1.
Derby
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Derby is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, at the 2011 census, the population was 248,700. Derby gained city status in 1977, Derby was settled by Romans – who established the town of Derventio – Saxons and Vikings, who made Derby one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. Initially a market town, Derby grew rapidly in the industrial era, home to Lombes Mill, an early British factory, Derby has a claim to be one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. It contains the part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. With the arrival of the railways in the 19th century, Derby became a centre of the British rail industry, Toyota Manufacturing UKs automobile headquarters is south west of the city at Burnaston. The Roman camp of Derventio was probably at Little Chester/Chester Green, later the town was one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw, until it was captured by Lady Aethelflaed of Mercia in July 917, subsequent to which the town was annexed into the Kingdom of Mercia. The Viking name Djúra-bý, recorded in Old English as Deoraby and this popular belief is asserted by Tim Lambert who states, The name Derby is derived from the Danish words deor by meaning deer settlement. The name Derwent is Celtic and means a valley thick with oaks, the town name appears, nevertheless, as Darby or Darbye on early modern maps, such as that of Speed. Modern research into the history and archaeology of Derby has provided evidence that the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons probably co-existed, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that Derby is divided by water. These areas of land were known as Norþworþig and Deoraby, and were at the Irongate side of Derby, during the Civil War of 1642–1646, Derby was garrisoned by Parliamentary troops commanded by Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, who was appointed Governor of Derby in 1643. A hundred years later, Bonnie Prince Charlie set up camp at Derby on 4 December 1745, the prince called at The George Inn on Irongate, where the Duke of Devonshire had set up his headquarters, and demanded billets for his 9,000 troops. He stayed at Exeter House, Full Street where he held his council of war, a replica of the room is on display at Derby Museum in the city centre. He had received misleading information about a coming to meet him south of Derby. Although he wished to continue with his quest, he was over-ruled by his fellow officers and he abandoned his invasion at Swarkestone Bridge on the River Trent just a few miles south of Derby. Derby and Derbyshire were among the centres of Britains Industrial Revolution, in 1759, Jedediah Strutt patented and built a machine called the Derby Rib Attachment that revolutionised the manufacture of hose. This attachment was used on the Rev. Lees Framework Knitting Machine, it was placed in front of – and worked in unison with – Lees Frame, the partners were Jedediah Strutt, William Woollatt. The patent was obtained in January 1759, after three years, Bloodworth and Stafford were paid off, and Samuel Need – a hosier of Nottingham – joined the partnership
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
Derwent Valley Mills
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Derwent Valley Mills is a World Heritage Site along the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England, designated in December 2001. It is administered by the Derwent Valley Mills Partnership, the modern factory, or mill, system was born here in the 18th century to accommodate the new technology for spinning cotton developed by Richard Arkwright. With advancements in technology, it possible to produce cotton continuously. The system was adopted throughout the valley, and later spread so that by 1788 there were over 200 Arkwright-type mills in Britain, Arkwrights inventions and system of organising labour was exported to Europe and the United States. Water-power was first introduced to England by John Lombe at his mill in Derby in 1719. His patent of a water frame allowed cotton to be spun continuously, to ensure the presence of a labour force, it was necessary to construct housing for the mill workers. Thus, new settlements were established by mill owners around the mills – sometimes developing a pre-existing community – with their own such as schools, chapels. Most of the still exists and is still in use. Along with the transport infrastructure form part of the site, a transport infrastructure was built to open new markets for the mills produce. Mills and workers settlements were established at Belper, Darley Abbey, Arkwright-type mills were so successful that sometimes they were copied without paying royalties to Richard Arkwright. The mills and their buildings are well preserved and have been reused since the cotton industry declined. Many of the buildings within the World Heritage Site are also listed buildings, some of the mills now contain museums and are open to the public. Within the site are mill complexes, settlements including workers housing, weirs on the River Derwent, and the transport network that supported the mills in the valley. The site consists of the communities of Cromford, Belper, Milford, and Darley Abbey, and includes 838 listed buildings, made up of 16 Grade I,42 Grade II*, a further nine structures are Scheduled Ancient Monuments. The buildings are a mixture of mills, workers housing, the Cromford Canal and Cromford and High Peak Railway, which aided the industrialisation of the area, are also part of the World Heritage Site. In the late 17th century silk making expanded due to demand for silk as part of fashionable garments. In an attempt to increase production through the use of water power, although the experiment was unsuccessful, it convinced John Lombe – an employee of Cotchett – that if water power could be perfected there was a market for its produce. He engaged in espionage and gained plans of Italian machines
4.
