The history of Little Eaton government

Kings, Queens, Earls and Dukes

Little Eaton emerged as a settlement in Saxon times, ruled by the kings of Mercia, based in Tamworth. Then, in 847, Danish Vikings took over. “Danelaw” persisted until the Norman conquest in 1066.

Henry de Ferrers was one of Willam the Conqueror’s generals and was awarded 210 Manors in the North Midlands. His son Robert was made the first Earl of Derby. The sixth Earl of Derby, another Robert, joined a failed rebellion against Henry III in 1267 and the Earldom was passed to the Duke of Lancaster (a son of Henry). Later the title went to the Stanley family who are based in Cheshire.

Two local families in Derbyshire became wealthy and powerful:

**Chatsworth**

**The Cavendish family** moved from Suffolk to Derbyshire in the late 15th century. A pivotal moment came in 1547 when Sir William Cavendish, a key figure at the court of King Henry VIII, married Bess of Hardwick and began the construction of Chatsworth.

His second son bought the title of Earl of Devonshire from James I. In 1694 William Cavendish was made the 1st Duke of Devonshire for his part in the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 in which James II gave up the throne in favour of William of Orange. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the family played a prominent role in British politics, with several Cavendish men holding seats in Parliament and taking on various political offices. Notably, William Cavendish, the 7th Duke of Devonshire, served as Prime Minister from 1756 to 1757.

**Kedleston Hall**

**The Curzon family** were among the original Norman conquerors of England. They settled in the Midlands and became wealthy landowners. Francis Curzon prospered and his son, John, had an estate of 10,000 acres. He was created a baronet in 1641. His son, Nathaniel, sat as a member of Parliament and was created Baron Scarsdale. His grandson, the fourth baron, was Rector of Kedleston. The fifth baron, George Curzon, was made Viceroy of India in 1898 an became the first Viscount Scarsdale.

Hundreds and Districts

Locally, ‘hundreds’ were established by the Saxons to administer justice. The term “hundred”, confusingly, referred to 120 households. In Derbyshire there were eight of these.

Little Eaton was in the hundred of Morleston and Litchurch. Courts were established together with some basic facilities such as workhouses and jails. All senior positions were appointed through the patronage of the Cavendishes, Curzons or another local wealthy family, the Harpur- Crewes of Calke Abbey. Hundreds became the basis of District Councils – in our case Shardlow and then Erewash.

Erewash will be abolished and become part of a Unitary Council under the 2025 Local Government Act.

The Dean of Lincoln

For Little Eaton, the Church played an important part in governance.

In c1100 King Henry I gave the Manor of Little Chester, including Little Eaton, Quarndon and Little Chester, to the Dean of Lincoln. The Deans leased the area to local Lords of the Manor who wielded the power. They decided who should be given the privilege of cultivating land and how much of the produce they could keep. They could enlist young men into their armies and young women into service. They taxed villagers to support the Church, and to assist the poor. They exercised these powers through a Manor Court, made up of local worthies in the pockets of the Lord of the Manor. Ordinary people still had no say in how they were governed.

Francis Curzon and Sir John Curzon were Lords of the Manor in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Dukes of Devonshire were Lords of the Manor from 1764 and for the next century. In 1845, the Dean gave up the estate in Little Eaton to the Ecclesiastical Commission in London.

Parliament

Alongside this structure there was Parliament, started in 1265 by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who called together a gathering of barons and landowners (2 from each Shire and borough) to challenge the power of the king. Through the centuries the powers of Parliament and the king fluctuated but Parliament prevailed and Members of Parliament became more important to ordinary people in the village.

Until the Great Reform Act of 1832, MPs were elected from a limited pool of aristocrats, dominated in Derbyshire by the Cavendishes (who were predominantly Whigs) and the Curzons (who were Tories). The Reform Act extended the electorate to include all men who were freeholders of houses or land.

Electing MPs in 19th Century

In Little Eaton, 16 men were eligible to vote in Little Eaton in 1832. They were mostly farmers (John and William Tempest, Thomas Bates, Thomas Brown, Thomas Lowe, Benjamin Sneap, John Stanley and John Vickers).

But Robert Greatorex the shopkeeper, John Smith who ran the Bleach Mill and John Wildsmith the blacksmith were also included.

There were three candidates, The Rt Hon John Vernon and The Rt Hon Lord Waterpark (a member of the Cavendish family), who were a Liberals, and Sir Roger Greisley, a Conservative.

Each elector had two votes. 15 votes were cast for Vernon, 13 for Waterpark and 2 for Greisley. It may be no coincidence that the Lord of the Manor at that time was the Duke of Devonshire, a Cavendish. Vernon and Waterpark were elected.

By 1841, there were 19 electors in the village. Most of them, including the Tempests, stayed with Lord Waterpark (Liberal) but John Vickers and Robert Greatorex switched to the Conservatives (Edward Mundy and Charles Colville), Newcomers Rev Hope from the Outwoods, Thomas Tatam from Elms Farm and Jacob Wall the Blacksmith voted Conservative. Mundy and Colville were elected. Much the same happened in the elections of 1859 but by then some voters in the village were hedging their bets by casting one vote for the Liberal and one for the Conservative.

By 1869, Derbyshire had been divided into three constituencies. Little Eaton was in Southern Derbyshire. There were only two candidates for the two seats. 14 electors voted for the Conservative, Lt Col Henry Wilmot VC, and 2 voted for the Liberal, Thomas Evans. (The Evans family were inter-related to the Strutts). This switch to the Conservatives may have been influenced by Henry Wilmot’s popularity as a hero of the Indian army. More likely, it was that, although he was a Tory, he was part of the Cavendish family and therefore related to the Lord of the Manor. Another feature of election was that many of the people were eligible to vote because they owned land in the area ,but no longer lived here. Of the 21 eligible voters in Little Eaton, only 16 voted.

Universal suffrage and modern elections

From 1885 to 1950, Little Eaton was still in Southern Derbyshire but there was only one MP per constituency. (Derby was a County Borough by then and had two MPs). During that time, the electorate increased significantly, including in 1918, property owning women over the age of 30. The way people voted was no longer published.

In 1950, Little Eaton became part of the South East Derbyshire constituency, circling Derby Borough. In 1983, it was switched to Amber valley. In 2010, the village became part of Mid Derbyshire.

MPs since 1883

Southern Derbyshire

Henry Wardle (liberal) 1885 to 1892

H Evans Broad (Liberal) 1892 to 1895

John Gretton (Conservative) 1895 to 1906

Sir H Raphael (Liberal) 1906 to 1918

Holman Gregory (Liberal) 1918 to 1922

Henry Lorimer (Conservative) 1922 to 1924

David Poole (Labour) 1922 to 1959

Paul Emrys-Evans (Conservative) 1931 to 1945

Joe Champion (Labour) 1945 to 1959

John Jackson (Conservative( 1959 to 1964

Trevor Park (Labour) 1964 to 1970

Amber Valley

Peter Rost (Conservative) 1970 to 1983

Phillip Oppenheim (Counservative ( 1983 to 1997

Judy Mallaber (Labour) 1997 to 2010

Mid Derbyshire

Pauline Latham (Conservative) 2010 to 2024

Jonathan Davies (Labour) 2024

With thanks to the House of Commons Library and the Derbyshire Records Office

Philip and Ruth Hunter

Who Ruled Little Eaton?