The name was recorded as Werchesworde in the Domesday Book of 1086 A.D.[3] Outlying farms (berewicks) were Cromford, Middleton, Hopton, Wellesdene [sic], Carsington, Kirk Ireton and Callow.

[5] The origins of Wirksworth are thought to have related to the presence of thermal warm water springs nearby,[5] coupled with a sheltered site at the head of a glaciated valley, able to yield cereals such as oats and provide timber suitable for building.

[6]Woolly rhino bones were found by lead miners in 1822 in Dream Cave, on private land between Wirksworth and present-day Carsington Water.

[7] In Roman Britain, the limestone area of today's Derbyshire yielded lead, the prime site probably being Lutudarum in the hills south and west of present-day Matlock.

[9] The town has the oldest charter of any in the Peak District, dating from 835, when the Abbess of Wirksworth granted nearby land to Duke Humbert of Mercia.

[11][12][13] There is a tiny carving in Wirksworth Church of a miner with a pick and whisket (basket); the figure is known as "T'Owd Man of Bonsall."

[14] A barmote court was established in the town in 1288 during the reign of Edward I in order to regulate lead mining;[15] anyone had a right to dig for ore wherever he chose, except in churchyards, gardens or roadways.

[17] At this time, the London Lead Company was formed to provide finance for deeper mines with drainage channels, called soughs, and introduce Newcomen steam-engine pumps.

[20] In 1777, Richard Arkwright leased land and premises for a corn mill from Philip Eyre Gell of Hopton and converted it to spin cotton, using his water frame.

The two mills together employed 230; their weekly output was said to equal the circumference of the earth; Wirksworth was the main producer of red tape for Whitehall.

[1] Areas of Wirksworth include Yokecliffe to the west, Gorseybank and Bournebrook to the south-east, Miller's Green to the south-west, and Steeple Grange and Bolehill to the north.

Bolehill, although technically a hamlet in its own right in Wirksworth's suburbs, is the oldest and most northerly part of the town, while Yokecliffe is a large estate in the westerly area.

Modern houses have been built in the Three Trees area and at the bottom of Steeple Grange (Spring Close and Meerbrook Drive).

Its catchment area is the town and surrounding villages: Middleton, Carsington, Brassington, Kirk Ireton, Turnditch, Matlock Bath, Cromford and Crich.

[26] The town is served by five bus routes:[27] Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East Midlands and ITV Central.

More recently, some of Mobile was filmed on a train on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, and much of an episode of the BBC series Casualty was set in the town.

Wirksworth features in the 2015 memoir, The Long Road Out of Town, by author and journalist Greg Watts, who grew up there.