Short answers, pulled from the story.
Derbyshire rises from the earth as an uplifted dome of rock layers with older rocks in the center and progressively younger limestone rocks encircling them. This structure exposes Carboniferous age limestones, gritstones, sandstones and shales across the northern half while softer mudstones and sandstones of Permo-Triassic age create gentler rolling landscapes in the southern lowlands.
Humans first visited the area 200,000 years ago during the Aveley interglacial period. Archaeologists found a Middle Paleolithic Acheulean hand axe near Hopton to prove this early presence before nomadic hunter-gatherers roamed the hilly tundra during later periods.
Mineralisation of carboniferous limestone created extensive lead and fluorite deposits that shaped the local economy for centuries. Lead mining has been important here since Roman times alongside large quarries supplying industries with lime for building and steelmaking.
The county contained 1,919 separate taxa of vascular plants including species hybrids and micro-species since modern recording began. Two endemic vascular plants exist nowhere else: Rubus durescens bramble occurring in central Derbyshire and Derby hawkweed still known only from Winnats Pass.
The 1988 film The Lair of the White Worm starring Amanda Donohoe and Hugh Grant was filmed largely in Derbyshire at Thor's Cave part of Peak District River Manifold valley. Other productions like Women in Love were shot at Elvaston Castle while The Duchess included scenes filmed at Chatsworth House and Kedleston Hall.