St Mary's Goods Yard - Page 2 of 2
Click an image for a large framed picture, but please wait for all the pictures to load first

The area between the new Prime Parkway that leads to the new police station and Fox Street that takes you to Landau Forte was previously St Mary's goods yard, the original site went all the way back to Clark Street. The site is now known as St Mary's Wharf, various business's, a gymnasium and of course the new Police Station along with the coroners office now occupy the site. Fortunately most of the existing buildings have been fully restored, and the majority of new buildings that have been constructed on the site have been built in keeping with the overall surroundings.

The dates of the pictures vary from 1979, 1989, 1991 and 2005, the early ones were originally taken on 35mm slide film

Factoids

• Derby Co operative Provident Society was the 3rd such society to be set up in the country

• Derby Co operative Provident Society building was the first to have electric lifts in the country

These pictures were the 1903 Derby co-operative Provident society's main building in a very sorry state, the picture below left was the works canteen entrance and the picture bottom right was the main gates?

The Derby Co operative Provident Society Limited was set up in 1850, the third so society to be established in the country. Most of the men who started the society were employed by Mr Mansfield Cooper, whose workshops were in St. Mary's Gate. The first committee meeting was held at Thomas Brown's house at 56 Abbey Street. A hay loft in George Yard, Saddler's Gate, was rented and Henderson became the first secretary of the co operative food store, which was open three nights a week and manned by lodge committeemen. The co op bought a pair of second-hand scales and weights, together with a bag of flour, from Shaw's the Millers in St. Michael's Lane, and a parcel of food from Bakewell's, the grocers at Market Head.

The members of the committee were Thomas Brown, James Cooper, Thomas Whittle, Samuel Lean, James Walker, George Allen, Robert Riley, William Corner, John Aslin, William Johnson, Jonathan Henderson (Secretary & President) and Samuel Smith (Treasurer).

Little did they know how successful this venture would turn out to be!

Lynx Express which was part of the National Freight Consortium (NFC) transport depot on Clarke Street, that occupied some of the large warehouses on the site, the sheds on the left of Lynx were occupied by Pickfords.

Above left was the view in 1991 not long after the old co-op building was demolished, the same view in June 2005 above right we can see the Landau Forte Technical College sports pitch, the end terrace house you can see is still there! as the owners at the time of the building of the college refused to sell, so the development had to be built around the homes. The two pictures below left shows the materials being piled up ready for the construction and the two pictures below right show the two remaining end terrace homes, in the top one you can see the Bridge Inn in the distance and the bottom one shows the house virtually surrounded by the college!

Looking towards the Bridge Inn with St Mary's bridge on the left. Left picture was taken in 1991 the same view taken 2005 on the right, and the advertising boards are still there!

This pair of houses still remain in the vicinity and share a courtyard, they were built in 1758, three storeys high with concrete tiled roofs,  no 53 shown below right was the Punch Bowl public house, it was converted in 1910 to a domestic dwelling

Back to page 1