Derbyshire is made up of many contrasting parts. The experiences of its sheep farmers on the fringes of the northern moors were very different from those of the cheese-makers south of Ashbourne or the cereal-growers over near the Nottinghamshire border; and the lifestyle of all these farmers was completely different from that of the coal miners in the eastern pit villages, or the workers in the cotton mills of Glossop or the lace factories of Sandiacre and Long Eaton. Unlike the inhabitants of neighbouring Yorkshire and Lancashire, the people of Derbyshire never really developed a strong sense of belonging to their county. Instead, they were attached - as were people all over England - to their own neighbourhoods, or what they called their 'country', and within that to the particular places where they lived. The county's past is extremely varied and of great interest and wider significance.The river Derwent powered many of the first textile mills - the Derby silk mill of around 1720 was the world's first real factory - and is now a World Heritage Site. Cheek by jowl with this industrial might sit some of England's finest aristocratic homes and estates such as Haddon Hall and Chatsworth. The landscape is pock-marked with evidence of farming, mining, quarrying and ancient land-use. In some ways the county resembles an island, an upland area of great beauty amid a ring of industrial conglomerations, from Manchester to the wool towns of West Yorkshire, and from Stoke to Sheffield and Nottingham.This is a juxtaposition which created many routeways - roads, tracks, railways and even canals - through the Derbyshire uplands, connecting people and merchants from far and wide; and it meant that the county was never as isolated or economically disadvantaged as other English uplands such as Dartmoor or Cumbria. Derbyshire lies at the very heart of England and in many respects it can be seen to reflect almost every aspect of England's historical experience, including agriculture, mining, textiles, poverty, plague and prosperity. This book contains over 450 illustrations, mostly in full colour.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 1 Prehistory 9The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age 9The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age 10The Neolithic or New Stone Age 12Chambered barrows 14Henges 19Gardom's Edge 21The Bronze Age 22Round barrows 25Stone circles 26Settlements and field systems 31The late bronze age 34The Iron Age 35Hillforts 36 2 Romans, Briton and Angles 40The Roman advance 40Later Roman forts 44Roman roads 47Rural settlements 49Lead mining and smelting 51Britons 55British place-names 57Angles 58Mercia 59The Peak District 61 3 The origins of Derbyshire 65Place-names and settlement 65Minsters 67Vikings 77Viking place-names 80The advance of Wessex 82Crosses and churches 86Shire, wapentakes and hundreds 89Domesday Book 92The breaking up of large estates 94 4 The Normans 97The new landowners 97Castles 99Knights 103Forests 105The Forest of the Peak 106Duffield Frith 109The Forest of East Derbyshire 109Religious houses 110Parish churches and chapels-of-ease 116Towns 125The countryside 131 5 Growth and recession 135Great landowners 136Forests 138Other medieval parks and moats 139Towns 142Rural parish churches 150Monastic granges 152Farming and rural settlement 158Industry 167Recession 169 6 The end of the Middle Ages 173The Black Death 173Deserted medieval villages 174Decayed towns 179The Duchy of Lancaster 181Knights and gentlemen 183Profit and conflict 191Lead 195Other industries 197Communications 200Farms and farmhouses 201Surnames 204Parish churches 207Dissolution of the monasteries 214 7 The Elizabethan and early Stuart era 219Population 219Towns 222The Cavendishes and Talbots 226The gentry 241Enclosures 245Farming 247The lead industry 250Free miners and cavers 251Smelters and merchants 254Other industries 255Vernacular architecture 258The poor 263Communications 265Protestants and Catholics 267Civil War 269 8 From the Restoration to the Industrial Revolution, 1660-1760 271Population 271Towns 275Religion and politcs 282Great houses 287Halls and vernacular architecture 293Communications 298The lead trade 304Other industries 309Farming and enclosure 313The poor 318 9 An industrial revolution, 1760 to 1840 321Towns 321Country houses 327Farming and enclosure 331The textile industry 337Hosiery 337Cotton 338Lead 352Iron 358Coal mining 361The Butterley Company 363Communications 365Roads 365Canals 369Early railways 371Quarrying 373Limestone 373Ornamental stone 375Millstones 375Potteries 377The poor 378Religion 381 10 Victorian and Edwardian times 385Population 385Towns 386Railways 397Coal mining 400Iron and steel 405Lead 408Textiles 409Other industries 412Stone 412Pottery and bricks 414Great landowners 415Farming 418Religion 419Recreation 423 11 The First World War to the present 429The inter-war years 429Coal 430Iron 432Other industries 432Town planning and housing 435The countryside 435Since the Second World War 439Iron 443Engineering 443Textiles 444Quarrying 445Derby 447The countryside 450Country houses 451Regeneration 454 Bibliography 463 Index 468 Acknowledgements 476