The village shares part of its name with other places in England such as
Irby in the Marsh and
Irby, Merseyside. David Mills in
A Dictionary of British Place-Names gives the meaning of Irby as 'settlement or village of the Irish'. In the 11th-century
Domesday Book, Irby's population of 11 villagers, 7 smallholders, 52 freemen, in over 70 households, was considered 'very large'. St Andrew's Church, with 12th-century nave features and a 13–14th-century tower, was built on the site of an earlier church mentioned in the Domesday record. Denzil Holles, a grandson of the
Lord Mayor of London William Holles, was given the manor of Irby by his father, on the occasion of his marriage to Eleanor, daughter of
Edmund Sheffield, 1st Baron Sheffield, in the mid-16th century. Holles was not an absentee landlord, spending much of his time in Irby, and the baptisms of at least five of his children are recorded in the parish registers. In 1840, Irby and the surrounding parish had 263 inhabitants and a notable local industry was chalk quarrying in the area of the Dale. ==Geography==