Depedale first comes into our purview in the 12th century, through the family of Geremund, lord of Ockbrook (a mere couple of miles across the fields from Dale). His son Ralph FitzGeremund (whom one authority calls Ralph de Hanselin) was the grandfather of Matilda de Salicosa Mara, whom we will meet shortly. Ralph married the daughter of Avenal de Haddon, and the couple had seven children: Margery, who married Serlo de Grendon and had eight children; William FitzRalph, who married first Idonea de Blackwell and had six children, then Edelina; Richard de Pecco; Geoffrey; Roger de Riddings; Avicia, who married Jordan de Chevercourt; and Robert FitzRalph who died in 1180. Robert appears to have had five children: William, who married Helewise and died in 1209; Robert, who married Agnes de Verdon and died in 1222; Thomas, who married Aveline and died in 1241; Alicia, who married Sir William de Chaworth and died before 1241, leaving a son Sir Thomas de Chaworth, who married Joan and died in 1310; and a nameless daughter who married Robert de Lathom and died in 1286, leaving a son Thomas de Lathom, who himself had a daughter who had a daughter Isobel who married John Stanley the ancestor of the Stanleys, earls of Derby.

Returning to Ralph FitzGeremund: he was lord of half of the manor of Ockbrook and Alvaston, which included other nearby villages such as Ambaston, Elvaston and Thulston. At this time, Depedale was forest; this did not necessarily imply dense woodland, but merely land set aside for the purpose of hunting; as it happens, trees grow easily and well here, and the valley was probably well wooded too – hence, probably, the use of the word hagg.

On a hunting expedition one day, Ralph FitzGeremund made the chance acquaintance which was to alter dramatically the course of his family’s life and this valley’s status. He came across The Hermit.

The Hermit was originally a baker, living in Derby around 1120 or 1130, and a devout Christian. His story is recounted in Dale Abbey’s Chronicle, of which more later, where he is not named. In Victorian times the story was published, and the publicist remarked that the Hermit’s story was reminiscent of the story of Cornelius in Acts Chapter 10; this remark was incautiously adopted by later writers as though the Hermit’s name was actually Cornelius, and to this day one can find erroneous references to the Hermit’s name being Cornelius.