Derby has grown from a medieval market town to become a centre of industry. Derby was one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution as following the silk mill and china factory established in the eighteenth century, it became home to heavy engineering following the arrival of the railways in the nineteenth century, as well as related iron and brass foundries. Later it became famous for the production of Rolls-Royce cars and aero engines. In the last century, much manufacturing has mo...

For centuries, England’s country houses have been where rich and grand families have displayed their wealth and status. Today, England is still well endowed with these houses, although many of them are now popular visitor attractions instead of private homes, but there are also many houses which have disappeared over the years. Some have been demolished as they could no longer be sustained due to the changes in social habits, surrounding development or because of the cost of repairs or dea...

In the later third century AD, the outer reaches of the Roman Empire were being threatened on all sides by hostile powers. Along the southern and eastern coasts of Britain, a series of ten, possibly twelve, vast fortified enclosures were built beside strategic harbours to defend against external threats, mainly from Germanic marauders. Through sixteen centuries impressive vestiges of most of them have survived, although three have vanished virtually without trace. Several became the sites ...

Derby is an exceptional and underrated city. It was an important centre of the Midlands Enlightenment, boasting Dr Erasmus Darwin and John Whitehurst FRS among its eighteenth-century residents. It produced an artist of international repute in Joseph Wright ARA and has been a centre for the production of fine porcelain and fine clocks for almost three centuries. It was a county town for five centuries and was in its Georgian heyday much admired by writers such as Daniel Defoe. Despite the b...

Derby History Tour offers a fascinating insight into the history of this city in the East Midlands. Author Maxwell Craven guides us around its well-known streets and buildings, showing how its famous landmarks used to look and how they have changed over the years, as well as exploring its lesser-known sights and hidden corners. With the help of a handy location map, readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and discover for themselves the changing face of Derby.

For centuries, England’s country houses have been where affluent, grand families have displayed their wealth and status. The country is still well endowed with these houses today, although many of them are now popular visitor attractions instead of private homes, but there are also many houses that have disappeared over the years. Some have been demolished as they could no longer be sustained due to the changes in social habits, surrounding development or because of the cost of repairs or ...

Straddling the Derwent River, the cathedral city of Derby, its foundations in the Roman occupation of Britain, can directly attribute its contemporary status to the Industrial Revolution. Spinning mills proliferated from the eighteenth century, initially relying on water power to produce 100 per cent British cotton cloth. Victorian ingenuity and innovation became synonymous with the rapid industrial and commercial expansion that ensued; Arkwright and Pickford became household names. Derby ...

Derby’s history goes back almost 2,000 years, despite a refoundation on a revised site in the tenth century. It is a county town but in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was home to a number scientific and entrepreneurial innovators. Their efforts led to a radical transformation of the borough in the Regency period, which was followed by the introduction of heavy industry: iron founding, railways and textiles. In the twentieth century, some of the older industries went into eclip...

No easily accessible book which lists the emperors (of which there are very many, thanks to the vicissitudes of the empire itself) in alphabetical order for easy reference and in which a reasonably full biographical account of each, with references, has been available. Here it is.This biographical dictionary runs from Caesar’s seizure of power in 49BC to AD602, when the dynasty of Justinian and his successors ended (rather bloodily in a mutiny) and the true Byzantine, much more ent...

For centuries, England’s country houses have been where the rich and grand families have displayed their wealth and status. Today, England is still well endowed with these houses, although many of them are now popular visitor attractions instead of private homes. There are also many houses that have disappeared over the years. Some have been demolished as they could no longer be sustained due to the changes in social habits, surrounding development or because of the cost of repairs or deat...

Derby’s history dates back over 2,000 years to when the Celtic Brigantine tribe inhabited the area on the banks of the River Derwent. Over the centuries Derby grew as an important administrative and trading centre. Its strategic position on the banks of the River Derwent was ideal for the early experimentation of water power and industrialisation. The building of England’s first silk mill in 1717 was a breakthrough. Its success led the way for the Industrial Revolution, creating a model fo...

This is an in-depth re-assessment of the life of Magnus Maximus, Roman Emperor ruling in the west from 383 to 388, drawn from Classical sources and archaeology, which provides a very different impression of his life to the one created by the post-Roman and medieval British insular sources. While most historians tend to dismiss Maximus as an ephemeral usurper, his time in the sun shows every sign of having been a success. He cast a long shadow in Britain, where he was originally proclaimed....