Roughly two miles south of Derby city centre, New Normanton is the northern portion of the wider Normanton suburb, set apart from the old medieval village to the south by Derby’s inner ring road. The area grew rapidly from the mid-19th century onward, filling in the gap between the ancient settlement of Normanton-by-Derby and the expanding town of Derby itself. Today its streets are largely lined with dense Victorian brick terracing, typical of the working neighbourhoods that spread outward from Derby’s industrial core during that period. Nearby suburbs include Littleover, Pear Tree, Rose Hill, and Sunny Hill.
Origins and History
The place name stretches back to the Viking age. The original settlement was recorded as Normanestune, meaning Norseman’s settlement, and appears twice in the Domesday Book – once among the lands of William the Conqueror and once for land held by Henry de Ferrers, valued then at ten shillings. The old village core survives as Village Street, which sits just south of the modern ring road and gives its name to the thoroughfare that runs through it. St Giles’ Parish Church stands on Village Street, its spire visible from much of the surrounding district. In the 1740s, the Dixie family commissioned Normanton Hall, which was later repurposed as a school in the 20th century. New Normanton itself began to take shape in the mid-19th century, and the area was formally absorbed into Derby’s boundaries through a series of expansions up to the 1930s. The New Normanton portion of the former civil parish was annexed by Derby as early as 1901, and the civil parish itself was abolished on 28 March 1928, with most of it becoming part of the county borough of Derby.
Population and Administration
The Normanton ward recorded a population of 17,071 in the 2011 Census, a rise of 26.4% on previous figures, making it one of the more densely settled wards in the city. Normanton is one of seventeen wards that make up Derby, each returning three councillors to Derby City Council. The ward forms part of the Derby South parliamentary constituency. Boundaries in this area do not follow tidy lines: much of New Normanton and Normanton Road fall within the Arboretum ward, while the area around Carlton Road sits in Abbey ward. Before its absorption into Derby, Normanton was a civil parish within Shardlow Rural District, with a population of just 1,383 recorded in 1921 – a fraction of what the ward holds today. The wider Normanton area is noted for having the most ethnically mixed population in Derby.