North Parade - Area
Click an image for a large framed picture, but please wait for all the pictures to load first

The Strutts purchased land from Thomas Gisborne in 1803. Some 23 years later they proceeded to sell much of the land off, including  some land off Darley Lane. It was on this land that 1-16 North Parade was constructed, the houses being built in two lots of eight on a falling site, which provides an extra storey at the rear these are a fine row of stone faced houses with classical door cases; these houses are now Grade II listed.

Opposite are the rears of the homes on North Parade showing the three storeys, below on the opposite side of the road are a series of new apartment blocks that have sprung up.

At the top end of North Parade we have River Street, which is a nice cobbled street leading to St Alkmunds well.

This well is the last surviving holy well that existed in the middle ages in Derby, it dates back to 800, at the time of the dedication of the first minister church of Derby to the Northumbrian martyr St Alkmund

The well was used for the ancient tradition of Well Dressing but discontinued from the late 1960's after the closure of the original Saint Alkmunds Church

A little further down North Parade on Bath Street we find this the appropriately named Bath Street Mill, built in 1848 as a silk mill, originally being only 3 storeys high and 12 bays wide

The mill’s founder was a local man, George Holme (1813-1896), the elder son of a Derby shoe maker called Daniel.

The Mill building is now subject to redevelopment plans

George Holme (1813-1896), was appointed Mayor of Derby in November 1874, and was the first to introduce elastic web-weaving by power looms into Derby. Holme also owned a boot shop in Rotten Row.
His son, George Holme junior (1841-1893), joined the firm in due course, and by around 1863 he was largely managing the business. In 1892 Mr. George Holmes was employing between 200-300 hands at Bath Street.  In 1901 George Arthur Holme came into the firm as a Director. The firm earned numerous International awards and prize medals for its products in the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s. They went out of business in the 1920s.

Strutts Park was designated as a Conservation Area in November 1991. The area was originally part of the Darley Hall estate until 1766, when the land to the north of Bridge Gate was purchased by John Gisborne. It was the Gisbornes who built St Helen’s House, to the design by Joseph Pickford. This splendid building (Grade I listed) has an excellent stone-faced Palladian façade, and a giant portico detailed in the Ionic Order.

Once being St Helen’s Grammar School, and latterly a Council Community Education Centre, with whom the building was neglected and left to decay.

A rare postcard above left, of Derby Grammar School, with a similar view above right, taken in 2006, I wonder if it's the same tree!

A rare open space at the opposite end of North Parade!!

St Mary's vicarage below left and St Mary's RC club below right , Bridge Gate further below with the steps leading up to St Mary's church

Rivermead House is Derby’s only high rise tower block on Bath Street,  built in 1963, this tower block fits more comfortably into its surrounding than many similar blocks in other towns and cities. Thankfully Derby didn't go overboard with more like these.