Long Eaton is a town in the South Eastern corner of the county between Derby and Nottingham and located near the river Trent.
The town has Saxon origins, it was known as Aitone in the Domesday Book. It was a farming settlement and was at a crossing of the river Erewash. Long Eaton gained a market charter and grew slowly, a major setback being a great fire in 1694 which destroyed many houses in the town and buildings around the market place. A building which survived is the parish church dedicated to St Lawrence which dates back to the 12th century.
The town began to grow much faster after the arrival of new transport links and new industries. Firstly the Erewash Canal which opened in the 1779 and linked Long Eaton with the Trent. The first Long Eaton railway station opened in 1839, the current station dates from 1888.
