DUFFIELD, a parish in the hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY, 4 miles (N.) from Derby, comprising the chapelries of Belper, Heage, Holbrook, and Turnditch, and the townships of Hazlewood, Shottle with Postern, and Windley, and containing 13,896 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage in the archdeaconry of Derby, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated in the king's books at £8. 4., endowed with £400 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £300 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. The church is dedicated to St. Alkmund. There are places of worship for General Baptists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians.

In Domesday-book it is called Dunelle, and is described as having "a church, a priest, and two mills"; it afterwards formed part of the demesne of Henry de Ferrars, who, in 1096, possessed a castle on an eminence north-west of the village, the site of which is now called Castle-Orchard. This fortress was held by several of the turbulent descendants of that powerful baron, of whom William, for rebellion in the reign of Henry II., lost his estates by confiscation, but, in 1199, they were restored by King John to his son William, with the title of Earl of Derby. Earl Robert joined in Simon de Montford's rebellion, and garrisoned his castle of Duffield against Henry III., but was defeated and taken prisoner at Chesterfield, by Henry de Almaine, upon which the king sent his son, afterwards Edward I., into the county of Derby, to ravage with fire and sword the lands of the earl, and take revenge for his disloyalty, and under that order the castle was dismantled, and the demesne fell to the crown.

In 1330, Henry, Earl of Lancaster, claimed seven parks in Duffield Frith, and, in the reign of Elizabeth, frequent mention is made of the extent and importance of the royal possessions at Duffield, the appointments of stewards, rangers, and various other officers, and of great leets, and three weeks' courts held there, it being then a portion of the duchy of Lancaster, and so it continued till the reign of Charles I., when it was granted to several persons. The village, pleasantly situated on a fine plain, through which flows the river Derwent, contains many good houses, and is very respectable. There are cattle fairs on the Thursday following New Year's day, and on March 1st.

William Gilbert, in the 7th of Elizabeth, surrendered a cottage and lands for the maintenance of a school, towards which Joseph Webster, in 1685, bequeathed an annuity of £10; the annual income of the schoolmaster is £124. 9. 10., with a house and garden; twenty-four children are educated upon this foundation. An almshouse was built by Mr. Anthony Bradshaw, who died in 1614 it is endowed with a rent-charge upon an estate at Holbrook, and with £100, the gift of William Potterell, in 1735; the inmates are two old men and two old women, who have each two apartments, with allowances of 1s. per week, and 5s. a year for fuel. There were formerly other almshouses, erected in 1676, but they were taken down in 1810.

HAZLEWOOD, a township in the parish of DUFFIELD, hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY, 6 miles (N.) from Derby, containing 483 inhabitants. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.

HEAGE, a chapelry in the parish of DUFFIELD, hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY, 5 miles (S.W.) from Alfreton, containing 1742 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Derby, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, endowed with £1000 royal bounty, and £1000 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Vicar of Duffield. The church contains three hundred and sixty-two free sittings, for which purpose the Incorporated Society for the enlargement of churches and chapels, contributed £300. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. A school was founded in 1705, by George Storer, in which about thirty children are instructed: the school-room was rebuilt about 1810. Iron-stone has been worked here from a very early period; charcoal was anciently used in the smelting and manufacturing of it, and the neighbourhood abounds with charcoal hearths, but coal is now found in abundance. Headge is partly bounded by the rivers Derwent and Amber.

HOLBROOK, a chapelry in the parish of DUFFIELD, hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY, 5 miles (N. by E.) from Derby, containing 563 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Derby, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £1400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of William Evans, Esq. The chapel was built in 1761, by the Rev. S. Bradshaw, and endowed by him with £30 per annum chargeable on the Holbrook estate.

POSTERN, a township, joint with Shottle, in the parish of DUFFIELD, hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY. The population is returned with Shottle. It is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction of a court of pleas held at Tutbury every third Tuesday, for the recovery of debts under 40s.

SHOTTLE, a township, joint with Postern, in the parish of DUFFIELD, hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY, 2 miles (W. by S.) from Belper, containing, with Postern, 607 inhabitants. The sum of £6 per annum, arising partly from a bequest by Ralph Dowley, in 1740, is paid to a schoolmaster for teaching the poor children of the township, in a school-room erected by subscription among the inhabitants.

TURNDITCH, a chapelry in the parish of DUFFIELD, hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY, 3 miles (W. by S.) from Belper, containing 384 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry, of Derby, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, endowed, with £800 royal bounty, and £200 parliamentary grant and in the patronage of the Vicar of Duffield. The church is dedicated to All Saints. There is a place of worship for Baptists.

WINDLEY, a township in the parish of DUFFIELD, hundred of APPLETREE, county of DERBY, 6 miles (N.N.W.) from Derby, containing 199 inhabitants. It is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction of a court of pleas held at Tutbury every third Tuesday, for the recovery of debts under 40s.