[1] It is situated on the A609 main road between Ilkeston and Derby and is in the Erewash borough, although in the new (2010) UK parliamentary constituency of Mid Derbyshire.

Smalley Common was for many years a coal-mining community which, after some expansion in the early 1900s and up to the late 1970s was a distinct and separate settlement consisting mainly of tied colliery terraces.

Most of the children from the village attended the Smalley Common Council School, later renamed as the Crown Hills Junior Mixed and Infants.

To the North East of these old workings, nearer to the village of Smalley, opencast mining recommenced in 2008 at Lodge House, despite fierce opposition and a long campaign from those living nearby.

There is evidence of early coal extraction in the area: "in the High Yates Closes, a group of fields between Bell Lane and Smalley Common, Patrick Richardson, father of Samuel, took a lease of the coals in 1650 from Jacinth Sacheverell of Morley.