The parish borders, from the south going clockwise, the parishes of Uttoxeter Rural, Croxden, Denstone, Ellastone, all in East Staffordshire, and then Norbury and Roston, Marston Montgomery and Doveridge, all in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire.

A Roman fort was founded on the site in about 69 AD, as an intermediate point between Derby and Newcastle-under-Lyme on a route later known as Long Lane.

The order was disbanded in 1538; the abbey and its chapel were demolished and a manor house was built on the site.

The steel sculpture, created by Walenty Pytel, is made entirely of digger parts and is a powerful representation of JCB.

[4] It weighs 36 tonnes, stands 45 ft (14 m) high and was the largest steel sculpture in Europe at the time of its creation in 1979.

Rocester lies on the Staffordshire Way, and is the southern terminus of the Limestone Way, a footpath which runs 46 miles (74 km) north to Castleton in the Peak District.