Industry in Derby

Derby’s two biggest employers, Rolls-Royce plc (known almost universally in the area as ‘Royce’s’) and the Toyota Motor Corporation, are both in the manufacturing trade. Egg, the Internet and telephone bank, has its national base in Derby.

Derby was for many years a significant railway centre, with both British Rail workshops and research facilities in the town. The town was also formerly the centre for the Midland Railway. Although much less important than in years gone by, train manufacture continues in Derby and Derby Midland Station retains an important strategic role in the rail network.

Derby Canal : Attraction of Derby

The Derby Canal ran 14 miles (23 km) from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Swarkestone to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre, Derbyshire, England. The canal gained its Act of Parliament in 1793 and was fully completed in 1796. The canal’s main cargo was coal.

The route included the 44ft-long, single-span Holmes Aqueduct, the world’s first cast iron navigable aqueduct, carrying the canal over a millstream in central Derby.

In 1817 the link to the Trent and Mersey canal was closed due to its lack of financial success. The reason for this failure was that the Trent and Mersey canal had been charging tolls at extortionate rates on boats using the link.

By the mid 19th century the canal was in trouble. Competition from the railways had resulted in several neighbouring canals being sold off which had in turn reduced the level of through traffic. However the canal company did continue. In 1908 the Little Eaton Branch closed. In 1964 the canal company gained permission to close the rest of the canal. Over the next three decades, areas of the canal were built on while others were allowed to decay. The Holmes Aqueduct was demolished in 1971.

In 1994 the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Society was set up. Restoration began in earnest the following year and is now well underway.

Pride Park Stadium : Attraction of Derby

Pride Park Stadium is a football (soccer) stadium in the Pride Park business park on the outskirts of Derby city centre in the UK. It is the home of Derby County F.C. and holds 33,597 spectors.

The stadium was completed in 1997 and replaced Derby County’s previous stadium, The Baseball Ground. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on July 18, with a friendly against Sampdoria following on August 4.

The first competitive match to be played there was against Wimbledon (now Milton Keynes Dons). The floodlights failed part way through the match and it had to be abandoned.

The stadium has been used for three England under-21s international matches and one full international, a 4-0 friendly victory for England over Mexico on May 27, 2001. That match also holds the record for the highest attendance at the stadium: a full-house of 33,597.

F.C.Derby have only scored 5 goals there twice - a 5-1 win over Preston which practically saved the club from relegation and a 5-1 win over Crewe in which the fans used the match to express their anger angainst the board of directors.

Capacity

One of the corners was left open originally but a year later it was completed which is why one section of the roof isn’t level.

Markeaton Park Light Railway : Attraction of Derby

The Markeaton Park Light Railway operates within Markeaton Park, one of Derby’s major parks which is located next to what remains of Markeaton Village, in Derby in the East Midlands of England.

The trains are owned by a charitable trust and are driven and maintained by volunteers. The main station is located at the Ashbourne Road/Queensway entrance to the park, next to the old army buildings and car park. Trains run every twenty minutes to the Mundy Play Centre; the journey is about three quarters of a mile long.

River Derwent, Derbyshire : Attraction of Derby

The Derwent is a river in the county of Derbyshire, England. It is 80 km (50 miles) long and is a tributary of the River Trent which it joins south of Derby City.

It rises in the Peak District at Bleaklow east of Glossop and flows through the Upper Derwent Valley with its three reservoirs, the Howden Reservoir, Derwent Reservoir and Ladybower Reservoir. It then passes through Bamford, Hathersage, Grindleford and Baslow, and through the Chatsworth Park estate, and it is joined by the River Wye. After passing through Darley Dale, the Derwent reaches Matlock. It flows past Cromford and through the Crich Chase Nature Reserve.

The river was used to power many cotton mills in the Derwent Valley Mills area.

It also provides the name for the oldest field hockey club in Derbyshire. Derwent Hockey Club, established in 1897, played its matches on the banks of the Derwent in Darley Dale, before locating to Wirksworth.

The name “Derwent” is Celtic and means “a valley thick with oaks”.

Derby Arboretum : Attraction of Derby

Derby Arboretum is a public arboretum and park in the city of Derby. It was the first publicly owned, landscaped, urban, recreational park in England. It is located in the Rose Hill area, abut a mile south of Derby city centre. After many years of neglect, the Arboretum has recently been extensively refurbished with the aid of a National Lottery grant of almost £5 million.

History

The Arboretum was donated to the town in 1840 by Joseph Strutt, a former mayor of Derby and member of a prominent local family of industrialists. A noted philanthropist, Strutt was grateful to the working people of Derby for the part they had played in helping him and his family amass their fortune, and wanted to convey his thanks by providing a much needed recreational facility for a rapidly expanding and urbanising area. Strutt commissioned John Claudius Loudon to design the park, and Loudon adapted Strutt’s orginal plans for a botanical garden and pleasure grounds to his own vision, incorporating landscaped walkways.

