From genuki.org.uk: "Duffield, an extensive parish, in the hundred of Appletree, contains a small village, about four miles from Derby and three from Belper; it is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Derwent, and contains a number of good houses, with a church, which is a short distance from the village; and a free grammar school.

On a rising ground, at the north-west end of the village, was formerly a castle, which, in the fourteenth century, belonged to the earls of Derby. The entire parish of Duffield contained, in 1821, nearly 14,000 inhabitants, of which number about 2,700 were in Duffield township."