A Brief History of Derbyshire
If you are planning to come and stay in one of our Derbyshire Holiday Cottages then why not learn a little more about the great county that you are staying in.
Derbyshire is in the East Midlands of England and contains a part of the National Forest. The county borders on Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. The so called centre of Britain overlaps with the Pennines in its most Northern part.
The area of Derbyshire is thought to have been visited by humans as far back as 200,000 years ago during the Aveley Interglacial. While this visit is said to have been brief, the area was revisited during the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age. Evidence of these settlers can be found in caves on the border of Nottinghamshire.
Signs of agriculture and Settlement can be traced back in the county to the Bronze Age with signs of clearance, hut circles and arable fields located on the moors of the peak district.
The county of Derbyshire was popular during the Roman invasion as the limestone hills contained lead ore that they could use. Invaders built forts in the areas near the Hope Valley and Glossop. They also created settlements in Buxton and forts near Little Chester.
After the Norman Conquest, the majority of Derbyshire was put under forest laws, with different areas bestowed to families and important people.
Derbyshire has a combination of rural economy in the west and a former coal mining district in the North East and South. Landscape is a mixture of arable country flat lands in the South, to hill farms in the moor lands of the Southern Pennines. This geology and topology has effected how Derbyshire has developed through time.
Natural resources such as lead, coal, iron and limestone meant that industries in the towns and the County could prosper. Building companies, steel makers and cement manufactures were all common in Derbyshire. The industrial revolution also meant that building stone was in high demand and when railways arrived in the late 19th Century large quarries were set up to export the stone from the area. These rail lines and quarries still supply a lot of stone and building resources in the modern day.
Derbyshire also played another big part in the Industrial revolution, when its abundance of fast streams meant that they were used for water power and to power mills. The county has been actually called the home of the Industrial Revolution due to the importance of the role of water power and mills played during this time.
Derbyshire is home to many large businesses. The chocolate company Thortons are based near Alfreton, JCB have an engine factory in South Derbyshire, Buxton water is bottled in the county and other companies such as Egg Banking, Toyota and Rolls Royce all provide great job opportunities in the area.
