Allestree is a suburb and ward of the city of Derby, a unitary authority area, in Derbyshire, England.

It is bordered by the district of Amber Valley along its western and northern edges and Erewash in its north-east corner.

The ward now contains the remaining parts of the village of Markeaton and became a parish in its own right in 1864 and was incorporated into the Borough of Derby in 1968.

Before the Norman Conquest, Allestree was a hamlet consisting of a few scattered dwellings that was part of the holding of the Earl of Northumbria.

[3] Later it was recorded in the Domesday book of 1086 as Adelardestreu,[4] an outlier of the Manor of Markeaton held by Hugh, Earl of Chester.

[3][5] It was given by William the Conqueror to Henry de Ferrers as a reward for his work during the Conquest and later it passed to the Touchet family of Markeaton.

During the 12th century, most of the land changed hands and was sold to the Abbey of St Mary, in Darley, and then rented back to the Touchet family.

[8] The designated area starts on Cornhill encompassing part of the golf course on Allestree Park.

The area surrounding the old village centre contains seven listed buildings, the church being the oldest.

It was owned at the time, as was Allestree, by Earl Hugh of Chester and controlled by a member of the Touchet family.

It then runs along Kedleston Road which it leaves and goes behind Woodlands Community School and Laburnum Crescent and finishes at Allestree Park.

[11] 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 and shales formed 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period.

It is a Grade II* listed building[19] made of millstone grit from Derwent Bank[citation needed].

The house was begun by Bache Thornhill and completed by John Giradot (High Sheriff of Derbyshire) with three storeys and five bays, the central three bowed with an ionic columned porch.

[19] Since the 1980s the hall has been unoccupied, and was included in the English Heritage at Risk Register 2010, which states that the internal condition of the building is poor but fair overall.

[21] Markeaton Park lies in the south of the suburb, bordering Mackworth Estate below and Darley Abbey to the east.

A variety of activities are spread throughout the park, including a boating lake, pitch and putt course, children's playground, mini golf course and a light railway.

The park attracts people from around Derby but also from smaller surrounding towns such as Belper, Ilkeston and Ashbourne and even from as far as Nottingham and Sheffield.

[28] After Christianity the largest group is "No religion" then followed in descending order by Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Other and Judaism.

The ward experienced large expansion in the 1930s when the area surrounding the historic village centre was developed; this is reflected in the increase in population between the 1931 and 1951 Census.

A second wave of development occurred during the 1960s and 1970s around the Park Farm and Blenheim Drive areas, which resulted in the ward being incorporated into the Borough of Derby.

The centre contains a variety of shops and services, including a doctors' surgery, a library and small businesses.