Month: March 2012

Another unusual name

/ Mark Smith / Leave a comment

I might mention this one in conversation with Aleena Naylor on Radio Derby this coming Monday (11.15am or thereabouts) – we are supposed to be discussing the rise and fall of forenames over the years, but I haven’t worked out what to say just yet!  Anyway, while looking through some parish register printouts to check the frequency of Johns and Marys, we spotted someone baptised at Darley Dale in the name of Hydranthea Brenda Zara Fox.  She was born to parents Willoughby George Fox (gentleman) and Eliza Anne Jane Fox on 5 June 1869.  A quick check on freebmd.org.uk tells me hers was the only birth registered in the name of Hydranthea during the entire century.  I can’t find her death certificate, though – which makes me wonder whether she altered the spelling, or even elected to go by the name Brenda.

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Laying the foundations…

/ Sarah Chubb / Leave a comment

The official start of our building project was marked on leap day (29 February), when Councillor Andrew Lewer, the Leader of Derbyshire County Council came to lay the foundations.  The ceremony was attended by the Strategic Director of Cultural and Community Services, Martin Molloy, and other representatives from the County Council, Wates (the main contractor for the project) and Scape, who are constructing the building framework.

This hopefully marks the beginning of the change from mud to concrete on site.  The contractors have been busy for the past few months putting deep piles into the ground to stop the new extension – and the existing building – from sliding down the very steep hill!  Soon the crane should be going up and the extension will start to emerge from the mud…

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