The origin of its name is disputed, although it is generally accepted that the second half derives from the Old English word ecg meaning "edge".

[2] In the Outseats area, there is evidence of Bronze Age field system, settlement and burial cairn at Dennis Knoll.

[3][4] Close to a now recumbent 2.3m high boundary marker on Bamford Moor is an embanked stone circle or possibly a ring cairn between 11m and 10m diameter.

The church, St Michael and All Angels', has a stained-glass window by Charles Kempe, which was removed from Derwent Chapel before it was submerged under the Ladybower Reservoir.

[11] In 1566, Christopher Schutz, a German immigrant, who invented a process for drawing wire, set up a works in Hathersage.

This led to one of the first Factory Acts, because inhalation of grinding dust resulted in a life expectancy of only thirty years.

Hathersage is a tourist destination because of the scenery of the Hope and Derwent valleys, its literary connections and easy access by train or road from Sheffield and Manchester.

In 1990, the cutler David Mellor opened the Round Building built on the site of a former gasometer as a cutlery factory in the village.

[21] The village is served by Hathersage St Michael's C of E (A) Primary School which offers education from Nursery up to Year 6.

Stones in the churchyard mark what is known as the grave of Little John, where in 1780 James Shuttleworth claims to have unearthed a thigh bone measuring 72.39 centimetres (28.50 in).

In 1845, Charlotte Brontë stayed at the Hathersage vicarage, visiting her friend Ellen Nussey, whose brother was the vicar, while she was writing Jane Eyre.

[24][25] Some of the scenes of the horror film Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974, directed by Jorge Grau, also known as The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) were shot at St. Michael's Church in Hathersage.