Local road knowledge
Areas covered
Manual driving lessons across Derby and a cluster of towns and villages along the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire border. Pick your area for local road detail, or call if you are not sure whether your postcode is included.
Where lessons run
One instructor, nine areas
Awesome School of Motoring covers most of Derby plus a run of towns and villages heading east towards Nottingham. That patch is deliberately kept to a size one instructor can know properly, because there is a real difference between an instructor who has driven a road and one who has taught on it several thousand times.
Learning locally is also genuinely useful. The roads you practise on are the roads you will use afterwards for work, college and the school run, and there is a good chance your test route will include several of them. Familiar ground on test day is worth a great deal when nerves are involved.
Choose your area
Each area page covers the specific roads, junctions and local conditions you will meet during lessons, along with prices, lesson options and answers to the questions people most often ask.
Driving lessons Derby
The full range of city driving: the A38 and A52, Markeaton and Pentagon islands, the ring road and quiet estate roads in Mickleover, Allestree and Littleover.
View area 02Driving lessons Spondon
Dave is based here, with quieter village streets for early lessons and the A6096, Nottingham Road and A52 nearby as your confidence grows.
View area 03Driving lessons Ilkeston
A town built on hills, which makes it the best place locally to master clutch control and hill starts. Covers Kirk Hallam, Cotmanhay and the A609 towards Nottingham.
View area 04Driving lessons Long Eaton
Town centre traffic, level crossings and the A6005, with the M1 Junction 25 corridor close by. Sawley, Toton and Wilsthorpe are all included.
View area 05Driving lessons Stapleford
Home of Bardills island and the A52 Brian Clough Way, so roundabout and dual carriageway confidence builds quickly. Neighbouring Sandiacre is covered too.
View area 06Driving lessons Breaston
Quiet village lanes that suit nervous beginners, with the A6005 and the motorway corridor only minutes away once you are ready to step up.
View area 07Driving lessons Draycott
Narrow village streets for low-speed control and gap judgement, plus the B5010 and the run through Borrowash towards Derby.
View area 08Driving lessons Chilwell
Tram tracks along High Road, busy retail park car parks for realistic bay parking, and the A6005 running straight through the middle of it.
View area 09Driving lessons Beeston
The most demanding local environment, with trams, bus lanes, cyclists and university traffic, balanced by the A52 on the northern edge.
View areaNot sure if you are covered?
If you live near the edge of one of these areas, call Dave before assuming you are outside it. Availability and collection arrangements vary through the year, and he will tell you honestly whether your location works rather than taking a booking he cannot service properly.
Lessons can start and finish anywhere sensible within the covered area, so home, work, school and college pick ups are all straightforward. Plenty of learners start a lesson at home and end it at work, or the other way round, which makes fitting tuition around a full week considerably easier.
Whichever area you are in, the lesson itself is the same: one-to-one tuition in a manual Ford Fiesta, at £45 per hour or £400 for a block of ten hours, with the same instructor from your first lesson through to your test. Nobody gets passed around between instructors part way through.
Do you cover anywhere outside these nine areas?+
Sometimes, depending on the diary and how far outside you are. The listed areas are where lessons run as standard, but a short distance beyond them is often workable. It costs nothing to ring and ask.
Does it matter which area I learn in?+
Less than you might think, because lessons naturally range across neighbouring areas as you progress. What matters more is that your early hours happen somewhere calm and your later ones cover the busier roads and likely test routes.
Can I be picked up from work or college?+
Yes, anywhere within the covered area. Just mention it when booking so the lesson route can be planned sensibly around your start and finish points.
Real learner feedback
Google reviews from across the area
Learners from every one of these towns and villages have passed with Dave. Here is what they and their families had to say.