Morley appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Morleystone in Derbyshire.

Other Settlements in Morleystone

The Meaning of the Name

The name Morley is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word lēah, a woodland clearing or glade. The first element is most likely a personal name or an early descriptive term, now difficult to recover with certainty. Taken together the name probably meant something close to ‘a clearing’.

Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Morley.

Listed Buildings Near Morley

Historic England records 12 listed buildings within about a mile of Morley. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

Church of St Matthew - 0.48 km

Grade II*

Mausoleum West of Saint Matthews Church - 0.48 km
The Recreation Room Tithe Barn and Dovecote - 0.5 km

Grade II

The Retreat House - 0.43 km
The Village Cross - 0.43 km
Churchyard Cross - 0.46 km
Church Farmhouse - 0.46 km
Barn to North of the Recreation Room - 0.51 km
Morley House Farm - 0.69 km
Milepost at Os 389 401 - 0.73 km
Milepost at Os 394 414 - 1.1 km
Morley Almshouses - 1.26 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Morley

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Morley:

Motte south-west of Morley House Farm - 0.68 km

Morley Today

Today Morley lies within the administrative area of Erewash, and the settlement recorded a population of 399 at the 2021 census. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.

Read more about modern Morley on Wikipedia .