However, the first written reference to the village occurs in the Domesday Book of 1086, in which Ashover is owned by Ralph fitzHubert[6] and is credited with a church, a priest, several ploughs, a mill.

Royalists slaughtered livestock and drank all the wine and ale in the cellars of Eddlestow Hall while the owner Sir John Pershall was away.

Job Wall, the landlord of the Crispin Inn public house, refused entry to the army, telling them they had had too much to drink.

Butt's Quarry is a large disused example, previously excavated by the Clay Cross Company for its works three miles (4.8 km) away.

Subsequently, purchased by the electricity board, the building is today divided into private apartments, with further expensive new houses built in the grounds.

Consequently, on a clear day, views can be seen of nearby Chesterfield with its Crooked Spire, Bolsover Castle, Hardwick Hall, some suburbs of the South Yorkshire city of Sheffield, the surrounding counties of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire.

The only paths across this wilderness for roads were tracks in the sand or heath with here and there a stone post on the hills or elevations to serve as guides to the traveller and packhorses which traversed one point of the area to another.

Local legend was that, a man by the name of Gladwin, possibly William[12] was crossing the moor in deep snow, late on a December afternoon.

Weary, tired and trembling, Gladwin stumbled on until he came to a cairn or heap of loose stones on which he sat down to rest and reflect on his situation, and realising that if he remained inactive he would be in grave danger of death from frostbite.

He began with all his remaining energy to build and pile up the stones, this being summarily completed only to be pulled down and rebuilt, and repeated many times during what must have seemed to Gladwin a long and dreary night, however his life was saved by this exercise.

Two farm houses, one on each side of the road, built by Sir Joseph Banks, a local landowner of nearby Overton Hall,[14] were both called Gladwin's Mark, later being separated.

In a croft to the left, tourists would have found the pile of stones which gives the name to these local features, and was the means of saving the life of poor Gladwin.