Derby Museum and Art Gallery
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Derby Museum and Art Gallery was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. The collection includes a gallery displaying paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby, there is also a large display of Royal Crown Derby and other porcelain from Derby. Further displays include archaeology, natural history, geology and military collections, the Art Gallery was opened in 1882. The museum can trace its start to the formation of the Derby Town and County Museum, the society was housed by Full Street Public Baths but it was a private society funded by its members subscriptions. Its collections were created by donations initially from Dr Forrester who had been a President of Derby Philosophical Society, the patron of the Museum Society was William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, and the President was Sir George Crewe who was a keen naturalist. Col. George Gawler contributed a collection of minerals and exotic stuffed birds which included an albatross from his time as governor in South Australia, in 1839 a major exhibition was held at the Mechanics Institute which contained many items including those from Joseph Strutts collection. Many of these made their way into Derby Museums collection, the society moved in 1840 to the Athenaeum in Victoria Street. The societys collections grew in 1856 and they were first offered for incorporation into the town by William Mundy, in 1857, Llewellyn Jewitt became secretary and the museum was opened to the general public on Saturday mornings. In 1858 the Derby Philosophical Society moved to a house on the Wardwick in Derby as it merged with what was called the Derby Town and County Museum and this move included the societys library of 4,000 volumes, mathematical and scientific apparatus and its collection of fossils. In 1863 the botanist Alexander Croall was appointed the first Librarian and Curator, Croall left in 1875 to become the curator of the Smith Institute in Stirling. The Derby Town and County Museum was finally transferred into the ownership of Derby Corporation in 1870, after placing all the artefacts into storage for three years, the museum was finally opened to the public on 28 June 1879. The Art Gallery opened in 1882 and in 1883 the museum had electricity supplied for new lighting, in 1936 the museum was given a substantial collection of paintings by Alfred E. Goodey who had been collecting art for 50 years. At his death in 1945 he left £13,000 to build an extension to the museum, the extension, which now houses the museum, was completed in 1964. Refurbishment to parts of both the new and old buildings were undertaken in 2010–11, Derby was significant in the eighteenth century for its role in the Enlightenment, a period in which science and philosophy challenged the divine right of kings to rule. The Lunar Society included Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton, Joseph Priestley, Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, started the Derby Philosophical Society when he moved to Derby in 1783. It was this society which helped to found the first library in Derby, some of the paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby, which are renowned for their use of light and shade, are of Lunar Society members. The Derby Gallery possesses over 300 sketches and 34 oil paintings by Wright, one of the paintings is entitled The Alchymist in Search of the Philosophers Stone and it depicts the discovery of the element phosphorus by German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669. A flask into which a quantity of urine has been boiled down is seen bursting into light as the phosphorus
5.
Francis Leggatt Chantrey
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Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA was an English sculptor. He became the leading sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts. He left the Chantrey Bequest or Chantrey Fund for the purchase of works of art for the nation, Chantrey was born at Jordanthorpe near Norton, where his father had a small farm. His father, who dabbled in carpentry and wood-carving, died when Francis was twelve. In 1802 Chantrey paid £50 to buy out of his apprenticeship with Ramsay and immediately set up a studio as a portrait artist in Sheffield. For several years he divided his time between Sheffield and London, studying intermittently at the Royal Academy Schools, in the summer of 1802 he travelled to Dublin, where he fell very ill, losing all his hair. He exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy for a few years from 1804, but from 1807 onwards devoted himself mainly to sculpture. Asked later in life, as a witness in a case, whether he had ever worked for any other sculptors, he replied, No. His first recorded marble bust was one of the Rev. James Wilkinson and his first imaginative sculpture, a head of Satan was shown at the Royal Academy in 1808. Three of them were shown at the Royal Academy that year, on 23 November 1809 he married his cousin, Mary Ann Wale at St Marys Church, Twickenham. He also bought land to two more houses, a studio and offices. In 1811 he showed six busts in the Royal Academy, the subjects included Horne Tooke and Sir Francis Burdett, two political figures he greatly admired, his early mentor John Raphael Smith, and Benjamin West. Joseph Nollekens placed the bust of Tooke between two of his own, and the given to it is said to have had a significant influence on Chantreys career. In the wake of the exhibition he received commissions amounting to £2,000, in 1813 he was able to raise his price for a bust to a hundred and fifty guineas, and in 1822 to two hundred. He visited Paris in 1814, and again in 1815, this time with his wife, Thomas Stothard, in 1819 he went to Italy, accompanied by the painter John Jackson, and an old friend named Read. In Rome he met Thorvaldsen and Canova, getting to know the latter especially well, in 1828 Chantrey set up his own foundry in Eccleston Place, not far from his house and studio, where large-scale works in bronze, including equestrian statues, could be cast. His assistants would make a clay model based on the drawings. A plaster cast would be made of the model
6.
