IRONVILLE is a populous township, in the parish of Alfreton, half a mile north from Codnor Park stations on the Erewash section of the Midland and Great Northern railways, and 3½ miles south-east from Alfreton, in the Mid division of the county, Scarsdale hundred, Belper union, Alfreton petty sessional division and county court district, and in 1850 was formed, into an ecclesiastical parish from the civil parishes of Alfreton, Pentrich, Heanor and Codnor, in this county, and Selston, in Nottinghamshire, Codnor Park, though a separate township, being within the ecclesiastical parish, rural deanery of Alfreton, archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Southwell. The township is close to the Cromford canal, and the Pinxton canal commences here. The place is lighted with gas and supplied with water by the Butterley Company.

Christ Church, erected in 1851 by the Butterley Company, is an edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower containing a clock and one bell: in the chancel are three memorial windows to William Jessop esq. and in the baptistery, a memorial window and tablet, erected in 1873 by the parishioners, to Francis Wright esq.: in the south transept is a stained window placed in 1871 by the Rev. W.E. Littlewood M.A. then vicar; and in the north transept a memorial tablet to the Rev. John Casson, first vicar of this parish: in 1885 the choir was completely renovated and new stalls erected: there are 600 sittings. The register dates from the year 1850. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £250, with residence, in the gift of five trustees, and held since 1887 by the Rev. Rowland Paul Hills M.A. and LL.D. of Queens' College, Cambridge. There is a Free Methodist chapel here, built in 1874, and seating about 300; and a Primitive Methodist chapel, built in 1883-4, and seating 150. The cemetery consists of about 3 acres.

Most of the inhabitants are employed in the steel and iron works and at the smelting furnaces, immense quantities of iron being wrought in this neighbourhood; there are also collieries. A weekly market is held on Saturday. In the neighbourhood is an extensive park, the property of the Butterley Co. used by the inhabitants of this district as a recreation ground, and in the centre is a monumental pillar erected in 1854 by the workmen and friends of the Butterley Co. to William Jessop esq, the founder of the works. The Butterley Co. and the Midland and Great Northern Railway Cos. are the chief landowners. The soil is clayey; subsoil, chiefly marl and clay. The area is 1,407 acres; rateable value included with Alfreton; the population in 1891 was 3,298.
[Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, 1895]