They took their name from the village, rather than vice versa. Allestree village Allestree was formally a distinct rural settlement centred around St Edmund's Church. The old village centre was designated a Conservation Area by the City Council in September 1991. The designated area starts on Cornhill encompassing part of the golf course on Allestree Park. All houses on St Edmund Close, Siddals Lane, The Poplars and the area to the north of Church Walk are included, as well as St Edmund's Church and the adjacent Red Cow inn. The area surrounding the old village centre contains seven listed buildings, the church being the oldest. It dates from the 12th century, but all that remains of the original building is the ornately carved Romanesque doorway. The village became a parish in its own right in 1864 and was incorporated into the Borough of Derby in 1968. Parts of the civil parish of Markeaton were incorporated into Allestree in 1934. Markeaton was originally a large estate that spread out through the northwest of Derby. It contained three outlying settlements that would later become Manors in their own right: Allestree, Knivedon, and Mackworth. It was owned at the time, as was Allestree, by Earl Hugh of Chester and controlled by a member of the Touchet family. The area now within Allestree contains what is left of the old village centre, which is Markeaton Manor, its grounds and Markeaton park. Substantial development in the 1960s and 1970s led to the incorporation of Allestree into the borough of Derby in 1968. Geography Allestree is the northernmost ward of the district of Derby and as such its northern and western borders are mainly countryside as the ward gives way to the district of Amber Valley. The border with Darley to the east follows the A38 from Ashbourne Road roundabout until it crosses the River Derwent. The border then follows the river, then crosses the A6 and follows the border of Allestree Park. To the south the border runs along Ashbourne Road from the A38 to Markeaton Lane until it meets Markeaton Brook, which it follows. It then runs along Kedleston Road which it leaves and goes behind Woodlands Community School and Laburnum Crescent and finishes at Allestree Park. The geology of the area consists of thick sandstones and marls formed in desert conditions in the Triassic period, some 250 million years ago, and thin-bedded sandstones