Derbyshire, an inland county of the north midland district of England, lies between Yorkshire on the north and Leicestershire on the south, and is flanked on the east by Nottinghamshire, and on the west by Staffordshire. The shire is of an irregular triangle shape, with the apex to the south; its greatest breadth is 34 miles, and its length 56; its area extends over 1029 sq. m., or 658,624 acres. Pop. (1801) 161,567; (1841) 272,202; (1881) 461,914; (1891) 520,886. Derbyshire is the twentieth of the English counties in area, and the nineteenth in population. The surface of the county is much diversified, the south being for the most part flat, the east of a varied and undulating character, but the north exceptionally hilly and rugged. The high land of the north, usually known as the Peak (which is the name of a district and not of any particular point or mountain), is the southern termination of the Pennine chain, and forms the watershed between the Trent and the Mersey. The chief summits are Kinder Scout, 2082 feet; Axe Edge, 1810 feet; Blakelow Stones, Mam Tor, and Lord's Seat, all about 1700 feet. North Derbyshire is justly celebrated for its picturesque scenery, which chiefly centres in the valleys made through the limestone by the rivers Derwent and Wye. Matlock and Buxton, where there are warm mineral springs, are the two chief places of resort.
Other chief towns are the four municipal boroughs of Derby, Chesterfield, Glossop, and Ilkeston (1887) and Ashbourne, Bakewell, Belper, and Wirksworth. The county is divided into six hundreds: High Peak, north-west; Scardale, north-east; Wirksworth, west; Appletree, south-west; Morleston and Litchurch, east; and Repton and Gresley, south. Derbyshire now returns nine members to parliament; two for the borough of Derby, and seven for the county, who sit respectively for Chesterfield, High Peak, Mid Derbyshire, Ilkeston, North-eastern Derbyshire, Southern, and Western. The county council consists of 80 members.
In addition to important coal-mining, chiefly in the eastern division, Derbyshire is singularly wealthy for its area in a diversity of minerals and metals; iron, lead, zinc, manganese, copper, gypsum, pipeclay and chert for potteries, marble, fluor-spar, and alabaster being all worked within its boundaries. The chief manufactures are cotton, silk, elastic web, worsted, metallic goods, porcelain and pottery, and marble-spar ornaments. Though more a manufacturing and mining than an agricultural county, Derbyshire is not undistinguished for its pastoral and corn-growing properties. The chief crops are wheat, barley, and oats. Of the total area, 78 per cent. is under crops of all kinds, bare fallow, and grass. There is much permanent pasture and large sheep-walks in the Peak district. Several dairies of repute are in the south of the county, and their produce is chiefly taken by recently established cheese-factories on the American principle. Ecclesiastically Derbyshire is now an archdeaconry of the new diocese of Southwell, and is divided into nineteen rural deaneries, and into 140 parishes. There are ruins of abbeys at Dale and Beauchief, and peculiarly fine churches at Melbourne, Ashbourne, and Tideswell. The Saxon crypt and chancel of Repton, and the churchyard crosses of Eyam, Bakewell, Hope, &c., are the oldest ecclesiastical remains. Of feudal and domestic buildings may be named the castles of Castleton, Bolsover, and Duffield, the manor-house of South Winfield (ruin), Haddon Hall, and Hardwick Hall. Chatsworth (q.v.), the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, is unrivalled. The caves and numerous tumuli or 'lows' have yielded many evidences of prehistoric and Celtic man; whilst the traces of Roman occupation are numerous. Arbelow, near Youlgreave, is the most important 'stone circle' in England next to Stonehenge. Though a turbulent county in English history, and ever taking part in all civil tumults, Derbyshire has not furnished the site of any remarkable battle nor played any special part in national affairs; its chief historic association is the retreat in 1745 of Prince Charles Edward, Derby being the turning-point in his bold but rash enterprise. The county claims as natives, Flamsteed the astronomer, Richardson the novelist, Chantrey the sculptor, and Brindley the engineer. Lombe first established an English silk-mill at Derby in 1719, and Strutt and Arkwright first made English calicoes at Cromford in this county in 1773.
See Pendleton's History of Derbyshire (1886); and the works of Dr Cox, Guide to Derbyshire, Churches of Derbyshire (4 vols. 1876-79), Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals (1891); and The Old Halls, Manors, and Families of Derbyshire (1891 et seq.).