If you are looking at a map, then Crich is just about in the middle of this great County, about 7 miles to the south of Matlock and about 13 miles north of Derby. As a temporary measure, I am re-publishing this site using Carol's existing format but I will now begin to create a new set of Derbyshire pages which I hope will educate and inform the great number of you who are researching your family history, but at the same time be useful to those who have a general interest in the County of Derbyshire. Matlock is the administrative center. Derbyshire is largely hilly, culminating in the North in the Peak District, the Southern tip of the Pennine Chain. The Southern part of the county is in the lowland area of the Trent River valley.
Agriculture includes sheep raising in the North and dairying in the south.
Coal is mined and limestine is quarried, textiles, motor vehicles and porcelain are manufactured. The chief industrial centers are Derby, Chesterfield and Alfreton. Tourism is important in the Peak District National Park and at the spa town of Buxton. The Romans occupied the area and mined lead in many of the hilly areas. The region was later included in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.