The Old Silk Mill and the old Silk Mill

In 2009, the Old Silk Mill pub on Full Street (near the cathedral) re-opened after a year of closure. When it did, it searched out a specialist niche in the market to make the business viable. That niche was real ale and this year, they have been awarded the Derby CAMRA award of the year 2011. (CAMRA being the CAMpaign for Real Ale).

Another unusual feature of this pub is that, although they do not serve food, they are happy for you to bring in your own and will provide the crockery and cutlery you need to eat it. That's a bit of a turnaround from the non-licensed restaurant allowing customers to bring their own alcohol!

 

Although it is called The Old Silk Mill it is relatively modern, having been built in 1928. The reference is actually to the Silk Mill itself, just down the road. The mural on the side of the pub illustrates the famous 1833 Silk Trades Lock Out, a conflict that lasted for around eight months and originated in the desire of the mill owners to prevent workers from joining the new trade unions. In total 1800 workers were locked out of factories along the waterways of Derby. The outcome of the dispute was, at best, a draw as both sides lost out quite considerably.

The Silk Mill (to which I have referred often; follow the label at the bottom of the post) is the beginning of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, some more of which I photographed last week.

These days, the Silk Mill houses the Derby Industrial Museum, which has just been mothballed for two years in an attempt by the City Council to save some money. I did hear rumours that parts of it may be being re-opened by a benefactor, but I cannot confirm this at the moment. I need to investigate further.

 

The Bonnie Prince

Diversion over. Back to 'proper' posting :)

Behind Derby Cathedral, in the grassed open area on Full Street, stands a statue to mark the significance of the Jacobean, Bonnie Prince Charlie, who marched through Derby on his way to challenge for the English throne. Unfortunately for him, his campaign was never to meet with success and stopped short at Swarkestone Bridge, just a few miles south of here.

He does look very dashing, doesn't he!

I believe there is some significance to the horse having one hoof raised (apart from the fact that it looks more aesthetically pleasing). I think that one raised hoof is meant to indicate that the soldier was wounded in battle, but survived; two means that he died in battle and all four hooves on the ground signify that he survived all battles and died peacefully. Does anyone know whether this is truth of myth please? I know that the Bonnie Prince didn't die in battle. He died in Rome on 31st Jan 1788. I've searched a while, but I can find no reference to him being wounded in any of his campaigns.

 

Turning away from the Bonnie Prince, there is an alley which runs alongside the cathedral, between Full Street and Irongate. It is not especially appealing of itself, but it does give good views of the Cathedral and it goes by the amusing name of Amen Alley. The only reason I can find being given for the name is the proximity of the alley to the cathedral.

A brief diversion

Yesterday, when Blogger had stopped playing silly bs, I came across a blog with a game which I thought might be a bit of mindless fun.

The game goes like this: (I've Anglicised it slightly)

• Pick a starting blog
• Click 'Next blog' on the navbar
• Do this seven times and write down the blog names you find
• Use the seven blog names to answer these seven headings (you can mix up the order)

1. What was the nickname of your first crush?
2. What phrase do you say when you're happy?
3. What is your theme song?
4. What did your teacher write on your report?
5. What was your nickname when you were a child?
6. What do you do when you're in a bad mood?
7. What is your life motto?

First, let me tell you that there are some weird blog names out there and second, that you are allowed to cheat and skip a blog if it really doesn't fit anything at all. (I skipped about 4 blogs and had to restart once because I launched straight into a whole string of blogs written in Portuguese!)

If you have a go, please do post any funny answers. My answers were:

Name of 1st crush - Wellington
Phrase when I'm happy - Nga Tama a Parorangi (Haven't a clue. I think it's Maori. Nga Tama seems to be to do with something being right or correct and there is a place near Wellington called Parorangi. Beyond that...)
Theme song - Potatoes in the Mist
On my school report - Return to sender (LOL)
Nickname as a child - Our Little Ladybug (PUKE)
What I do when I'm in a bad mood - Move to New Zealand
Life motto - Boxes of books

Oh come on! I didn't say anything about it being deep, meaningful, educational or intellectually stimulating. I believe the adjective I selected was 'mindless'. It's just a bit of fun!

And this post looks very weird without any photos!

A wander around Derby Cathedral

While I was in the Cathedral Quarter, I took a stroll all round the outside of the cathedral to capture its different faces.

From Irongate...

From the open ground on Full Street..

...and from Amen Alley.

Here, you can see the peregrine falcon nesting platform which was installed five years ago. Each spring, a pair of peregrines has raised chicks here. Although the peregrines weren't obliging me with a photo call, they are there again and on Monday, about 7 hours before these photos were taken, the eggs began to hatch! By the tenth, three chick births were confirmed. The Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project blog follows their progress.

If you want to see how they are getting on, the webcam is here.

A trio of 'churches'

Just across the road from 27 Queen Street is St Michael's. Once a church, it has now been converted into offices. Before the conversion, there had been a church on this site since the time of the Doomsday book. In 1856, the East gable of the previous church collapsed, so in 1858, a new church was built. Designed by H L Stevens, it was faced with stone to imitate the style of the earlier churches.

Just down the road is St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, a grade 2 listed building, now accessed via the new footbridge over the inner ring road. Designed by architect Augustus W N Pugin, the foundation stone was laid on 28th June 1838, the day of Queen Victoria's coronation, and the church was completed on 9th October 1839. The total cost was £1, 400.

Looking the other way from St Michael's is Derby Cathedral, sited at the top of Irongate. I'm going to be abseiling from the top of the tower again in September and I can't wait!!

Tick tock

Walking through town a couple of days ago, it began to strike me just how many clocks there are around the place. I didn't even start looking until I was right down at the bottom of St Peter's Street, but these are the ones I spotted in the Cathedral Quarter.

