Sunny Hill is not identified by name in the Domesday Book, but the land and any dwellings in the area would be included within Normanton in the hundred of Litchurch.

The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway line was built in the 1830s, and forms a boundary of Sunny Hill to the south and east.

Sunny Hill is identified as the name of a small hamlet on the Ordnance Survey maps from (at least) 1883 to the mid-1930s, situated along Stenson Road between the junctions with the current Sunnyhill Avenue and Blagreaves Lane.

[8] From the mid-1930s until the end of the 20th century, housing has progressively been built on the former farm, military camp and factory sites, giving rise to today's predominantly domestic suburb of Derby.

A local library[9] and a range of shops, take-aways and other services are situated around the Stenson Road end of Blagreaves Lane.