Allestree

Before the Norman Conquest, Allestree was a hamlet consisting of a few scattered dwellings that was part of the holding of the Earl of Northumbria.[1] Later it was recorded in the Domesday book of 1086 as Adelardestreu,[2] an outlier of the Manor of Markeaton held by Hugh, Earl of Chester.[1][3] It was given by William the Conqueror to Henry de Ferrers as a reward for his work during the Conquest and later it passed to the Touchet family of Markeaton.

During the 12th century, most of the land changed hands and was sold to the Abbey of St Mary, in Darley, and then rented back to the Touchet family. It was purchased by Sir John Mundy along with the estates of Markeaton and Mackworth from Lord Audley in 1516[4] and stayed in the family's possession until it was sold to the Evans family in 1781. Between 1660 and 1690, Derby was represented in Parliament by Roger Allestry and his son William Allestry. They took their name from the village, rather than vice versa.[5]

Allestree was formally a distinct rural settlement centred around St Edmund's Church. The old village centre was designated a Conservation Area by the City Council in September 1991.[6] The designated area starts on Cornhill encompassing part of the golf course on Allestree Park. All houses on St Edmund Close, Siddals Lane, The Poplars and the area to the north of Church Walk are included, as well as St Edmund's Church and the adjacent Red Cow inn. The area surrounding the old village centre contains seven listed buildings, the church being the oldest.[7] It dates from the 12th century, but all that remains of the original building is the ornately carved Romanesque doorway.

The village became a parish in its own right in 1864 and was incorporated into the Borough of Derby in 1968.[1][6] Parts of the civil parish of Markeaton were incorporated into Allestree in 1934.[8] Markeaton was originally a large estate that spread out through the northwest of Derby. It contained three outlying settlements that would later become Manors in their own right: Allestree, Knivedon, and Mackworth. It was owned at the time, as was Allestree, by Earl Hugh of Chester and controlled by a member of the Touchet family.[1][3] The area now within Allestree contains what is left of the old village centre, which is Markeaton Manor, its grounds and Markeaton park. Substantial development in the 1960s and 1970s led to the incorporation of Allestree into the borough of Derby in 1968.[6][9]

• Allestree
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  Allestree lies on Upper Triassic sandstones and clays.
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  St Edmund's Church (2007).
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  High-rise housing in Allestree (2021).

Because of its location in southern Derbyshire, Allestree has a temperate climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) with a small variation in daily and annual temperatures. The warmest month is July, with an average temperature range of 11.4 °C to 21.3 °C, and the coolest month is January, with a range of 1.2 °C to 6.9 °C. Maximum and minimum temperatures throughout the year are around the England average,[13] and as with most of England, Allestree is in AHS Heat zone 2.[14] South Derbyshire's average annual rainfall is about 606 millimetres (24 in), with October to January being the wettest period but October being the wettest month, compared with the national average of 838 millimetres (33 in).[13]

The area known as Allestree Park was enclosed in about 1818 and lies in the northern part of Allestree just inside the city boundaries. It has over 319 acres (1.29 km²) of parkland, an 18-hole golf course, a permanent orienteering course and an angling lake. The park area, not including the golf course, has been designated a nature reserve because of the diversity of habitats and species present.[15] The main habitats present within the reserve include a large area of woodland to the north, a number of fields with a mixture of quality of grassland and a stream that flows through the site and a number of associated marshes.

Allestree Hall is a 19th-century former country house in Allestree Park. It is a Grade II* listed building[16] made of millstone grit from Derwent Bank. The house was begun by Bache Thornhill and completed by John Giradot (High Sheriff of Derbyshire) with three storeys and five bays, the central three bowed with an ionic columned porch.[16] Since the 1980s the hall has been unoccupied, and was included in the English Heritage at Risk Register 2010, which states that the internal condition of the building is poor but fair overall. The city and English Heritage are looking to find a suitable scheme to enable its redevelopment.[17] As of July 2022, it remained on the Heritage at Risk register.[18]

Markeaton Park lies in the south of the suburb, bordering Mackworth Estate below and Darley Abbey to the east. The park has a long history, being used to raise deer and boar as far back as the 1500s.[19]

A hall was built on the estate in the 16th century though the exact dates are unknown; this was demolished in 1755 and a new hall erected in the same location designed by James Denstone of Derby. In 1964 Markeaton Hall was demolished because of neglect and structural damage caused during the army's stay there. The only remnants of the original hall are the late 18th-century Grade II listed orangery[20] that is used as a café, a number of walled gardens and ornamental gardens such as the formal terrace, the Rose Garden and herbaceous borders.[21]

In September 1975 the park and its surroundings were designated a Conservation Area[22] and Markeaton Park today is a public park covering approximately 85 hectares (0.85 km²) and the most-used leisure facility in Derby, with over 1 million visitors per year. A variety of activities are spread throughout the park, including a boating lake, pitch and putt course, children's playground, mini golf course and a light railway. The park attracts people from around Derby but also from smaller surrounding towns such as Belper, Ilkeston and Ashbourne and even from as far as Nottingham and Sheffield. Markeaton Park can, therefore, be considered to be of regional significance.[21]

There are four public houses in Allestree: The Markeaton (a former hotel on Allestree Lane), The Woodlands (an "estate" pub on Blenheim Drive), The Red Cow (the old village pub next to St Edmund's Church), and Allestree British Legion (on Cornhill). During the 1960s the Park Farm Hotel was opened at Park Farm Shopping Centre, but this closed and was boarded up in October 2003 and has since been transformed into a fitness gym.

A new micropub in the Park Farm Centre opened in 2017 named The Pothole, as a nod to the affectionate nickname given to the basement bar of the nearby Park Farm Hotel. Another micropub, No. 189, recently opened at Blenheim Parade.

The Joiners Arms, The Jonty Farmer and The Broadway are all just outside outskirts of Allestree but are frequented by residents.

The historical village centre is centred on the junction of St Edmund's Close, Cornhill and Park Lane. This area has the majority of listed buildings within the ward, with the 12th-century St Edmund's Church, Red Cow inn and Old School house along St Edmund's Close and three properties along Cornhill. Yew Tree Cottage is further along Cornhill away from the village centre, but is the only timber-framed and thatched cottage left in the area.[7]