Joseph Wright of Derby
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Joseph Wright ARA, styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution, Wright is notable for his use of chiaroscuro effect, which emphasises the contrast of light and dark, and for his paintings of candle-lit subjects. Many of Wrights paintings and drawings are owned by Derby City Council, Joseph Wright was born in Irongate, Derby to a respectable family of lawyers. The third of five children of John Wright, attorney, and Town Clerk of Derby, Joseph had two elder brothers, John and Richard Wright. Deciding to become a painter, Wright went to London in 1751, after painting portraits for a while at Derby, Wright again worked as an assistant to Hudson for fifteen months. Wright also spent a period in Liverpool, from 1768 to 1771. These included pictures of a number of prominent citizens and their families, Wright married Ann Swift, the daughter of a leadminer, on 28 July 1773 Wright and his wife had six children, three of whom died in infancy. Wright set off in 1773 with John Downman, a pregnant Ann Wright and their ship took shelter for three weeks in Nice before they completed their outward voyage in Livorno in Italy in February 1774. Downman returned to Britain in 1775, on his return from Italy he established himself at Bath as a portrait-painter, but meeting with little encouragement he returned to Derby in 1777, where he spent the rest of his life. He became increasingly asthmatic and nervous about the house, and for these complaints he was treated by his friend Erasmus Darwin, Ann Wright died on 17 August 1790. On 29 August 1797 Wright died at his new home at No.28 Queen Street, Derby, where he had spent his final months with his two daughters. Wright was a frequent contributor to the exhibitions of the Society of Artists, and to those of the Royal Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1781 and his Old Man and Death is also a striking and individual production. It hangs in the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College and its companion piece, Dovedale by Sunlight captures the colors of day. Another memorable image from his tour of the Lake District is Rydal Waterfall of 1795, cave at evening is painted with the same dramatic chiaroscuro for which Joseph Wright is noted. The painting was executed during 1774, while he was staying in Italy, notice the similarities to the Museum of Fine Arts, Bostons holding, Grotto by the Seaside in the Kingdom of Naples with Banditti, Sunset. Wright had close contact with the industrialists of the Midlands. One of Wrights students, William Tate, was uncle to the eccentric gentleman tunneler Joseph Williamson, Wright also had connections with Erasmus Darwin and other members of the Lunar Society, which brought together leading industrialists, scientists, and philosophers. An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, shows people gathered round observing an early experiment into the nature of air, the Alchemist in Search of the Philosophers Stone depicts the discovery of the element phosphorus by German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669
7.
