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Aston on Trent is about six miles south east of Derby next to the village of Weston on Trent and close to Chellaston.

It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Acetum, the East farm – suggesting it might have been a twin settlement with neighbouring Weston – the West farm.

It included land that King William gave to Henry de Ferrers following the Norman soldier’s bravery fighting for the King in the Battle of Hastings. In fact, de Ferrers was rewarded with more than 200 manors in England and Wales – but most of them in Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

Henry de Ferrers’s son, Robert, became 1st Earl of Derby.

There has been a church in Aston since Saxon days. Today it is called All Saints. It was rebuilt in the 13th century and its roof was raised in the 14th century.

Under an arch on the north side of the church is an alabaster tomb which has on it the figure of a man in a round cap and gown, with a dog at his feet. His left hand is holding the right hand of a female in a long gown, also with a dog at her feet. This was built in 1625 to the memory of the Thomas Hunt and his wife, Alice Hunt, who once owned Aston Hall. Their family originally came from Overton, near Ashover in Derbyshire. The tomb has been moved from its original position, which was under the arch between the chancel and the north chapel.

It was in the early 1600s that Aston Hall belonged to the Hunt family. But after changing hands many times it was a family called the Holden who owned it for some 250 years.

In 1898 Aston Hall – now a very different building to the old manor house of the Hunts and early Holdens – was sold to Colonel William Dickson Winterbottom, of Manchester. After his death in 1924 the estate was broken up and sold off. Nottingham Corporation bought the Hall and turned it into a psychiatric hospital.

The village post office, the White Hart Inn, and many of the cottages and smaller properties were bought by the people who had rented them. Gotham Co. Ltd bought the plaster mine and mining rights.

One of the village pubs is the Malt Shovel. This 17th century building was a farm before being made into a public house in 1907.

The village school was built in 1814. In 1910 a new schoolroom for older pupils was added with more building work in 1967. One wall had on it the crest of the Holdens of Aston.

Interesting residents of Aston down the years have included three men who all played football for England over a six-year period: Harry Linacre and his uncles Fred and Frank Forman and Dorothea Hammersley who for 13 years was dresser, companion and secretary the Music Hall star Vesta Tilley. See also Tilley, Vesta: Aston woman was star's secretary and companion

• Aston-on-Trent
• Forman, Frank - Aston on Trent Footballer was England Captain
• Forman, Fred - Aston on Trent and England footballer
• Linacre, James Henry 'Harry' - Aston on Trent and England Goalie

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County:  Derbyshire