Derbyshire

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**Derbyshire**
Image:EnglandDerbyshire.png
Geography
Status	Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Region	East Midlands
Area - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 21st 2,625 km² Ranked 20th 2,547 km²
Admin HQ	Matlock
ISO 3166-2	GB-DBY
ONS code	17
NUTS 3	UKF12/13
Demographics
Population - Total (2004 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 20th 979,300 373 / km² Ranked 11th 745,600
Ethnicity	96.0% White 2.3% S.Asian
Politics
Image:Derbyshirearms.PNG Derbyshire County Council http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/
Executive	Labour
Members of Parliament	Margaret Beckett Liz Blackman Natasha Engel Paul Holmes Bob Laxton Tom Levitt Judy Mallaber Patrick McLoughlin Dennis Skinner Mark Todd
Districts
Image:Derbyshire Ceremonial Numbered.png High Peak Derbyshire Dales South Derbyshire Erewash Amber Valley North East Derbyshire Chesterfield Bolsover Derby (Unitary)

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, and boasts some of England's most attractive scenery. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains part of the National Forest, and borders on Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire.

It has a two-tier local government, with a county council based in Matlock and eight district councils. Apart from 13 towns with between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, there is a large amount of sparsely populated agricultural upland: 75% of the population live in 25% of the area. Although Derbyshire is generally considered to be in the East Midlands, some parts, such as High Peak, are closer to the northern cities of Manchester and Sheffield and the people there overwhelmingly think of themselves as northerners.

Before 1998 the administrative county included the city of Derby. Derby is now a unitary authority, but remains part of Derbyshire for ceremonial purposes.

As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the Jacob's-ladder as the county flower.

1 History
2 Settlements
3 Places of interest
4 See also

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History

Main article: History of Derbyshire.

Derbyshire was traditionally divided into six hundreds, namely Appletree, High Peak, Morleyston and Litchurch, Repton and Gresley, Scarsdale, Wirksworth. These were based on the seven earlier wapentakes recorded in the Domesday Book, with the merging of Repton and Gresley wapentakes.

Derbyshire had a detached part in north-western Leicestershire, surrounding Measham and Donisthorpe. This escaped regularisation in 1844, and was incorporated into Leicestershire in 1888 when the county councils were set up. The thin strip of Leicestershire between the exclave and Derbyshire, containing Overseal and Netherseal, is now considered part of Derbyshire.

Apart from this, some parishes in historic Derbyshire, including Dore, Norton and Totley, are now in the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire.

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