Eckington was first mentioned in 1002, well before Domesday, and was once an agricultural settlement. But as a result of coal beneath and around it the village was later transformed into a town rather dependent on the collieries. Quite recently, new shops and pedestrianised areas, swimming pool and a Civic Centre complete with library hall all changed the character of the town, though the older part of the town still has some attractive stone buildings.
It has a charming corner about the church, where the little coal-mining town throws off its workaday garb. The church is its glory, with the work of the later Normans in two splendid nave arcades with massive pillars. The fine tower is of the early 13th century, with round-arched west doorway and with lancet windows below the parapet of quatrefoil and ballflower ornament. The sturdy spire is of the 14th century.
One of the most unusual things in the church is an extraordinary monument showing the kneeling figures of George Sitwell and his wife in comically theatrical attitudes. After losing heavily by his loyalty to Charles I, he recovered his fortunes by founding the Renishaw ironworks - though no traces remain of this today. Slitting Mill Farm, at Renishaw, however is probably the site of George Sitwell's mill of 1652.
Renishaw Hall, the old home of the Sitwells, in a fine setting near Eckington, is a 17th century house built by George Sitwell and much enlarged about 1800. The noted gardens were laid out by Sir George Sitwell, lord of the manor for over 70 years,and the father of a famous literary trio, Sir Osbert, Sacheverell, and the late Dame Edith Sitwell. The gardens in fact were his main passion. At one stage, so it is reported some 4,000 men were employed on digging out an artifical lake in the grounds, with wooden towers sticking out of the water from which he could survey his other projects. These included stencilling Chinese willow patterns on his white cows, which he had to abandon when the inartistic cows objected.
Another of Sir George's eccentricities was his writing. A total of seven rooms in his house were earmarkered as his studies and it was in these rooms that he embarked on his literary works: 'The origins of the word gentleman', 'The history of the fork', 'Acorns as an article of medieval diet', and 'Osberts Debts'. Strange to say none was ever completed.
The sharp eyed will note the plaque on the George Inn, situated in Southgate, and which commemorates the formation of the Notts and Derbyshire Miners Association on the 23rd December 1865.
