Little Eaton
| Little Eaton | |
|---|---|
 Church Hall, Little Eaton |
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 Little Eaton
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| Little Eaton shown within Derbyshire | |
| Population | 2,430 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | SK363415 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | DERBY |
| Postcode district | DE21 |
| Dialling code | 01332 |
| Police | Derbyshire |
| Fire | Derbyshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Little Eaton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire. The population as taken at the 2011 Census was 2,430 The name originated from Anglo Saxon times and means the little town by the water.
It is situated on the former route of the old A61 (now B6179), just north of the Derby section of the A38. At the southern exit to the village from the A38, there used to be a Little Chef which closed in early 2012 and re-opened as a Starbucks in 2013. Since 1974 the village has been part of the Borough of Erewash.
Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835 described Little Eaton as follows:
"Little Eaton is a chapelry and village, in that part of the parish of St. Alkmund which is in the hundred of Morleston and Litchurch, rather more than one mile from Duffield. Here are many valuable collieries and productive stone quarries; bleaching grounds, belonging to Messrs. Smith & Sons, and machine-paper works of Messrs. Tempest & Son; there are, besides, malting concerns, and corn-mills on the Derwent river."
Many of the village's historic buildings are built of stone which came from local quarries in the 1800s. The wealth of grit stones, minerals and coal in the area and further north in Denby, Horsley and Smalley, put Little Eaton on the map. Previously, pack horses had been used to transport goods to Derby, but in 1793 the Derby Canal was extended to Little Eaton. It continued to operate until 1908 but is now largely filled in.
Peckwash paper mill c. 1800 at the north end of the village was recorded in 1851 as one of the largest in the world and brought much prosperity to the area. It is now a private house - the chimney continues to be a dominant feature of the landscape. To the east of the mill, on the hill, is a terrace of 14 cottages known as Blue Mountain cottages built for the paper mill c.1850.
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Wikipedia