Herbert Brown is a nationwide pawnbroker which also deals in the buying and selling of jewellery. This clock hangs outside their shop on the Corn Market.

W.E.Watts (Est 1858) is a little further down the Corn Market; a family business specialising in Swiss brand watches and other high quality jewellery.

Opening out from the Corn Market into the main market square, there is the four-faced clock on the 103 foot high Guildhall tower. I was unable to find any information about the Guildhall clock except that a turret clock was constructed and presented to the Guildhall in 1736 by John Whitehurst; a clockmaker from Congleton who wished to trade in Derby. As thanks for the gift, the corporation enrolled him as a burgess, giving him the freedom to trade.

However, the Guildhall tower was only constructed after the previous building was seriously damaged by fire in 1840, so I assume that this clock dates from that time.

Walking up Irongate, we reach Derby Cathedral with its newly refurbished clock. Back in 2009, Friends of Derby Cathedral raised the £13,000 needed for the restoration, which was carried out by Smiths of Derby. The two clock faces were completely stripped back, the dials were hand painted with the blue and the Roman numerals and the minute markers guilded in 24 carat gold. All of this work was done by engineers who had abseiled from the top of the tower and were hanging in situ. Nice!!!

Finally, on my tour, I spotted this clock, just above the Cathedral approaching the inner ring road. This clock, made by John Smith, hangs outside 27 Queen Street, the building where he began his business in 1856. Smith was originally apprenticed to John Whitehurst III (the family of Guildhall turret clock fame) and this building was formally the Whitehurst family home.

27 Queen Street has quite a rich history, having been built by Stephen Flamsteed in the 1600s and lived in by his son, Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed. Later, it was rented to artist Joseph Wright and it was in this building where he died in 1797. During the time of John Whitehurst, the house was visited by Benjamin Franklin and part of the building has also served time as a pub; The Acorn.

Lately, since being bought in 2001 by London developer Joseph DeWinter, the building has fallen into disrepair. It is currently occupied by squatters. DeWinter is taking court action to try to remove the squatters, but proceedings have been adjourned by the judge. The squatters, who call themselves the Clockwork Collective, claim to have made many repairs to the house and have even taken people on guided tours of the building, explaining its history. They are currently working with members of Derby City Council and a local historian in an effort to have the building listed for protection, restored and brought back into public use.

Meanwhile, operating from a new base in the city, Smiths continue to build and repair clocks in the UK and abroad. Their most famous clock is probably the Great Clock of St Paul's Cathedral, London, which was installed in 1893 and has been maintained by the Smith company since that time.

Derwent Valley (Milford to the Derwent Hotel)

My personal challenge for this round of Miss Jenny Matlock's alphabe-Thursday is to post about a location within the borders of my own county of Derbyshire, UK, for each letter of the alphabet.


Each time, the letter will mark the spot.

D is for the Derwent Valley (Milford to the Derwent Hotel)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In total, the River Derwent is 50 miles long, rising on Axe Edge (up north) and flowing into the Trent south east of Derby. For the purpose of this post, I am concentrating on a 7 mile stretch between the village of Milford, just north of Duffield and the Derwent Hotel at Whatstandwell. I'm taking you in my direction of travel and showing you just a snippet of what this route has to offer.

This is part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, which was at the heart of the industrial revolution during the 18th Century, when new technologies first made cotton and silk cloth manufacture possible on an industrial scale..

Milford was named for its river crossing; part of an ancient route between Derby and the Peak District. From medieval times, there has been industry here; a corn mill, dying and fulling mills and iron forges. In 1781, that industry became rather larger scale when Jedediah Strutt bought land by the river to set up a cotton mill. Eventually, this mill contained sections for spinning, bleaching and dying, as well as foundries, a gas works and a corn mill. In the process, Strutt also built worker housing, a school and farms to supply food for his workers.

This view of the river is taken from the double arched bridge also built by him (but widened in 1906 to accommodate the increase in traffic!). Now, the bridge contends with a high volume of modern traffic, as the main A6 runs over it, through the centre of the village.

Moving north...

Before he purchased his land in Milford, Strutt had already established a cotton mill in Belper. His original mill was built in 1776, but destroyed by fire in 1803. Its replacement was built in 1804, by his son, William and its iron framed construction was designed to be fire proof; one of the oldest surviving buildings of this design in the world. The mill also had warm air central heating throughout and housed a school room in the roof space (floor 6).

In process order, the mill contained carding engines and drawing frames (to comb and straighten the cotton into fibres - floors 3&4), spinning frames (twisting the fibres into thread on bobbins - floors 1&2) and reeling frames (to wind the thread into skeins ready for dying at Milford - floor 5).

     

The mill was powered by an eighteen foot diameter water wheel, built for him by Thomas Hughes. The power generated by the river drove the wheel, which in turn drove rotating vertical shafts, geared to horizontal shafts which ran the length of each floor and powered the machinery via leather belts.

The Derwent Valley Heritage Site visitor centre is housed in Strutts Mill and gives details of all of the other mills and historic sites of interest along the river.

Good lines of communication have always been important for industry. The valley is a natural routeway and remains so today, with the main North and North East mainline railway running along here...

...and the main A6 road (which currently runs between Luton in Bedfordshire and Carlisle in Cumbria - on the border with Scotland).

Moving north a few more miles is the Derwent hotel, on the corner of the A6 by another bridge. It's been good for food for quite some time, but was recently refurbished meaning that the surroundings in which the food is eaten are much lighter and smarter looking now!

and looking north (upstream) from here, it is possible to see how the valley deepens and narrows, leading towards the gorge near Cromford and Matlock Bath.

Although there is still industry along the river today, it is difficult to look at these scenes and imagine that the modern factory system basically started here!