Work on the Arboretum commenced in July 1839, and was completed in time for the grand opening which took place on September 16, 1840. The occasion was marked by a parade from the Market Place in the centre of Derby to the new park. The park initially charged for admission, in order to pay for it’s upkeep. However, admission was free on Sundays and on Wednesdays (which had been adopted as half day closing in Derby). This mean that the working classes, who had limited leisure time and probably lacked the means to pay admission, could gain free access to the Arboretum when they actually had the time to do so; in effect, the park was paid for by those who had time and money to spare to enjoy the facilities. Free admission times continued to be extended until finally being abolished in 1882.
(more…)

Elvaston Castle : Attraction of Derby

Elvaston Castle (full name Elvaston Castle Country Park) is a country park in Derbyshire, England with 200 acres of woodlands, parkland and formal gardens. The centrepiece of the estate is Elvaston Castle itself.

History

Originally built in 1633, it was redesigned by James Wyatt in the early 1800s for the 3rd Earl of Harrington.

In 1968, the estate was sold by the then Earl of Harrington to Derbyshire County Council. This coincided with the Countryside Act of the same year which proposed the creation of “country parks” “for the enjoyment of the countryside by the public”. The council opened the estate to the public in 1970 and have operated it since then, as Elvaston Castle Country Park.

Recently

Over recent years, funding has run dry for Elvaston Castle and its estate leaving it in a neglected state of disrepair. Due to this, the castle itself is rarely open to the public. The council want to lease the estate privately to a business. There is much resistance to this from local people, who do not want the castle to be turned into a hotel, which is believed to be the plans of possible buyers.

The Elvaston Castle Estate Trust are a group that aim to stop the council’s plans to lease the estate to a private owner. They wish to restore the estate back to a state where it can be fully open to the public, including the castle.

Derby Industrial Museum : Attraction of Derby

The Derby Industrial Museum is housed in a former Silk Mill in Derby, England. Between 1717 and 1721 George Sorocold built Britain’s first mill for the Lombe brothers, beside the River Derwent. This mill was built to house machines for “doubling” or twisting silk into thread.

John Lombe copied the design for the machines used for spinning large quantities of silk, during a period spent in Italy, working within the Italian Silk Industry. This was possibly the first example of Industrial espionage.

Traditionally the spinning wheel had been used for producing small quantities of silk thread at the homes of local spinsters, the new large, machines were capable of producing far greater quantities of silk and were to become serious competition for the Italians. These machines however required large buildings and a considerable power source. An undershot wheel turned by the mill fleam on the west side of the new Silk Mill drove the massive spinning machines.

John Lombe died in 1722 under mysterious circumstances, and was believed to have been poisoned by an Italian assassin in retribution for stealing their trade secrets. His half brother, Sir Thomas Lombe Knt., died June 2, 1739 leaving his estate to his widow and their two daughters.

Dame Elizabeth advertised the lease for sale in 1739 the remaining 64 years of the lease were assigned to Richard Wilson junior of Leeds for £2,800. Richard Wilson remained in Leeds leaving the running of the mill to his partners, William and Samuel Lloyd, both London merchants, with Thomas Bennet as salaried manager, taking a proportion of the profits.
(more…)

Derby Cathedral : Attraction of Derby

Derby Cathedral is a cathedral church in Derby City, England.
The original church was founded by King Edmund in around 943 as a royal collegiate church however there is no trace of its existence today.
The current cathedral dates back from the 14th century although it appears to be based on an earlier medieval building which drawings show was about the same size as the present church. One theory is it became structurally unstable and was pulled down.
The tower dates from 1510 to 1530 and was built in the popular perpendicular gothic style of the time.
The cathedral contains the oldest ring of ten bells in the U.K. Other treasures include an 18th century nave with a wrought iron screen by Robert Bakewell, the memorial to Bess of Hardwick, the Cavendish brasses, including those of Henry Cavendish and Georgiana Spencer, the wife of one of the Dukes of Devonshire.
Derby Cathedral became a cathedral by Royal Charter in 1927, unusual because Derby remained a town at the time.
Prior to becoming a cathedral it was called ‘All Saints’ Church’.
The cathedral is 64.8 metres tall and is the second tallest cathedral tower in the country.

Media in Derby

The Derby Evening Telegraph is the city’s daily newspaper. In addition, two free newspapers, the Derby Trader and Derby Express, are delivered to households weekly. The daily freesheet ‘Metro’ is distributed in the city centre every morning, although this only has a very small amount of local content.

BBC Radio Derby, the BBC’s multi-award-winning local station for Derbyshire and East Staffordshire is based in the city and offers a mixture of local, national and international news, features, music and sports commentaries. It has around 200,000 weekly listeners and is available in Derby on 104.5 and 1116AM. In addition, its output is streamed on the internet.

Ram FM is a smaller commercial alternative on 102.8 FM, playing mainstream pop music.

In addition East Midlands regional radio stations Heart and Saga can be received.

