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Mary Queen of
Scots
Mary
Queen of Scots was arrested and imprisoned in Wingfield Manor for several years.
She was born in Scotland during 1542. The daughter of
James V, became Queen at only 6 days old when her father died. Her French
mother sent Mary to live with the French Royal Family in France. Mary later
married King Henri ll's eldest son Francois, who was to inherit the title of
King once his father died.
When
Francois died in 1560, eighteen-year-old Mary returned to Scotland. These were
troubled times with much tension between Protestants and Catholics. Queen Mary
and many Roman Catholics felt that Mary was the legitimate heir to the English
Throne. Many people viewed Elizabeth as illegitimate, refusing to accept her
parents’, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s, marriage as legal and that as the
granddaughter of Henry VIII’s sister, Mary should be Queen of England.
Mary
married her first cousin, Henry Darnley. This marriage strengthened Mary’s’
descendants claim to the English throne. 1566 Mary gave birth to a son, James.
Her marriage to Henry was not a happy one and when he died mysteriously whilst
recovering from Smallpox, suspicion fell upon Mary and her close friend the Earl
of Bothwell. When Mary married Bothwell some months later the Scottish public
rebelled against their Queen forcing her to flee to England.
Queen
Mary sort protection from Queen Elizabeth, who refused imprisoning her instead.
For over a 19-year period Queen Mary was imprisoned in many places in England.
Whilst imprisoned at Wingfield Manor, in the village of South Wingfield, Queen
Mary was prosecuted for conspiring to over throw Queen Elizabeth, in what was
later to become known as the Babington Plot. As a result of this plot Queen
Mary was later beheaded.
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Anthony Babington
Born
in Dethick, Derbyshire, during 1561, Anthony Babington was son of Sir Henry
Babington a wealthy Derbyshire landowner.
Babington served as a page to Mary Queen of Scots during her imprisonment at
Sheffield. In 1586 Babington was persuaded by John Ballard and other catholic
emissaries to lead a conspiracy aiming to murder Queen Elizabeth and release
Mary from her imprisonment at Wingfield Manor. Coded messages were sent to Mary at Wingfield Manor. These messages were
intercepted by Queen Mary’s secretary, Francis Waisingham and were later used
against her.
Badington
fled but was captured at Harrow and executed with his other conspirators
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John Flamstead
Born in Denby, in 1646, John Flamstead
was one of the great pioneers of astronomy. His main legacy is the Royal
Observatory at Greenwich, London and he became the King’s first Astronomer Royal
in 1675. He remained at Greenwich for more than 40 years, pursuing his
observations and improving the instruments.
Two Centuries later the Royal
Observatory was designated, at an international convention, as defining the
prime meridian of longitude. Flamstead could not have imagined when choosing
the location for his observatory that his choice would be imprinted on maps and
drawn in every country of the World.
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Jedediah Strutt
Jedediah Strutt came from
relatively modest beginnings, which makes his story all the more remarkable as
he became responsible for the growth and prosperity of Belper, which was to
develop from a small village to a thriving market town.
He was born of farming stock
in South Normanton during 1726 and later married Elizabeth Woollat whose family
had a hosiery business in Derby.
It was Jedediah’s early work
on the mechanisation of the knitting industry that was to help determine
his later success. Jedediah Strutt invented and patented in 1766, an attachment
for the Lee knitting machine, enabling it possible to produce ribbed knitting.
This became known as ‘Derby Rib’ and was a great boost to the whole of East
Midlands hosiery industry. The success of this invention was the pinical of
Strutt’s later success as it gave him the financial ability to assist Richard
Arkwright’s development of the cotton mills and later to pursue mill building
itself.
In 1776 Jedediah Strutt built
his first cotton mill in Belper. In the early 1780’s Strutt and Arkwright
stopped being business partners and pursued their own interests. Strutt’s first
mill was added to in 1786 with another timber-framed development ‘North Mill’.
Jedediah Strutt
was renouned as being a fair employer. He ensured
that his workers were well fed and housed, received medical assistance and
education but expected hard work and good behaviour.
Jedediah Strutt died in 1797
aged 70, although much of the building work he initiated continued for many
years afterwards.
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Sir Richard Arkwright
Born in Preston, Lancashire
in 1732, the thirteenth child of a tailor. As a young man Arkwright worked as a
barber and wig maker, travelling around the country selling his wigs. His
travels brought him in contact with people from the cotton trade and he realised
that there was a demand for an efficient spinning machine.
Before mechanization,
spinning had always been done by hand or foot in small workshops or by home
workers. It was a slow process and it was difficult to keep up with the
knitters and weavers who turned yarn into cloth or garments.
