Though almost lost in Derby's 20th century fringe, Alvaston's history neverthless goes back a thousand years.
A few of its old houses are older than the church, yet the church has something in it which men would look at curiously before the days of Agincourt, before Magna Carta.
The church has a 14th century piscina, and a font rather oddly given as a thank offering for the capture of Sebastopol in the Crimean War. But it is notable for three other things in iron and stone. One is a piece of beaten ironwork, now against a wall, with an angel trumpeting the song of the Shepherds. Once a reredos and now preserved as a fine piece of craftsmanship, it may have been the work of the famous Nottingham blacksmith, Huntingdon Shaw, who made for William III the fine gates which used to be used at Hampton Court.
The oldest things in Alvaston are two coffin stones. They were together for centuries in the Norman church which once stood here; they were buried for centuries under the old tower, and were found together in 1856 when the church was made new. Now they are companions in the porch, a greeting from the ancient world as we come to this modern place. Friends indeed!
One from the 12th century has a cross with a round head; the other, perhaps from Saxon England, is a truly remarkable tapering stone which has a cross of unusual design with 11 rings about it.
