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.