Trusley is a small but extremely attractive village, but difficult to find and difficult to park when you get there. It was mentioned in the domesday book as being a manor belonging to Henry de Ferrers and there has undoubtedly been a village here since those times.

Most of one side of the village is occupied by the little church, called All Saints, Trusley Old Hall and the Old Manor House. Both the 2 houses were built by the Coke family, who still live at the Old Hall. Part of the manor house was demolished and the rest was converted into 4, 3 storey maisonettes after the family had decided it was too large for their needs. A small portion of the Old Hall remains from Elizabethan times, most notably a massive chimney and a detached summer house with a pyramidal roof. These are probably the oldest structures in the village.

All Saints is a small brick church, dating from 1713. It is in the Queen Anne style, with a low west tower and a scrolled stone pediment over the west door. Its box pews, triple decker pulpit, communion rails and font are all original.

The working village of Trusley, centred on its church, was designated a Conservation Area in 1968 - one of the earliest in Derbyshire. The church, replacing an earlier one, is a small, aisleless, red brick building of 1713 in the style of Wren. Features include a fine Baroque south porch (which, it is suggested, may have come from elsewhere) and an interior still retaining its original box pews, three-decker pulpit, font and other furnishings - including the largest collection of funeral hatchments in the county. The church also possesses a "Maiden's Garland" (or virgin's funeral crown). It is connected to Sutton-on-the-Hill and Dalbury by "The Three Churches Walk".

Oliver de Odingsells purchased the manor of Trusley of Ralph de Beufey in the reign of Henry III [1216-72].

The coheiresses of this family brought it in moieties to Richard Piper and Thomas Coke.

The lands of Trusley had been conveyed by deed in 1314. The Odingsells had long been persons of distinction. Gerald de Odingsells, son of Basilia and Hugh de Odingsells, having a knight's fee in Eperstone as far back as the time of Henry III.

Trusley in the hundred of Appletree and deanery of Castillar, lies between six and seven miles from Derby. ?The manor of Trusley (Toxenai) was held by one Hugh, under Henry de Ferrars, when the Survey of Domesday was taken. In the reign of Henry II, Hugh le Arbalester, most probably his son or grandson, appears to have been lord of the manor. Oliver de Odingsells purchased it of Ralph de Beufey in the reign of Henry III. The coheiresses of this family brought it in moieties to Richard Piper and Thomas Coke. Piper's daughter and heiress married John Cowdale: their moiety passed (probably by sale) to the Vernons, and was purchased of the Manners family, in 1569, by Richard Coke, Esq., for £520 and a douceur of £10 to Mrs. Manners.

TRUSLEY is a parish, village 7 miles north-west from Derby and 4 miles from Etwall and Eggington stations on the Great Northern railway, in the Southern division of the county, Appletree hundred, Burton-upon-Trent union, Derby petty sessional division and county court district, rural deanery of Longford, archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Southwell. The church of All Saints is a small edifice of brick with stone dressings, erected in 1713 on the site of an ancient structure, and consists of chancel, nave and a low tower, containing one bell, dated 1750 ; there are 75 sittings. The register dates from the year 1539. The living is a discharged rectory, tithe rent-charge £95, net yearly value £135, including 43 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of Col. John Talbot Coke, and held since 1890 by the Rev. William Hodges. Col. John Talbot Coke, of Debdale Hall, Notts, is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The soil is strong clay ; subsoil, clay. Three-fourths of the land is pasture and the remainder arable. The acreage is 1,086 ; rateable value £1,677 ; the population in 1881 was 92.

LONG LANE, a parish formed partly out of Trusley, will be found with Sutton-on-the-Hill.

WALL LETTER BOX cleared at 6.10 p.m. Letters through Derby, arrive at 7 a.m. The nearest money order & telegraph office is at Etwall.

The children of this parish attend the schools of Sutton & Long Lane

Hodges Rev. William, Rectory
Foster James, farmer
Radford William, farmer
Stretton Alfred, farmer
Thorley Joseph, farmer
Woodward Charles, farmer
Woodward Samuel (Mrs.), farmer
Woodward Thomas, farmer

TRUSLEY, in the hundred of Appletree and deanery of Castillar, lies between six and seven miles from Derby.

The manor of Trusley (Toxenai) was held by one Hugh, under Henry de Ferrars, when the Survey of Domesday was taken. In the reign of Henry II., Hugh le Arbalester, most probably his son or grandson, appears to have been lord of the manor. (fn. 23) Oliver de Odingsells purchased it of Ralph de Beufey in the reign of Henry III. The coheiresses of this family brought it in moieties to Richard Piper (fn. 24) and Thomas Coke. Piper's daughter and heiress married John Cowdale: their moiety passed (probably by sale) to the Vernons, and was purchased of the Manners family, in 1569, by Richard Coke, Esq., for 520l., and a douceur of 10l. to Mrs. Manners. John Coke, a younger brother of Sir Francis Coke of Trusley, who died in 1639, was Secretary of State to King Charles I. George, another younger brother, became Bishop of Hereford, and was ancestor of D'Ewes Coke, Esq., of Brookhill, in the parish of Pinxton. Richard Coke, Esq., of Trusley, was one of the intended Knights of the Royal Oak, in the reign of Charles II. One of the coheiresses of William Coke, Esq., who died in 1716, brought the manor of Trusley to Edward Wilmot, Esq., and it is now the property of his grandson, the Reverend Francis Wilmot, who is also patron and incumbent of the rectory. The manor-house, which was the seat of the Cokes, has been taken down.

In the parish church are some monuments of the families of Coke and Wilmot. (fn. 25)

Grange-field, in this parish, which belonged to the monastery of Croxden, was successively in the families of Fitch, Curzon, Kinersley or Kinardsley, and Hope; from the latter it passed by marriage to Docksey: it is now in severalties.

The grange of Thursmanlegh, alias Nunsclough, now called Nuns-field, which belonged to the nuns of Derby, was in the family of Kinersley in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is now, or was lately, the property of Mr. Thomas Cox, of Derby.

Much of the parish is in the hands of the Coke-Steel family.

Coke, of Trusley. "This family is of considerable antiquity. Hugh Coke married the heiress of Owen, of Marchington, in Staffordshire, and settled at that place in the reign of Edward III.: Thomas, his grandson, about the middle of the fifteenth century settled in Derbyshire, in consequence of his marriage with one of the coheiresses" of Odingsells, of Trusley. Richard Coke, the fifth in descent from this Thomas, married the heiress of Sacheverell, of Nottinghamshire. William Coke, grandson of Richard, married a coheiress of Beresford, of Alsop. William Coke, great-grandson of the last-mentioned William, dying without male issue in 1716, the elder branch became extinct: his daughters and coheiresses married Edward Wilmot, or the Chaddesden family, and D'Ewes Coke, of Suckley, in Worcestershire, descended from George Coke, Bishop of Hereford, a younger brother of Sir Francis Coke, of Trusley, who died in 1639. The Reyerend Francis Wilmot, Rector of Trusley, and D'Ewes Coke, Esq., of Brookhillhall, in the Nottinghamshire part of the parish of Pinxton, are the repre sentatives of this branch."