Portal:Derbyshire/Article Archive/2007
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[edit] September 2007
Derbyshire (pronounced "dar-bee-sher" /ˈdɑːbɪʃə/, as opposed to "dar-bee-shire") is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains part of the National Forest, and borders on Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Cheshire.
The city of Derby is now a unitary authority, but remains part of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. The administrative county countains 13 towns with between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, there is a large amount of sparsely populated agricultural upland: 75% of the population live in 25% of the area. Although Derbyshire is in the East Midlands, some parts, such as High Peak, are closer to the northern cities of Manchester and Sheffield.
[edit] October 2007
Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational and comprehensive in 1974 and was closed in 1989. In 1994 a new independent school called Derby Grammar School for boys was founded.
The school was re-founded in the 12th century by a local magnate, Walkelin de Derby (also called Walkelin de Ferrieres, or de Ferrers) and his wife, Goda de Toeni, who gave their own house to an Augustinian priory called Darley Abbey to be used for the school. Local legend has it that it was the second oldest school in England. However, there is no firm information as to the site of the original school.
While Derby School was in existence almost continuously for more than eight centuries, it was closed for a few years as a result of the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Following the extinction of Darley Abbey, on 21 May 1554, Queen Mary I by a Royal Charter, and in return for a payment of £260 13s 4d, granted the corporation of Derby several properties and endowments which had belonged to Darley Abbey, the College of All Saints, St Michael's Church, and some other suppressed chantries and gilds, for the foundation of "a Free Grammar School, for the instruction and education of boys and youths in the said town of Derby for ever to be maintained by the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the same town.
(More on Derby School...)
[edit] November 2007
The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire.
Most of the area falls within the Peak District National Park, whose designation in 1951 made it the earliest national park in the British Isles. An area of great diversity, it is conventionally split into the northern Dark Peak, where most of the moorland is found and whose geology is gritstone, and the southern White Peak, where most of the population lives and where the geology is mainly limestone-based. Proximity to the major conurbations of the Midlands, Yorkshire and Lancashire, coupled with easy access by road and rail, make it the most visited national park in the UK.
The Peak District forms the southern end of the Pennines and much of the area is uplands above 300 m, with a high point on Kinder Scout of 636 m. Despite its name, the landscape lacks sharp peaks, being characterised by rounded hills and gritstone escarpments (the "edges"). The area is surrounded by major conurbations, including Huddersfield, Manchester, Sheffield, Derby and Stoke-on-Trent.
The National Park covers 555 square miles (1,438 square km) of Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and South and West Yorkshire, including the majority of the area commonly referred to as the Peak. The Park boundaries were drawn to exclude large built-up areas and industrial sites from the park; in particular, the town of Buxton and the adjacent quarries are located at the end of the Peak Dale corridor, surrounded on three sides by the Park. The town of Bakewell and numerous villages are, however, included within the boundaries, as is much of the (non-industrial) west of Sheffield. As of 2006, it is the fourth largest National Park in England and Wales.
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[edit] December 2007
Chatsworth House is a large country house at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England, 3½ miles north east of Bakewell, originally built by Bess of Hardwick. It is the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, whose family name is Cavendish. Chatsworth stands on the left bank of the River Derwent and looks across the river to the low hills that divide the valleys of the Derwent and the Wye. The Park is expansive, and the house is backed by rocky hills covered with bracken and heather. The house contains a unique collection of priceless paintings, furniture, Old Master drawings, neoclassical sculpture and other artefacts. Chatsworth's garden is one of the most famous in England. Chatsworth has been selected as the United Kingdom's favourite country house several times.
The building history and layout of Chatsworth are quite complex. The diagram in this leaflet gives an approximate idea of the structure of the house and stables (but the carriage house at the back of the stables is largely omitted). North is to the left and the west front of the house faces the bottom of the page. The main block of the house is to the right and built around a courtyard which was reconstructed to its present form over about 20 years from 1687. The long north wing on the left was added in the early nineteenth century. The long building between two is the Conservative Walk, and the 1970 Display Greenhouse and the 1st Duke's Greenhouse are in front of it (see the garden section below). The house is built on sloping ground. The ground level is lower on the north and west sides than on the south and east (and so are the floors of the ground floor rooms inside). The east facing first floor rooms in the north wing are actually at ground floor level as seen from the garden, but the ground floor rooms beneath them look onto a gently sloping lawn, so they are not really basement rooms.
(More on Chatsworth House...)
