Sitting on the east bank of the River Derwent, about 0.6 miles north of Derby city centre, Little Chester is the oldest continuously inhabited part of Derby. Part of the Darley ward alongside Darley Abbey and the West End, it carries more than two thousand years of history within a quiet residential suburb of Derbyshire. The area goes by two names: Little Chester is the older and more precise, while Chester Green – taken from the open parkland at its centre – has gradually become the name most local people use today.
Roman Origins at Derventio
Before Derby existed as a settlement, Little Chester was the site of a substantial fortified Roman town called Derventio. The fort was positioned to guard a river crossing and sat at the junction of five Roman roads, the most significant being Ryknield Street, which ran from Gloucester and the West Country northward through Yorkshire to the North East. The settlement grew from a military fort into a prosperous town, and excavations over the past fifty years have confirmed both its scale and its wealth. Archaeologists uncovered an underfloor heating system on Parker’s Piece and a large number of coins. Two Roman wells survive above ground today – one on Marcus Street and another in the garden of the vicarage of St Paul’s Church.
From Roman Departure to Modern Suburb
After the Romans left, Little Chester was settled by Angles and has been occupied without interruption ever since. Chester Green, the open land that gives the area its popular name, appears in written records as far back as 1495 and has been a public park since 1866. That same year, Little Chester – formerly a township within the parish of St Alkmund – became a separate civil parish. On 26 March 1898 the parish was abolished and absorbed into Derby. A census taken in 1891 recorded a population of 966 within the parish. Little Chester now falls within the unparished area of Derby, in the Derby district, and the green at its centre remains the neighbourhood’s defining open space.