Shottle and Postern is a civil parish within the Amber Valley district, which is in the county of Derbyshire, England. Sparsely built up with much rural expanse, its population was 270 residents in the 2021 census. The parish is north west of London, north west of the county town of Derby, and equidistant of the nearest market towns of Belper and Wirksworth. It shares a boundary with the parishes of Alderwasley, Ashleyhay, Belper, Hazelwood, Idridgehay and Alton, Turnditch and Windley.
Geography
Location
Placement and size
Shottle and Postern parish is surrounded by the following local Derbyshire places:
Alderwasley and Wirksworth to the north
Hazelwood and Windley to the south
Belper Lane End, Blackbrook and Farnah Green to the east
Idridgehay Green and Turnditch to the west.
It is in area, in length and in width at its broadest, within the western portion of the Amber Valley district, and is to the centre south of the Derbyshire county. The parish is roughly bounded by land features such as the Wilder Brook to the east, Postern Hill to the south, and the River Ecclesbourne, Ecclesbourne Valley Railway line and Carr Brook to the west.
Settlements
There are a number of areas of built environment within the parish, outside of this containing substantial rural expanse and farmland. The main locales are:
Shottle - this is to the centre north of the parish and consists of a sparsely populated hamlet Cowers Lane - this is a linear settlement in the south west of the parish, surrounding a crossroads Shottlegate - split into two across the parish boundary into Belper in the south east. Postern, while referenced in the parish name, consists of the southern portion with scattered residences and farms, and is predominantly rural. A small portion of Hazelwood village falls into the parish by its south eastern extent, as well as for Turnditch in the south western area.
Routes
The A517 road is the primary road within the parish, running through the south of the parish between Belper and Ashbourne. In the parish it cuts through the Shottlegate and Cowers Lane settlements. The B5023 runs through the south west of the parish from Wirksworth to Duffield, cutting across the A517 at the Cowers Lane crossroads, and exiting to the south of the parish.
Environment
Landscape
The parish rests on the edge of the valley of the River Ecclesbourne, the ground lowest in the south and west, rising steeply towards the centre and north and hills in the south. The parish is urbanised mainly to the middle along communication routes, but is otherwise overwhelmingly rural and farmland. Substantial areas of trees are few, with a small coppice north of Hazelwood at Postern Hill, Handley Wood to the east of the parish north of Shottlegate, Gibbet Wood to the north west and scattered clusters to the parish centre around brooks near Shottle.
Geology
The bedrock of the parish is complex with several layers found. In the parish south and south west is in the Morridge Formation, which is made up of mudstones, siltstones and sandstones, formed between 329 and 320 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. The Marsden Formation meets this in the south east and centre, again consisting of mudstone and siltstone formed between 321.5 and 320 million years ago during the same period. North and east has the Marsden overlain with Ashover Grit which is a sandstone sedimentary bedrock formed in the same era. North west is the Bowland Shale formation, primarily mudstone and siltstone bedrock formed between 337 and 319 million years ago during the Carboniferous period.
Towards the centre are till with diamicton, which is sedimentary superficial deposit formed between 860 and 116 thousand years ago during the Quaternary period. To the west around the River Ecclesbourne is alluvium with clay, silt, sand and gravel sedimentary superficial deposit formed between 11.8 thousand years ago and the present also during the Quaternary period.
Hydrological features
The River Ecclesbourne runs alongside much of the parish western boundary but only enters south of Cowers Lane before exiting and draining into the River Derwent at Duffield. Other watercourses throughout the parish exist, including the Carr Brook to the north west and the Loud Brook/Franker Brook which is centrally placed and comes through Cowers Lane, all of which are subsidiaries of the Ecclesbourne. The Shipley Brook is to the east and runs near Shottlegate before feeding the Derwent at Belper.