Ashford Black Marble
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Ashford Black Marble is the name given to a dark limestone, quarried from mines near Ashford-in-the-Water, in Derbyshire, England. Once cut, turned and polished, its shiny black surface is highly decorative, Ashford Black Marble is a very fine-grained sedimentary rock, and is not a true marble in the geological sense. It can be cut and inlaid with other stones and minerals. Derby Museum has a diagram of Ecton Hill made from Ashford Black Marble, the decorative uses of the local black mineral have been found in prehistoric finds, but the first recorded customer was Bess of Hardwick in 1580. Henry Watson, the uncle of Derbyshire geologist White Watson, is regarded as one of the key figures in the development of the industry of inlaying Ashford Black Marble in the 1750s. He owned a mill at Ashford in the Water. There was a trade in the manufacture of urns, obelisks and other decorative items from Ashford Black Marble during the late 18th. John Mawe had a museum in Matlock Bath that dealt in black marble and Ann Rayner engraved pictures, next door at another museum, many fine examples of engraved and inlaid black marble exist in local collections, including those of Derby Museum, Buxton Museum, and Chatsworth House. In 2009 huge blocks of unworked Ashford Black Marble were unearthed during work near to the Seven Stars public house in Derby. The plan was to them due to the rarity of unworked Ashford Black marble. It was speculated that the rocks had been abandoned when an Ashford Black Marble manufacturer moved in the 1880s, although referred to as marble, the rock is of purely sedimentary origin. It is a dark, fine-grained, muddy Carboniferous limestone, rich in bitumen which gives it its dark grey colouration which turns a glossy black when polished, the prime source of this rock was from Arrock Mine, and later in 1832 from nearby Rookery Plantation, near Ashford-in-the-Water. The limestone can be turned on a lathe to create urns, candlesticks and other objects, or sawn to produce smooth, flat items such as obelisks. Derby Museum and Art Gallery holds collections of worked and part-worked items of Ashford Black Marble and this includes a range of pre-cut pieces ready for inlaying into the black marble background. Items such as forget-me-not and lily of the flowers would typically be represented. The rarest mineral was known as Dukes Red and this was so valuable that it was stored at Chatsworth House, the tabletop design illustrated shows some of the combinations described here. Derby Museum has a diagram of Ecton Hill made from Ashford Black Marble, William Martin, who at one time worked with Watson, wrote the first scientific study of fossils. His Petrifacta Derbiensia recounts that White Watsons uncle and workers at the Black Marble quarry called some of the fossils crocodile tails as they thought they were the remains of crocodiles
8.
Francis Octavius Grenfell
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Francis Octavius Grenfell, VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was born on 4 September 1880 to Sophia and Pascoe Du Pré Grenfell and he was one of fifteen children. He had a brother, Riversdale Grenfell, also in the 9th Lancers. Their maternal grandfather was Admiral John Pascoe Grenfell and other relatives included their uncle, Field Marshal Francis Grenfell, an older brother, Lieutenant Robert Septimus Grenfell, 21st Lancers, was killed in a cavalry charge during the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. Three other brothers, Cecil Grenfell, Howard Maxwell Grenfell and Arthur Morton Grenfell all reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army. An Etonian who represented his school at cricket, Grenfell joined the army in 1900 and first served in the Second Boer War in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. Grenfell was 33 years old, and a Captain in the 9th Lancers, on 24 August 1914 at Audregnies, Belgium, Captain Grenfell rode with the regiment in a charge against a large body of unbroken German infantry. The casualties were heavy and the captain was left as the senior officer. He was rallying part of the regiment behind an embankment when he was twice hit. He was killed in action on 24 May 1915 and is buried in the Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery and his Victoria Cross is displayed at the Regimental Museum of the 9th/12th Royal Lancers housed in Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, England. All nine of the Grenfell brothers were accomplished polo players, Francis and his brother, Riversdale Grenfell, were regarded as the best in the family. Francis was rated at an 8-goal handicap, Francis and Riversdale Grenfell, A Memoir. Monuments to Courage The Register of the Victoria Cross VCs of the First World War -1914 Works by or about Francis Octavius Grenfell at Internet Archive Francis Grenfell, First World War
9.
