Kitchen Fitters Duffield & Little Eaton

Two villages either side of the Derwent

Duffield is about five miles north of Derby, on the western bank of the River Derwent where the River Ecclesbourne joins it. Its station is on the Derby to Matlock line, and the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway heritage line runs from there up to Wirksworth. The site of Duffield Castle, a Norman keep whose foundations are marked out on the ground, was given to the National Trust in 1899. The village is in the Amber Valley district.

Little Eaton sits just north of the A38 on the B6179, the old line of the A61. It falls under Erewash Borough Council rather than Amber Valley. Its history is industrial: the Derby Canal reached it in 1793, and from 1795 until 1908 the Little Eaton Gangway, a horse-drawn tramway, carried goods between the canal basin and Smithy Houses. Quarries, a paper mill at Peckwash and a malthouse all worked here. We cover both villages and the countryside around them, including Duffield Bank, Hazelwood, Holbrook, Coxbench and Breadsall.

Our kitchen fitting services in Duffield & Little Eaton

Kitchen fitting we offer in Duffield, Little Eaton and the villages between:

• Kitchen unit installation
• Worktops & countertops
• Appliance installation
• Supply and fit
• Fit-only for any supplier
• Plumbing, wiring & tiling

Stone, brick and the post-war estates

Little Eaton’s oldest buildings are mostly local gritstone. Of the fifteen listed buildings in the parish, most are stone, from farmhouses and barns of the eighteenth century to the Queen’s Head and the parish room of 1841. Duffield grew in stages: houses for the railway era from the 1840s, more in the years Rolls-Royce brought work to Derby, and then larger estates in 1957 when George Wimpey began building across the village.

Thick stone walls are rarely flat or plumb, so fixings for wall units need to suit the masonry and every worktop and filler is cut to the actual wall line rather than a straight edge. Floors in older cottages can be flagstone or uneven concrete, which means levelling the plinth line carefully. In the 1950s and 1960s houses the kitchen is usually a compact room at the back, and the common upgrade is to take in a pantry or part of the dining room. Liam Taylor, who set up the business and has more than ten years in property and joinery, can tell you at the visit which walls are likely to be structural.

Flood plain, conservation areas and heritage

Until the middle of the twentieth century the centre of Duffield flooded regularly, and the Environment Agency still runs a flood warning area for the Ecclesbourne and Derwent at Duffield, including properties at Duffield Bridge. If your home is near the rivers, it makes sense to think about the fit with that in mind: moisture-resistant plinths and end panels that will not swell if they get wet, and sockets and appliance connections set higher where practical.

Duffield has a conservation area, designated in 1969 and extended in 1980, and Duffield Bank has its own. Little Eaton is also a conservation area. The flood plain through Duffield is part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, with the Duffield Conservation Area forming part of its buffer zone. None of this stops a new kitchen going in, but external alterations need checking first with the right council.

Kitchen fitting questions — Duffield & Little Eaton