Things to See and Do in Derby

Derby has plenty worth a day out beyond its parks. Derby Cathedral's tower, the Museum of Making inside the old Silk Mill on the Derwent, QUAD's cinema and gallery space, and the shops and cafes of the Cathedral Quarter all sit within a short walk of each other in the city centre, with Pride Park Stadium and the Derbion shopping centre a little further out. A lot of the trees lining these streets and gardens are mature specimens that have been growing since the city's Georgian and Victorian expansion, and many properties nearby - especially around the Cathedral Quarter - fall inside a Conservation Area, which changes what can legally be done to a tree without council consent first.

We're based in Long Eaton, roughly midway between Nottingham and Derby, and tree surgery in Derby is a regular part of the working week - from a hedge that needs cutting back before visitors arrive to a storm-damaged branch that needs making safe overnight. If you're planning a visit or you live locally and have a tree that needs attention, the sections below cover what's involved and what it costs to get it sorted.

• Tree felling and dismantling, including trees over 760mm trunk diameter using rigging or a MEWP where access allows
• Crown reduction, thinning and crown lifting on garden and boundary trees
• Deadwooding and storm damage make-safe work, available 24/7 for hazardous trees
• Hedge trimming and shaping alongside tree work
• Ivy clearance and general vegetation clearance
• Stump grinding and removal
• Tree surveys and safety inspections, including drone tree survey for tall or hard-to-access trees
• Support with Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and Conservation Area applications, relevant given how much of central Derby sits within a conservation area
• Commercial site clearance for developers and businesses

• Felling or major crown work on a TPO'd or Conservation Area tree before the council has actually granted consent - we can prepare and submit the application, but the decision sits with the local authority, not with us
• Removing large volumes of green waste beyond what's agreed in the quote, which is usually charged as an extra since tip and disposal costs scale with load size
• Work on trees on land we haven't been engaged to work on, such as National Trust estates like Kedleston Hall or Elvaston Castle, without the landowner's separate agreement
• General gardening or landscaping work that isn't tree or hedge related

1. Enquiry, with photos if you have them -- Get in touch with what the tree or hedge needs doing and where it is - a photo of the tree and its surroundings (front garden, back garden, near a wall or driveway) helps give a more accurate idea of the job before anyone visits.
2. Site visit and conservation check -- George or a team member visits in person to check species, condition and access, and to see whether the property falls inside a Conservation Area - a real factor for streets in and around Derby's Cathedral Quarter and other older parts of the city.
3. Free written quote -- You get a clear quote based on what the visit found. If council consent is needed before work can start, that's costed and timed as a separate stage rather than folded into one vague figure.
4. Council paperwork, only if consent is required -- Where a TPO or Conservation Area application is needed, it's prepared and submitted to the relevant council before any work touches the protected tree.
5. The work itself, then clean-up -- Climbing, rigging or a MEWP is used depending on the tree's size and how the site can be accessed, carried out by NPTC-qualified operators under public and employers' liability cover, with arisings and brash cleared away before the job is signed off.

Every Derby quote comes down to the same handful of variables: the tree's height and species, how easy the site is to get a vehicle and equipment into, whether the job needs rigging or a MEWP to lower branches safely, how much waste has to be hauled away, and whether a TPO or Conservation Area application has to be cleared with the council before any cutting starts. A hedge trim or an afternoon spent clearing ivy off a wall costs a fraction of what it takes to fell a mature tree that has to come down piece by piece over a garden fence. None of that can be priced accurately over the phone, which is why every quote follows an actual site visit rather than a guess based on a description.

The business is run by George Beck, an NPTC qualified arborist with over 20 years spent working on trees across Nottingham, Derby and the towns between them, and the full set of City & Guilds NPTC Level 2 and Level 3 certificates is held in-house - everything from chainsaw cross-cutting and ground work through to aerial rigging, MEWP operation and dealing with windblown or storm-damaged trees. A drone tree survey is available for tall or awkward specimens where a ground inspection alone isn't enough to assess condition safely, useful for taller trees close to buildings such as those around the Cathedral Quarter. The team works seven days a week with a 24/7 call-out for storm damage and hazardous trees, public and employers' liability insurance is in place with documentation available on request, and customers are invited to ask for George directly rather than being passed between an office and whichever crew happens to be free. Based at 20 Prince St in Long Eaton, the same person who quotes a Derby job is generally the one who turns up to do it.

Derby sits within reach of the Long Eaton base, on the Derbyshire side of the wider working area, alongside towns such as Ilkeston, Heanor, Ripley and Alfreton that lie between the two cities. Inside Derby itself, work has taken in gardens and boundary hedges around the Cathedral Quarter's Georgian terraces, trees near the mill buildings that make up the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site along the river, and properties out towards Pride Park and the Derbion end of the city centre, along with the occasional job inside the Derby Arboretum. Streets in the older parts of the city often sit inside a Conservation Area, which is checked on site before a quote is put together rather than assumed either way. Tree surgery in Derby covers everything from routine garden pruning to larger felling and storm work, with the same NPTC-qualified team and free quotes offered across the wider Nottinghamshire area.

Whether it's a storm-damaged branch that needs making safe today or a mature tree that's outgrown its spot in the garden, a free quote is only a call away - and if the tree turns out to sit within a Conservation Area, we'll handle the council paperwork as part of the job rather than leaving it for you to sort out.

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