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This village of old stone cottages is sheltered by a fine line of hills, with a little brook running by the busy road to Derby. One can get a fine aerial view of its housetops as you drop down from Breadsall Priory, with the churchyard climbing as high as the church tower and making a fine look-out over the village playing-fields and the Derwent Valley.
There is little in the church for the visitor, but an odd thing is that before it was rebuilt in 1791 it had been a blacksmith’s shop. It was greatly restored in the Norman style of architecture in 1837.
In its churchyard are a War Memorial lynchgate and a cross with the name of Theodore Percival Cameron Wilson, the brilliant son of the vicar here when the First World War started. He enlisted during the first two weeks of the war, joining the Guards. One spring day in the last year of the war, hearing that one of his men had been wounded on the barbed wire, he crawled out in the face of machine gun fire and brought him in on his back. The next day, in a moment when he was laughing, a bullet struck him and he fell. No trace of his burial has been found.
Stone, often beautifully dressed, is a feature of this village and was used for all the buildings of special historical interest. It came from local quarries, which in the 1800s produced large quantities of Scythe stones which were sold for one shilling per thirteen.
In the 19th century, with the wealth of gritstones, minerals and coal in the area and further north in Denby, Horsley, and Smalley, Little Eaton was really ‘put on the map’, so to speak.
Previously pack horses and the Bottle Brook had been used to transport goods to Derby, but in 1793 the Derby Canal was extended to Little Eaton and Outram’s Railroad was built to link the canal and mines and the quarries. The village became therefore a major transport point.
There is, unfortunately, little evidence of the area’s industrial past except the old gang road (railroad) which passed by at the back of The Queens Head and by the Clock House. Also Peckwash Mill at Eaton Bank which from its humble origins as a corn mill in the 13th century became a papermill of international importance in the mid 19th century. Now only the remains of its former glory are the derelict mill buildings and the chimney built in 1894.
Fine views of the area may be enjoyed from public footpaths along the rive banks at Duffield and Flaxholme.
Other features of interest are the Blue Mountain Cottages 1820-1850 which were for the employees of Peckwash Mill, the Malthouse, and an 18th century building now an engineering works, the Monument to commemorate those who taught in the schoolroom, the replica 17th century bridge, The Town, and the narrow winding streets and lanes. These all contribute to the character of this area.
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