Education in Derby

Like most of the UK, Derby operates a non-selective primary and secondary education system with no middle schools. Students attend infant and junior school (often in a combined primary school) before moving onto a comprehensive secondary school. Many secondaries also have sixth forms, allowing students to optionally continue their education by taking A Levels after the end of compulsory education at age 16. For those who want to stay in education but leave school, the large Derby College provides a number of post-16 courses.

Outside of the state sector, there are two fee-paying independent schools, Derby Grammar School, which caters for boys and considers itself, quite spuriously, a continuation of Derby School (which was one of the oldest schools in the country), and Derby High School, which caters for girls (and also boys at primary level only).

There is also one secondary school, Landau Forte College, that is independent of the local authority but partially state-funded. It is one of fifteen City Technology Colleges set up by the Conservative government in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The University of Derby is the city’s university.

In 2003 the University of Nottingham opened up a graduate entry medical school which is based in the Derby city hospital.

Culture, Entertainment and Sport

The annual open-air concert at Darley Park is one of the biggest free concerts of its kind. The Derby Jazz group caters for the jazz interest in the city and is regarded as one of the UK’s leading live jazz organizations. There is also a summer rock music festival ‘Ponce in the Park’ which takes place in late July every year.

Derby Arboretum was the first public park in the country, and is thought to have been one of the inspirations for Central Park in New York. Although it suffered from neglect in the 1990s, it has recently undergone extensive improvement and renovation.

Other famous Derby institutions include Derby County Football Club, currently playing in the Football League Championship. Derby County won the First Division title (then the highest achievement in English football) in 1972 and 1975. The Rams, as Derby County are known, also won the FA Cup in 1946.

Landmarks

Derby Cathedral boasts the second-highest cathedral tower in the country.

Derby Heritage Centre, formerly the Tudor Grammar School, tells the story of Derby from Roman times till today. Derby Gaol is a visitor attraction based in the dungeons of the Derbyshire County Gaol which dates back to 1756.

Derby Industrial Museum is situated in Derby Silk Mill and shows the industrial heritage and technological achievement of Derby, including Rolls Royce aero engine, railways, mining, quarrying, foundries etc.

Pickford’s House Museum was built by architect Joseph Pickford in 1770. It was his home and business headquarters. Derby Museum and Art Gallery shows paintings by Joseph Wright, as well as fine Royal Crown Derby porcelain, local regiments and archaeology. Pickford also designed St Helen’s House in King Street.

The Eagle Centre is the city’s main indoor shopping centre and is currently being extended.

Much of the skyline of the inner city changed radically when the inner ring road with its two new crossings of the River Derwent was built. Thus the editor (Elizabeth Williamson) of the 2nd edition of Pevsner for Derbyshire wrote:- ‘…the character and cohesion of the centre has been completely altered by the replacement of a large number of C18 houses in the centre by a multi-lane road. As a traffic scheme this road is said to be a triumph; as townscape it is a disaster.’

Facts About Derby

Geography

Status: Unitary, City (1977)
Region: East Midlands
Ceremonial County: Derbyshire
Area: Ranked 271st
- Total 78.03 km²
Admin. HQ: Derby
Grid reference: SK354363
ONS code: 00FK

Demographics

Population: Ranked 46th
- Total (2004 est.) 233,700
- Density 2,995 / km²

Ethnicity: 87.4% White
8.4% S.Asian
1.8% Afro-Carib.

Politics

Leadership: Leader & Cabinet
Executive: Labour
MPs: Margaret Beckett, Bob Laxton, Mark Todd

History of Derby

The town has Roman, Saxon and Viking connections. The Roman camp of ‘Derventio’ was probably at Little Chester/Chester Green (Grid reference SK353375); later the town was one of the ‘Five Boroughs’ (fortified towns) of the Danelaw.

The popular belief is that the name ‘Derby’ is a corruption of the Danish Deor-a-by (Village of the Deer), however some assert that it is a corruption of the original Roman name ‘Derventio’. The town was also named ‘Darby’ or ‘Darbye’ on some of the oldest maps, eg. Speed’s 1610 map. The city is one of the few cities that have retained a name with a Viking origin, like York, which had the Viking name of Jorvik. The city recently celebrated its 2,000th year as a settlement.

New research (throughout 2004) into the history and archaeology of Derby has provided evidence that the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons probably co-existed, occupying two areas of land surrounded by water. The Saxon Chronicles (c. 900) state that “Derby is divided by Water”. These areas of land were known as “Northworthy” and Deoraby, and were located at the “Irongate” (North) side of the city. Ron Mackeown of Derby Heritage Development Trust has produced a paper on this subject and his findings are already being acclaimed by the academic community.

During the Civil War of 1642-1646 the town was garrisoned by Parliamentary troops commanded by Sir John Gell, who was appointed Governor of Derby in 1643. These troops took part in the defence of Nottingham, the siege of Lichfield, the battle of Hopton Heath and many other engagements in Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire, as well as successfully defending Derbyshire against royalist armies.
(more…)