In 1769 Arkwright succeeded
in inventing a machine for spinning cotton that since it was powered by water,
became known as the Waterframe. In order to finance the patenting of the
machine, Arkwright found two partners John Smalley and David Thornley. Once the
patent was approved he added two more partners, Jedediah Strutt and Samuel
Need. Together they opened a horse-powered mill in Nottingham, however
horsepower proved expensive and so in 1771 Arkwright established the first
successful water powered cotton mill at Cromford. This mill is now open to
visitors.
Arkwright was knighted in
1786 and became High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1787.
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William Jessop
William Jessop was a noted English civil engineer, particularly famed for his
work on developing various transport networks, including canal and rail during
the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
William Jessop was born in Devonport, Devon, in 1745, a son of a shipwright known to
leading civil engineer John Smeaton through his work
on the Eddystone Lighthouse. When Jessop’s father died John Smeaton, who also
acted as his guardian, took him on as a pupil. After working for some years as
Smeaton's assistant, Jessop increasingly began to work as an engineer in his own
right.
In
1790 he founded, with fellow engineer Benjamin Outram, an iron-works in
Butterley near Ripley, Derbyshire. Butterley Iron Works began to manufacture
fish-bellied cast-iron rails, which marked an important advance in railway
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The Curzon family
originated from Normandy, but settled in the Kedleston area as far back as the
12th century. In 1758, Sir Nathanial Curzon inherited the estate and
very quickly instigated plans to demolish the old building and build a grand
mansion with Italian influences. Sir Nathanial Curzon employed Robert Adam a
famous Scottish architect to build Kedleston Hall.Top
Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram was one of the most remarkable civil engineers of the early
Industrial Revolution. He was born in 1764 in Alfreton, Derbyshire, the son of a land
agent.
Outram assisted William Jessop on the Cromford Canal but soon became a leading
engineer and canal surveyor. He worked on many canals in the East Midlands,
including the Nottingham and Nutbrook canals. He also worked on an improved system
of horse drawn railways, using L section cast iron plate rails on stone
sleepers, supervising the construction of several hundred of miles of track
including many lines from collieries to nearby canals.
In
1790 Outram established, along with William Jessop, the Butterley Iron Works,
the largest coal and iron works in the East Midlands, and was responsible for
the export of iron products all over the world.
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William Strutt
William Strutt was the son of Jedediah
Strutt.
When
the original timber-built North Mill in Belper was burnt down in 1803, William
rebuilt it with an iron frame. This mill was considered to be one of the most
technologically advanced industrial buildings in the World, being fireproof.
This building was then followed by two more buildings the West Mill and the
Reeling Mill in 1808. The Strutt empire was expanding at such a rate that at a
later date Jedediah Strutts first mill was cleared making way for a new five
story South Mill in 1812.
Many
of these developments are no longer visible today, however the East Mill still
dominates the landscape today and the North Mill is now home of the
Derwent
Valley Visitor Centre.
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Joseph Borne
Joseph Borne was born in 1788 the son of a local potter of some repute. Joseph
followed in his father’s footsteps. The early years of the nineteenth century
were already seeing the early stages of the industrial revolution with many
turnpike roads being developed increasing links between various towns and
opening up new opportunities.
During the construction of the Alfreton turnpike, Joseph Borne, discovered some
high quality clay, with his experience he was able to see the worth of this clay
and he obtained a lease for the clay bed. In 1809 Denby Pottery was
established. It started as a small business and as the business became more
successful the premises grew into what we now know as Denby Pottery.
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John King
John King of Pinxton and
Heanor invented a mine cage arrester in 1850 and transformed pit safety
worldwide. A model of his invention is held with the Heanor Heritage Trust.
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Florence Nightingale
- Centenary Year 2010
Florence Nightingale, born in
Florence, Italy in 1820, daughter to Derbyshire landowner and industrialist,
William Edward Shore and Francis Smith, revolutionised nursing to become the
most famous woman of the 19th Century.
During the Crimean war, she
became the legendary ‘Lady of the Lamp’, whose shadow the sick soldiers kissed
as she passed through their wards. She was a powerful organiser and strict
disciplinarian who worked tirelessly to improve conditions.
Although she spent much of
her time in London, she retained her connections with Holloway, visiting the
family’s house, Lea Hurst, during the summer months. It was during her summers at Lea Hurst
that Florence’s passion for nursing developed. She spent her time visiting the
elderly and the sick in their homes and set up reading rooms at Whatstandwell
and Holloway. She provided books for Lea Primary School and provided the
services of a doctor for the village poor. Once a year, star pupils of the
school were invited to tea at Lea Hurst.
After the death of her father
in 1874, she nursed her mother at Lea Hurst, Holloway, until her death in 1880.
