A Sense of Place

DRO visitors will have seen our latest vitrine wall exhibition, A Sense of Place, focusing on the Local Studies Library's Local Authors collection.  Inspired by a booklet published by former local studies librarian Ruth Gordon, we highlight Derbyshire-connected writers from Erasmus Darwin to Richmal Crompton to Stephen Booth, and the varied depictions in print of the Derbyshire …

WW1 Centenary

One hundred years ago today, Britain declared war on Germany and entered a conflict which would claim millions of lives and affect millions more. To mark the centenary, we have an exhibition - The Last Summer - which you can come and view in the Record Office reception area until Saturday 27th September.  Looking at Derbyshire …

Registering a Complaint

As someone who spends a fair amount of my time searching through parish registers, I have been known to silently (or not so silently) curse the handwriting of a long-dead vicar or parish clerk.  They should have foreseen that a few centuries later I would need to decipher their scrawl to find Great-Great-Great-etc-Grandfather Fred!  So I was rather amused to find this …

National Libraries Day

This Saturday, the 8th of February, is National Libraries Day - an opportunity to celebrate libraries and library services across the UK. Visitors to the Record Office will have seen the exhibition in our reception -  'I Didn't Know You'd Got That!' - showcasing the range of material held in the County Local Studies Library collections.  From …

On This Day: ‘Man Killed In A Lead Mine’; ‘A Candidate For Transportation’

From the Derby Mercury, 16th December 1857: Man Killed In A Lead Mine On Friday last, a poor man named Thos. Thorpe, went from his cottage at Bonsall, to Mr. Greaves', Cliff-house, Matlock, to beg a handful of mint, and not returning on that night or the next, his wife and family became seriously alarmed …

On this Day: ‘The Week’s Sports’

From the Alfreton and Belper Journal, 2nd December 1892: The Week's Sports The football shown on Saturday by the different clubs was surprising and goes to show that football (like cricket) is a game upon which you cannot place much confidence as to the results, as the different matches lately played tend to show... ...Last Saturday …

Explore Your Archive – A Derbyshire Spirit Story

From the Derby Mercury, 26 September 1860: A Derbyshire Spirit Story The following singular story is given in Owen's "Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World," as being told to the writer by William Howitt and given in Mr Howitt's own words:- The circumstance you desire to obtain from me is one which I have …

Explore Your Archive – Prisoners of War

I first became aware that there had been Napoleonic prisoners in Derbyshire when I came across an unusual gravestone at St Mary and All Saints church, Chesterfield, aka the Crooked Spire.  The inscription translated as 'In memory of Francois Raingeard, thirty years of age, Prisoner of War, died 1oth March 1812' and bore the message 'Stop Traveller!  If …

Explore Your Archive – Pride and Pugilists: Round Two

Jem Belcher had been left partially blind since 1803 after the ball struck his left eye during a game of rackets.  All too familiarly, he carried on after his 1805 defeat to Henry ‘Hen’ Pearce ‘The Game Chicken’, and suffered further losses against the future champion Tom Cribb in 1807 and 1809.  He seems to …

Explore Your Archive – Pride and Pugilists: Round One

Sir William Gell (1777-1836), archaeologist and topographer, author and illustrator, enjoyed a social circle that encompassed the royal court and the square ring. ...as I was to dine at the Princess of Wales’s to day at Kensington Palace I thought it proper as a specimen of rising & falling in poetry to send for Jim …