Allenton hippopotamus
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The Allenton Hippo is a substantive hippopotamus skeleton that was found in Allenton, Derby, England, in 1895. The skeleton is exhibited in Derby Museum and Art Gallery and is 3 metres in length and it is celebrated today in a sculpture near to where the skeleton was discovered. The suburb of Derby called Allenton used to be a village 5 kilometres from Derby, digging of a new well at the Crown Inn in the village was undertaken in March 1895, but work stopped when the diggers discovered first a bad smell and then large and unusual bones. Several notable people agreed to further investigations and it was agreed that the findings should be shared with the community. The hole was extended until it was 4.5 square metres in area although the depth was concealed by water, pumps were obtained and men were employed to power them in order that the hole could be dug further. These proceedings were observed by H. H. Bemrose and R. M, deeley who later wrote an account of the digging. As agreed by the people who funded it the bones were given to Derby Museum which had then been open for sixteen years and they eventually discovered 127 bones that came mostly from a hippopotamus, with a few belonging to rhinoceros and elephant. The deposits have dated to the Ipswichian Interglacial, approximately 120,000 years ago. The presence of a hippopotamus indicates that the climate was warmer than today, the winters would have no prolonged periods of frost and the average summer temperature would have been above eighteen degrees Celsius. In July 1973 workers discovered other bone fragments whilst digging in nearby Boulton Moor – some of which are displayed in Derby Museum. These excavations, for a sewer, uncovered bones from bear, deer, ox and more bones from hippopotamus, rhinoceros and these findings were just one or two bones – the best discovery was one of the largest hippo teeth found in Britain. In 2006 Michael Dan Archer was commissioned to create a sculpture for Allenton, discussions in Allenton revealed a desire within the community to have something that reflected the areas history. Archers sculpture consists of three sections of a ring of black granite of sufficient size to form a seat. Above the polished granite surface are set cast-iron copies of bones from the hippos skeleton and this model then allowed exact copies of the bones chosen by Archer to be cast in iron
10.
William Hunt Painter
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William Hunt Painter was an English botanist who made a significant contribution to the science of Derbyshire vascular plant flora. He was a keen and wide-ranging collector of plant specimens, and was a member of the Botanical Exchange Club, in 1889 he published the first in a series of four books, all by different authors and spanning 120 years, all called The Flora of Derbyshire. William Hunt Painter was born in Aston, near Birmingham, on 16 July 1835 and he was the eldest of five born to William, a haberdasher, and his wife Sarah, born Hawkes. His early career was in banking before he decided to join the Church of England, in 1861 he was staying in Chelsea, where he was a lay preaching assistant. Painter attended the Church Missionary Society College, Islington, where he would expect to be sent abroad by the Church Mission Society and it was here that he met Robert Wood, who introduced him to botany. In 1865, Painter became curate at High Wycombe, where he met James Britten, despite Brittens emerging Catholic beliefs, the two would walk and talk together whilst indulging their interest in botany. Painter married Jane Stamps in 1871, in 1881 he and his wife were living in Bedminster, Somerset, where he was a curate. Painter did much work on the flora of Derbyshire, publishing a lengthy paper in 1881. Together these formed the basis of Contributions to the Flora of Derbyshire, Painter published a supplement to his work in The Naturalist, which indicated that he wanted to improve it. Bagnall was an expert on mosses and was to publish a similar work to Painters on the Flora of Warwickshire. In 1891, Painter was a curate at Biddulph in Staffordshire, then in 1894, he was appointed Rector of Stirchley in Shropshire. The rectory was modernised for his arrival, but his stay there was remembered for the maintenance he undertook on the church, whilst staying in Falmouth in the spring of 1898, Painter took up the study of mosses. From that time on became the focus of his botanical interests. By travelling and swapping specimens he was able to write papers on the mosses of Derbyshire, Brecon, Falmouth, Painter remained in Stirchley until 1909, when his botanical and geological specimens were presented to University College, Aberystwyth before he retired to Shrewsbury. Painter died the year and was buried in his church in Stirchley. On his death, the English Churchman said he Church of England has lost a faithful, Painter was a keen collector and a member of the Botanical Exchange Club. There are few plants that are found in Britain. One of the plants on this list is possibly Fumaria painteri or Painter’s Fumitory and this flower has only been found twice, in 1905 and 1907, and in both cases it was found by Painter
11.