During this period, she supervised improvements to the water supply and drainage
in the local area before returned to London where she died in relative obscurity
in 1910.
Although many features of the
Nightingale estate remain in the villages of Lea and Holloway, none are usually open to
the public. Take advantage of the Florence Nightingale Festival to participate
in the family Heritage Festival and access the private records.
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George Stephenson built
Midland Railway through Derbyshire. He bisected what is now the Borough of
Amber Valley with his railway in 1840. The cuttings and retaining walls through
Belper are regarded as one of the great civil engineering feats of the period.
His surveying tower can be seen at Milford.
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John Marsden Smedley
Born 1851, John Marsden Smedley, spent much of his life in
the village of Lea. As well as being the local squire, he was also the owner of
John Smedley Ltd, a manufacturer of fine woollen garments, (still
thriving
today). In 1895 he rebuilt the farm of Lea Green into a fine house which is
used today as a sports and conference centre. In 1935 John Marsden-Smedley was
inspired, perhaps by his visits to Bodmant and Exbury, to build his own
rhododendron garden on a site located behind his existing garden. He made a
collection of 350 varieties of specie and hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas in a
two acre site which he developed before his death in 1959, aged ninety-two.
Lea Gardens, as it's now known, can be visited daily from mid March to the end
of June.
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Robert Watchorn
Born in Alfreton during 1858. At the age of
21 he
left the local colliery to emigrate to America. After working in the coal
mines in Pennsylvania he became involved in the trade unions eventually becoming a Union boss,
Commissioner of Immigration and made a fortune in the oil industry. Robert
Watchorn never forgot the place of his birth and used some of his wealth to
re-build the area of the town from which he orginated.
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Barnes Wallis
Born in Ripley 1887, the son of a local Doctor, he was to
become the 20th Century’s most prominent aeronautical engineer
developing airships, bouncing bombs, swing-wing aircraft and Concorde. Barnes
Wallis originally trained as a marine engineer but turned his hand to aircraft
design in the early 1900s.
From the beginning of WW2 Barnes Wallis had been toying
with the idea of how to destroy the big dams at Moehne, Eder and Sorpe on the
Ruhr, which held back water, vital to the German war effort. Barnes came up
with the idea of the bouncing bomb after recalling how he used to skim pebbles
across lakes during his childhood. The bomb would need to explode next to the
dam wall and below the water surface in order to produce a breach. The idea was
developed and in May 1943, a special handpicked crew raided the dams,
successfully breaching Mohne and Eder dam.
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Ellen MacArthur
Ellen MacArthur, born in 1976, grew up in Whatstandwell,
Derbyshire. She first came to prominence when she
finished second in the Vendee Globe round-the-world race in 2001. Later that
year she received the MBE from the Queen, and was handerd the freedom of the
Borough of Amber Valley in April 2002. On the 7th February 2005, at
2229 (GMT), Ellen broke the previous world record for the fastest single-handed
around the world voyage, completing the journey in 71 days and under 15 hours.
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John Tams
Tom Sharpe, actor, musician,
producer. Born February 1949 in Holbrook, Derbyshire, John Tams, is perhaps
best known for his role, as Daniel Hagman the rifleman in popular ITV Napoleonic
War Series, Sharpe, starring Sean Bean. He has appeared in numerous films and
television series, as well as working in local and national theatre. He has
also made over 50 albums as either singer, musician or producer. His first solo
album, Unity, was released in 2001, winning Album of the Year with the song
Harry Stone winning Song of the Year at the BBC Folk Awards.
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Alan Bates
Born in
Derbyshire in 1934, he attended Herbutt Strutt Grammer School in Belper where he
won a scholarship to RADA.
He launched his film career
in The Entertainer in 1960, quickly followed by Whistle Down the Wind and The
Caretaker. He went on to appear in many period productions, notably Far From the
Madding Crowd, The Go-Between and Ken Russell's Women in Love. On television he
scored a notable success in the title role of the BBC serial, The Mayor of
Casterbridge, in 1978. Alan Bates was knighted in the New Year Honours of 2003.
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Gwen Taylor
Born Gwendoline Allsop, better known as the actress Gwen
Taylor, was born in Crich, Derbyshire in 1939 where she lived for the first 11
years of her life. She became a popular actress appearing in a diverse range of
television, film and theatre over the years, including Sounding Brass in 1980,
Duty Free in 1984, A Bit of a Do 1989, and most recently Heartbeat.
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Robert Lindsay
The son of a carpenter, Robert Lindsay was born in
Ilkeston. He became a household name as Wolfie in the 1977 sitcom 'Citizen
Smith.' Since then, he has appeared in a diverse range of roles and parts in
television, films and stage productions in which he has won a large number of
acting awards on both sides of the Atlantic.
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