The main locales are: Postern, while referenced in the parish name, consists of the southern portion with scattered residences and farms, and is predominantly rural.

The Marsden Formation meets this in the south east and centre, again consisting of mudstone and siltstone formed between 321.5 and 320 million years ago during the same period.

North west is the Bowland Shale formation, primarily mudstone and siltstone bedrock formed between 337 and 319 million years ago during the Carboniferous period.

To the west around the River Ecclesbourne is alluvium with clay, silt, sand and gravel sedimentary superficial deposit formed between 11.8 thousand years ago and the present also during the Quaternary period.

Names of local roads and features betray this former use: Palerow Lane and Pale-fence Farm are examples of palisades being erected on the northern boundary.

[17] Forest law was used to administer the Frith from 1399,[20] which still had locals accessing and using resources and whom had certain rights and privileges such as being able to obtain fuel, wood and graze animals amongst others.

The King held oversight on these, as part of the feudal system then in place, inhabitants providing produce from land, tithe and other taxes, to local and national service in times of war.

[28][25] Shottle and Postern was described as ‘mostly stony, indifferent land except here and there in the valley and by the rills thereof’,[29] yet Postern had areas of good pasture too as it was in the midst of two river valleys which enabled the location of the cowhouse, this was able to support the main occupation in the area, which was reported in local population and tax assessments as husbandry and growing corn, with a large increase in population from 9 households in the late 16th century to nearly 70 in 1618 as the forest increasingly was unused for its original purpose and encroached upon.

This resulted in a review of the forest resources being made, and the main interests of the monarchs became the ancient timber to build ships and to counter the threat of the Spanish Armada during the Anglo-Spanish Wars, also to use as fuel for smelting.

The parks were by the time of Phillip II of Spain and Mary I in the middle 1550s leased for their timber and deer which in turn affected the traditional forest economy.

[30][31] In the later 1550s onwards it is thought the parks were leased by Queen Elizabeth I to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury,[32][33] who had begun to be influential and obtained Duchy roles such as Master Forester of the Frith;[34] by the early 1590s after his death his wife the Bess of Hardwick had oversight,[35][36] the Earls of Devonshire were descendants and recorded as holding some of the estate.

After Herbert's death in 1630 these were again conveyed in 1631 to his successor Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke[43] and later owned by Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire, the wife of William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Devonshire and residents at Chatsworth House,[44][32] the family confirming their ownership with the monarch in 1661,[40] and in later wills in 1687 were endowing to the poor of Shottle and Postern.

There is a number of farm buildings around a courtyard, including stables, cattle byres alongside foddering, cart shed, pig sties among others.

[58] Shottle Gate House was the only sizeable ownership outside the Chatsworth holdings, it was owned by descendants of the industrialist Strutt family based in Belper, and was built in 1855.

[63][49] The family previously had links to the area; the mother of Jedidiah Strutt who began the mills with Richard Arkwright at Cromford and built his own at Belper, was born there.

[64] The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway was the brainchild of local coal mine owners who wished for a faster means to get their output to the Manchester textile mills.

[65] Some time after inauguration, it was requested by the Chatsworth estate that a bridge be constructed to enable their farmers to easily reach farmland on its western side.

Hazelwood Viaduct (known locally as Travis's Folly and named after one of the affected farmers) was built south of Cowers Lane to allow this access.

It was later leased to a railway heritage group who began to refurbish the line and facilities, eventually buying it outright, opening the full length by 2011 and running limited services.

[75][76] A 1974 horror movie, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, starring Ray Lovelock and Arthur Kennedy, although primarily an Italian-based production by Jorge Grau, was also filmed in the UK, with scenes shot in Shottle.

The majority of housing stock is of the detached type (78%), then semi-detached (17%) or terraced (3%) and the remainder being flats, maisonettes or apartments in a commercial building (2%).

[1][82] The parish has a number of publicly accessible facilities and commercial business activities, primarily based around the settlements and farms.

As well as agriculture prevalent throughout the rural areas, other business interests include hospitality and public houses at Cowers Lane, Shottlegate and Shottle,[83][84][85] Shottle has some manufacturing[86] and antiques restoration services,[87] Shottlegate has a Women's Institute building which doubles as a parish council meeting room, Cowers Lane has a vehicle repair shop,[88] fuel suppliers[89] and recycling facilities.

Its exact use is unknown, but as the wider area was parkland it is suggested it was the site of a stone based structure, possibly a hunting lodge or deer-related enclosure.

Although the parish is not in this region, an eastern portion of Shottle and Postern stretching to Shottlegate lies within a wider buffer zone in place to protect the core site.

Localised medium length trails include the Derbyshire Portway, another footpath which follows the same route in the same vicinity,[95] while the Ecclesbourne Way parallels the river, in the west of the parish.

[97] Twice hourly buses run between Belper and Ashbourne during daytime and early evening, six days a week by operator High Peak.

Shottle station handled up to 12,000 passengers a year during its 1920s peak, and minerals and goods such as coal, coke and limestone were also transported from nearby mines and processing facilities.

A railway interest group, Wyvern Rail formed in 1992 and later bought most of and progressively restored the line from Wirksworth southbound to Duffield in stages, the full length reopening by 2011.