Joseph Whittaker
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Joseph Whittaker was a British botanist who visited South Australia in 1839. Whittaker has 300 plants from that trip in Kew Gardens and a collection of pressed British plants in Derby Museum. Whittakers exact birth date is not known and he was christened at Quarndon near Derby on 8 February 1813. His father, also named Joseph, was a labourer, married to Sarah, the son is sometimes reported as being born in Breadsall in 1815. In 1838 Whittaker gave his occupation as gardener when he set sail with his new employer Lt. Col. George Gawler, Whittaker, seven other employees from Derbyshire, Gawler and his wife and children arrived on the Pestonjee Bomanjee on 12 October 1838 in Adelaide. They had made a journey via Tenerife and Rio de Janeiro. When Whittaker and Gawler arrived they found that conditions were poor and he is known for the plants that he collected around Adelaide in South Australia in 1839-40. During breaks in his employment Whittaker travelled to places within South Australia where he collected and preserved a wide range of plant specimens. These included Mount Lofty range, Mount Jagged, River Torrens, River Murray, Whittaker was the first person to seriously collect from the mountainous district of the Fleurieu Peninsula, Encounter Bay and Mount Barker. Whittaker stayed in South Australia for nineteen months before sailing home on the Katherine Stuart Forbes which set sail from Port Adelaide on 11 April 1840, on the way home his boat stopped four times, at Kangaroo Island, Mauritius, St Helena and Corvo Island in the Azores. Whittaker collected and pressed further plant specimens whilst the boat was in these harbours, Whittaker arrived back in England on 23 September 1840 and by 1844 had begun collecting plants again. His activity peaked in 1851 and 52, ceasing sometime after 1867 and he collected from many parts of Derbyshire, but he occasionally travelled outside the county including Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, Rhyl and Denbigh in Wales. By 1846 he was living at Breadsall in Derbyshire where he was a schoolmaster at Breadsall Boys School. From here he corresponded with Sir William J. Hooker Director of the Kew Botanic Gardens in an attempt to exchange some of his Australian, Whittaker collected approximately 300 plants that were eventually acquired by Kew. Whittakers collections from outside the U. K. are now in Kew Gardens, Whittaker had the species of sundew Drosera whittakeri named after him. In February 1847 Whittaker was elected a member of the Botanical Society of London and he subsequently joined the Botanical Exchange Club and eventually the Botanical Locality Record Club. By 1847 he had amassed enough botanical information to publish a list of plants found in the neighbourhood of Breadsall. This contained a mixture of rare and relatively abundant species, and gives a good indication of the botanical diversity of the area at that time
12.
Richard Arkwright
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Sir Richard Arkwright was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. Although his patents were overturned, he is credited with inventing the spinning frame. He also patented a rotary carding engine that transformed raw cotton into cotton lap, Arkwrights achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. Later in his life Arkwright was known as the father of the industrial factory system. Richard Arkwright, the youngest of seven surviving children, was born in Preston, Lancashire and his father, Thomas, was a tailor and a Preston Guild burgess. The family is recorded in the Preston Guild Rolls now held by Lancashire Record Office, Richards parents, Sarah and Thomas, could not afford to send him to school and instead arranged for him to be taught to read and write by his cousin Ellen. Richard was apprenticed to a Mr Nicholson, a barber at nearby Kirkham and it was here that he invented a waterproof dye for use on the fashionable periwigs of the time, the income from which later funded his prototype cotton machinery. Arkwright married his first wife, Patience Holt, in 1755 and they had a son, Richard Arkwright Junior, who was born the same year. In 1756, Patience died of unspecified causes, Arkwright later married Margaret Biggins in 1761 at the age of 29 years. They had three children, of whom only Susanna survived to adulthood and it was only after the death of his first wife that he became an entrepreneur. He became interested in spinning and carding machinery that turned raw cotton into thread, in 1768, he and John Kay, a clockmaker, briefly returned to Preston renting rooms in a house on Stoneygate, now known as Arkwright House, where they worked on a spinning machine. In 1769 Arkwright patented the spinning frame, which known as the water-frame. Lewis Paul had invented a machine for carding in 1748, Arkwright and John Smalley set up a small horse-driven factory at Nottingham. Needing more capital to expand, Arkwright partnered with Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need, wealthy hosiery manufacturers, in 1771, the partners built the worlds first water-powered mill at Cromford, employing 200 people mainly women and children. Arkwright spent £12,000 perfecting his machine, which contained the crank and he had mechanised all the preparatory and spinning processes, and he began to set up water-powered cotton mills as far away as Scotland. His success encouraged others to copy him, so he had great difficulty in enforcing the patent he was granted in 1775. Samuel Crompton was later to combine the two to form the spinning mule, in 1776 Arkwright built a second, larger mill at Cromford and, soon after, mills at Bakewell and Wirksworth. He was invited to Scotland where he helped David Dale establish the cotton mills at New Lanark, a large new mill at Birkacre, Lancashire, was destroyed, however, in the anti-machinery riots in 1779
