid Reference:SK553758
Civil Parish:Hodthorpe and Belph

Belph is a hamlet in the parish of Hodthorpe and Belph, within the district of Bolsover, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It is part of the Welbeck Abbey Estate, on the edge of modern-day Sherwood Forest. The village is south-east of Hodthorpe, south-east of Whitwell and south-west of Worksop (where the population is listed). The village is the easternmost settlement in Derbyshire.

The village has two parts, Belph Village and Penny Green. Belph Village consists of about 30 houses either side of a single lane. A number were originally farmhouses; all except Springfield Farm are now private homes.

Penny Green consists of a row of eight labourers' cottages built in the 1900s on the Whitwell Station Road, and a large stone cottage. The latter was once the Portland Arms (a pub). On the Creswell Crags Road are Brook Cottages, three stone-built 19th-century cottages.

An area of the village known as the "Millash" was located where a stream flows from a natural fault. The ruins of two mills survive, the rest of the hamlet being buried under a spoil tip left by the now defunct Whitwell Colliery.

Etymology

It has long been thought that the name Belph is a corruption of the Norman French/Saxon Bulgh, meaning "forest stream".