City in Derbyshire, England
Derby
Derby is home to what's often called the world's first factory, the first public park in Britain, and the city that stopped Bonnie Prince Charlie's march on London.
Key information
- County
- Derbyshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 261,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Silk Mill and early factories, Rolls-Royce engines, railways, Royal Crown Derby porcelain, Brian Clough's Derby County
- What locals are called
- Derbeians
- Famous people
- Joseph Wright of Derby, Herbert Spencer, Brian Clough (as manager)
- Football clubs
- Derby County (the Rams)
About Derby
The day Bonnie Prince Charlie turned back
On 4 December 1745, the Jacobite army marched into Derby. It was the furthest south it ever got, and London was roughly 130 miles away. Panic is said to have spread through the capital. Two days later, the Jacobite leaders held a council in Derby and decided to retreat to Scotland. The prince himself is said to have been furious. The retreat began on 6 December, and the rising ended at Culloden the following April. So Derby is the place where one of the great what-ifs of British history was settled.
A silk mill that changed how the world worked
Beside the River Derwent stands the Silk Mill, built in 1721 for John and Thomas Lombe. It was one of the first factories on the scale we would recognise today, with machinery driven by water power and workers arranged around it. It is now part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in 2001. The building reopened in 2021 as the Museum of Making, which tells the story of the city's manufacturing from silk to jet engines. Derby also has the Arboretum, opened in 1840 and designed by John Claudius Loudon. It was a gift to the town from the mill owner Joseph Strutt and is widely regarded as Britain's first public park.
Engines, trains and a porcelain crown
Derby makes things that move. The Midland Railway was formed here in 1844 from three companies sharing the station, and its locomotive works shaped the town for over a century. Railway engineering still has a base in the city. Rolls-Royce began making cars in Derby in 1908. In the First World War it began building aero engines here, and the aircraft engine business has been centred on the city ever since. Toyota's car plant at Burnaston is another big employer. Then there is the delicate side. Derby porcelain dates from the 1750s, and the firm became Royal Crown Derby after Queen Victoria granted it the title in 1890. Its patterned china is still made in the city.
Rams, Clough and a team born from cricket
Derby County were founded in 1884 as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club. Four years later they were one of the twelve founding members of the Football League. The club's nickname, the Rams, comes from the Derby Ram, a mascot and folk-song hero. The golden age came under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Clough arrived in 1967 and, in 1972, led a club from the Second Division to the league title. They won it again in 1975 under Dave Mackay. The team played at the Baseball Ground until moving to Pride Park in 1997. Derbyshire County Cricket Club still plays at the County Ground in the city.
The giant ram and other Derby oddities
The Derby Ram is the city's unofficial emblem. A traditional song describes a ram so huge that its wool brushed the sky and its horns held a nest of eagles. The tale is an exaggeration and the song is pure tall-tale humour. The animal later became a regimental mascot. The cathedral has a tall Perpendicular tower, about 212 feet high, completed in the 1520s. The church became a cathedral only in 1927. Inside is the tomb of Bess of Hardwick, the Elizabethan builder of great houses. On the food side, Sage Derby is a mild cheese marbled with green sage, traditionally made for harvest and Christmas tables.
The painter who lit up the Enlightenment
Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797) painted scientists and thinkers by candlelight. His 1768 masterpiece An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump shows a travelling lecturer starving a bird of air while a family looks on in awe and horror. It now hangs in the National Gallery in London. Derby Museum and Art Gallery holds a major collection of his work, and the city counts him as its own. He has plenty of company. The philosopher Herbert Spencer, who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest", was born in Derby in 1820. The city seems to have a habit of producing people who see new things in ordinary materials.