Coordinates: 52°58′12″N 1°27′36″W / 52.970°N 1.460°W
Little Eaton is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The name originated from Anglo Saxon times and means the little town by the water.
It is situated on the former route of the old A61 (now B6179), just north of the Derby section of the A38. At the southern exit to the village from the A38, there used to be a Little Chef which closed in early 2012 and re-opened as a Starbucks in 2013. Since 1974 the village has been part of the Borough of Erewash.
Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835 described Little Eaton as follows:
"Little Eaton is a chapelry and village, in that part of the parish of St. Alkmund which is in the hundred of Morleston and Litchurch, rather more than one mile from Duffield. Here are many valuable collieries and productive stone quarries; bleaching grounds, belonging to Messrs. Smith & Sons, and machine-paper works of Messrs. Tempest & Son; there are, besides, malting concerns, and corn-mills on the Derwent river."
Oh little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting life
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
How silently, how silently
The wond'rous gift is giv'n
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heav'n
We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell
Oh, come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel
No ear may hear his coming
But in this world of sin
Where meek souls will recieve him still