- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Long Eaton is a town in the Erewash District of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Nottingham and some 8.5 miles (13.7 km) southeast of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 UK census. Long Eaton has been part of Erewash District since 1 April 1974, when Long Eaton Urban District was disbanded. Long Eaton is on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and very close to Leicestershire.
The village remained a constant size until the construction of the Midland Counties Railway in 1839 and the Erewash Valley Line in 1844. These brought links that encouraged growth. Two industries came to employ many people in the growing town: lace-making and railway waggon manufacturing. A large railway yard at Toton Sidings grew up just north of the town.
By 1900 the town population had grown to over 10,000, through construction of new houses, business premises and factories throughout the Victorian period. In 1921 and 1934 Long Eaton's boundaries were extended, bringing Wilsthorpe and parts of both Sandiacre and Sawley into the town.
The Parish Church of St Laurence stands to the east of the Market Place. Local tradition dates parts of the church to the 11th century, possibly built under Viking King Cnut. However, some sources trace the oldest parts of the church to after the Norman Conquest, possibly in the 12th century. It was originally a daughter church of All Saints, Sawley (an ancient parish), but gained separate status in the 19th century.
There are several fine examples of industrial architecture in Long Eaton. Most are connected with the town's development as a lace-making centre. By 1907, the town housed almost 1,400 lace machines and the industry employed over 4,000 people (a quarter of the population). One of the largest lace-making mills, Harrington Mill, was built in 1885. It took one and a quarter million bricks to build the 167-metre long factory and it has 224 cast-iron windows down one side. Harrington Mill is a traditional, four-storey, red lace mill, built by a consortium of lace manufacturers. The turrets on the sides of the building house the original staircases.
Long Eaton was originally a township in the ancient parish of Sawley in the Morleston and Litchurch Hundred of Derbyshire, England. It became an urban district in 1894.
Research Tips
- Derbyshire Record Office website
- British History Online (Victoria County Histories) does not appear to cover Derbyshire geographically. A History of the County of Derby: Volume 2, edited by William Page is a part-volume covering the religious houses of the county. No further volumes have been found.
- GENUKI main page for Derbyshire which provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and therefore the reader should check additional sources if possible.
- The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
- A Vision of Britain through Time, Derbyshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
- For a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from the following selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile. Sections of the 1900 map showing parish boundaries only have been reproduced on some (but not all) parish pages here in WeRelate.
- Map of Derbyshire illustrating urban and rural districts in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown.
- Map of Derbyshire urban and rural districts in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. This is not a repeat of the first map. There were some changes in urban and rural district structure in the 1930s.
- Ordnance Survey map of Derbyshire for 1967 This is the last in this series and was made while Derbyshire was experimenting with the non-metropolitan district structure adopted in 1974. It is a much cleaner map for reading the names of the civil parishes, but the smaller villages are no longer visible.
- These are only three of the series of maps to be found in A Vision of Britain through Time.
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