Kirkby-in-Ashfield tourist information

Lying to the west of the county, Kirkby-in-Ashfield is really a collection of small villages.

Originally a Danish settlement, the town lies on the eastern edge of the Erewash Valley that separates Nottinghamshire from Derbyshire.

Kirkby was once an important coal mining and railway centre, with the London Midland and Scottish Railway and the Great Central Railway meeting here.

The town grew rapidly in Victorian times but when the railways were axed during the Beeching era and coal mines closed in the 1980s and early 1990s there was a major slump in the local economy.

Today the town is developing as a commuter suburb of Greater Nottingham. The railway re-opened as part of the 'Robin Hood Line' in the 1990's.