Talks on Georgian and Victorian Derby
Jon gives these talks at public events that anyone can come along to, and to clubs, societies, churches and community groups across Derby and Derbyshire. Each is illustrated and lasts about 45 minutes, with time for questions. Open a short summary, or go to the full details.
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Bonnie Prince Charlie and the highwaymen of Derby
Short summary
December 1745, when the Jacobite army reached Derby, and the highwaymen whose stories still cling to the roads around the town.
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Working-class housing in West End Derby
Short summary
Life in the courts and yards of Willow Row, Brook Street and Walker Lane in the nineteenth century, and what happened when the area was cleared.
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Caring for the poor
Short summary
From the Liversage almshouses, founded in 1529, to the Union Workhouse on Osmaston Road: how Derby looked after its poorest people.
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Education and schools
Short summary
Church schools, the training college on Uttoxeter Road, Derby School’s move to St Helen’s House, and the board schools that followed the 1870 Act.
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The impact of the early railway
Short summary
Three railway companies met at Derby in 1839–40 and merged to form the Midland Railway in 1844. What did that do to the town?
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Chapels and churches in Derby’s West End
Short summary
Five churches within a few minutes’ walk of each other, the chapels that have vanished, and the rivalries between them.