Trusley is old, very old, in fact, no-one knows how old because we don't have the history (written records) and much of what we "know" is simply guess work.

What we do know is that the people of Trusley were milking their cows, tending their sheep and growing their crops long before the Romans arrived almost 2,000 years ago. The parish boundaries we still use today were defined before Christianity arrived or the first church was built in Trusley.

The only records we have are from the Romans themselves (Ptolemy's 2nd century "Geography") who suggested that a tribe called the Corieltauvi (or "Coritani" or "Coritavi") lived in the East Midlands. Coins from the 1st century onwards have been found in the region.

How do we know that Trusley was around before the arrival of the Romans?

Look at the map below which shows part of the Roman road (built in approximately 69AD) running from East to West from Derby (Roman "Derventio") to the Roman fort at Rocester.

This part of the Roman road, today called Long Lane, cuts across the northern parts of Dalbury Lees, Trusley, Osleston & Thurvaston, Bupton and Longford. In the case of Dalbury Lees only two fields lie north of the road. (The heavily dotted lines show possible lost boundaries.)

We have to admit that we may be wrong - parish boundaries were mainly laid out in Saxon times - a few centuries after the Romans left.

However, it is possible that Long Lane Village, just up the lane from Trusley, may have been one of the stopping places ("mutationes") for soldiers on the way from Little Chester (in Derby) to Rocester (now home of JCB). Perhaps the Three Horseshoes pub in Long Lane Village once rang to the many different languages spoken in the Roman legions.

Trusley civil parish is the area marked in dark and light pink. Trusley ecclesiastical parish is the area marked in dark pink - the northern part of Trusley is now in the ecclesiastical parish of Long Lane where the church was built in 1860.

The boundaries show the "modern" civil parishes but these boundaries existed long before the arrival of the Romans or Christianity. These iron age boundaries may mark out ancient land holdings or manors - except that the word, "manor" came with the French "manoir".