The cemetery was originally a plot of 32 acres (13 hectares) between Nottingham Road (then the main route out of town to the east) and the Derby Canal.

The ground was consecrated in April 1855 by the Bishop of Lichfield, John Lonsdale, leaving 8 acres (3.2 hectares) unconsecrated for Catholic and non-denominational burials.

Its historic interest is in the architecture of the buildings, by a prominent local architect, Henry Isaac Stevens, as well as the layout—the result of advice from the nationally renowned gardener William Barron—and in the extent to which the original layout survives.

A recess in the boundary wall forms a driveway, which is spanned by a carriage arch, the main building in the cemetery.

A path connecting to the canal no longer exists but may have been used for the delivery of building materials and possibly funeral parties.

The northerly parts of the cemetery are newer, rising uphill from the original plot and dating from the later 19th-century expansions.

[1] It was originally erected outside St Mark's Church around 1919, then moved between 1966 and 1974 to stand outside the Royal British Legion club in Chaddesden.

It is a three-stage obelisk which tapers towards a triangular head and stands at the end of its own paved area off the main promenade.