Situated on a hill approximately 400 feet above sea level, the parish includes the hamlets of Botcheston and Newtown Unthank and a scattered settlement at Lindridge.

Desford is in the Doomsday Book of 1086 but the name itself is older than that meaning Deor's Ford suggesting an Anglo Saxon origin.

All his lands, which included Desford, were then given by Henry III to his own son, Edmund Grouchback, who was Earl of Lancaster until his death in 1297.

[5] The Old Hall or Old Manor House in Desford High Street is a gable-roofed building with an irregular front of four bays,[6] dating from about 1600[7] or a few years thereafter.

[13] Desford has a free church, built in 1866 at the top of Chapel lane, which is a member of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

[14][failed verification] In 1790, the little chapel of the Strict Baptists was built in the High Street but only the graveyard with a few stones remains.

Until the 1700s most of the residents were engaged in agriculture farming arable strips in four open fields in the parish and pasturing their animals on the low lying meadows by the streams.

To commemorate the pit’s closure a half winding wheel was erected in Lindridge Lane by the Desford History Society.

It passes within 0.6 miles (1 km) of the town and Desford railway station was built at Newtown Unthank to serve the parish.

British Railways withdrew passenger services in 1964 and today the Leicester to Burton-upon-Trent Line carries only goods traffic.

Over the years Desford has possessed a number of inns and pubs including The Blacksmiths Arms, The Blue Bell, The Bulls Head, The Red Lion, The Lancaster, The Roebuck, The Wheel and the White Horse.

South of the town, Reid and Sigrist had created Desford Aerodrome on Carts Field plus land in the adjoining Peckleton parish, it is mentioned in "The Bystander" in 1929.

[23] Desford has an Italian restaurant (Pesto, previously the White Horse), a public library[24] and a sports club.

Tropical Birdland, a visitor attraction exhibiting many bird species, is situated in Lindridge Lane in Desford.