This register (D739/A/PI/5/1) records all the burials in the parish of St Michael, Pleasley, from April 1813 to January 1893.
Pleasley is one of the ancient parishes of Derbyshire, lying in the north-east of the county on the border with Nottinghamshire (Pleasley Hill is actually part of Nottinghamshire). It originally consisted of the townships of Pleasley, Shirebrook, and Stoney Houghton, which included the colliery villages of Upper Pleasley and New Houghton. The earliest surviving registers of baptisms, marriages and burials go back to 1553.
The register was nominated by Kate Henderson, a regular user of Derbyshire Record Office and a member of our Focus Group. Strictly speaking, the purpose of the register was to record the fact of a burial having taken place, and the name and age of the deceased – but Kate notes that this is not always all: “Occasionally a clerk will give fuller details of an unusual cause of death or of a great age achieved…
…One can appreciate the interest such a vicar had both in his parishioners but also his understanding of the interest in these people in future generations.”
Derbyshire Record Office 
Very interesting – another useful item’s the Old Brampton Waste Book – have you see that? recording the location of burials over a period, and often mentioning kinship, e.g. Buried 5 yds to the S of his first wife, or some such
Good wishes
Richard Turner Wingerworth
Thanks for that, Richard. No, I hadn’t heard of the Waste Book. (For anyone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about, click here for the entry on our catalogue.) It surprises me how rarely we come across records of precisely where burials took place, among the church archives. Civil cemeteries are different, because they were designed with space-management in mind, so they use plot numbers and gridlines and suchlike.