Don’t you think Derbyshire is an odd shape? It has a clear divide between the urban east and rural west and the county town (Derby) is far to the south- and more connected to Nottingham than the rest of Derbyshire. It’s a very nice county, but quite disjointed. What are your thoughts on Derbyshire?

2 comments

1. It’s probably odd to us now, but it might have made sense to the Anglo-Saxons who first drew it way back when. Counties were drawn according to all sorts of factors such as landownership, church holdings, watersheds, hill ranges, tribal control and others. A lot of the reasons why Derbyshire in particular was drawn that way have been lost to time.

   I quite like the weirdness to be honest. It’s an example of ancient history affecting our lives today and counties have since shaped the English social fabric. My own county of Hertfordshire looks a bit like a kettle and it makes no geographic sense at all, but I wouldn’t want it redrawn for the world!

2. I believe Derbyshire’s county town is generally considered to be Matlock, as that’s where the county council has its headquarters. It makes sense, as it’s more central and Derby has its own unitary council. ‘County town’ isn’t an official title, so it’s decided by public perception as much as anything.

   On the border, it is a bit arbitrary up in the Peaks. Up to Chapel-en-le-Frith the valleys generally run south toward Derby, so it makes some sense for them to be in the same county, but Glossop and thereabouts definitely looks toward Greater Manchester.