Category:Eras

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From the arrival of the Romans to the onset of the Industrial Revolution and beyond, Derbyshire has seen huge changes over the centuries.

The repercussion of global events, like the First World War and the Second World War, were immense, causing not just death and destruction but disruption on a massive scale. The stories listed here describe some of the effects of these two conflicts on the lives of ordinary people in this county. Read about the night a lost Zeppelin bombed Derby, for example, or the heartbreaking account of a little girl evacuated for six years during World War II with no word from home.

There are lots of other articles too, chronicling the events that have made Derbyshire what it is today, including an account about the 1831 riots in Derby over the right to vote that led to three people being killed. Browse the list below to discover more.

Other Catagories: Famous Residents Places Sport Work Leisure Transport Education

1

• 1500s: Streets were empty for this Queen's visit
• 1700s: Sea Wolf's legendary exploits inspired Hornblower
• 1700s: US patriot and his links to Derby
• 1700s: Why did the Chevalier who liked to dress as a woman visit Derby
• 1800s: Legendary Victorian burglar's local links
• 1800s: No hard feelings over Pentrich affair?
• 1800s: Pubs shops and homes side by side
• 1800s: Rioting over the right to vote
• 1800s: Rough justice for petty criminals
• 1800s: The days when love really did conquer all
• 1800s: When fear turned Derbeians True Blue
• 1830s: Days when derby boasted 144 pubs
• 1840s: John Platts hanged
• 1890s: Explorer's chilling tales of Frozen North
• 1900s
• 1910s: Titanic dream meant Geoffrey (96) survived to tell many a tale
• 1920s
• 1920s: Dad's notebook told of plight of the poor
• 1920s: No bitterness over lost childhood
• 1920s: St Andrew's days etched forever
• 1930s
• 1930s: A child's view of the death of a king
• 1930s: A year of tragedy and war worries
• 1930s: An unforgettable Christmas in the deep mid-winter of the 1930s
• 1930s: Diary records the simple pleasures
• 1930s: First for town's first citizen
• 1930s: Friends and neighbours on father's patch of Darley Abbey
• 1930s: Henry Royce is mourned
• 1930s: Lungs of Derby provided breath of fresh air
• 1930s: No radio but we were surrounded by music
• 1930s: Prams pans fish beds or gossip were all available in one street
• 1930s: Right royal knees-up
• 1930s: Ring road taking shape
• 1930s: The never-ending delights of housework was the future offered to teenage girls
• 1930s: The towpath to adventure
• 1930s: When we patched up our bikes
• 1932 souvenir booklet was sold to help flood victims
• 1940s
• 1940s: 60 years since misery of the 47 big freeze
• 1940s: Centaurs obey call to carry their ID cards ALWAYS...With a little help
• 1940s: Derbeians love royal visits
• 1940s: How we tackled the coughs and sneezes that spread diseases
• 1940s: Life as a land girl in the 1940s
• 1940s: Motoring memories from half a century
• 1940s: The Derby Jack kissed goodbye 57 years ago
• 1940s: The days of steam radio and nine-inch TV screens
• 1940s: The night the bombers took Dad by surprise
• 1950s
• 1950s: A deep voice announced that George VI had died
• 1950s: A great life on the ocean waves
• 1950s: A mirage No it was Santa flying in for Christmas in the desert
• 1950s: Beloved King is mourned
• 1950s: Christmas card that rekindled romance from 50 years ago
• 1950s: City parachutist leapt into Suez Crisis action
• 1950s: Do you remember day the earth moved?
• 1950s: Feeding the 1200 at Chatsworth Park
• 1950s: God Save Queen Elizabeth II
• 1950s: Hot food for Cold War trial
• 1950s: It was all for one and one for all in the Last Drop over Egypt during Operation Musketeer
• 1950s: Learning the ropes in the RAF
• 1950s: Lucky to be alive after riding 200ft waves in stormy seas
• 1950s: Nostalgic for ‘dear old Derby’ from the US of A
• 1950s: Outcry over death duty treasure haul
• 1950s: RAF's 6 Squadron led attack in the Suez zone
• 1950s: Radar failure caused mid-air Meteor collision
• 1950s: Refugees stir up emotions

1 cont.

• 1950s: Reminiscences of a Derby Post Office penny runner
• 1950s: Rock 'n' Roll stars killed in plane crash
• 1950s: The League of Friends of Derbyshire Children’s Hospital
• 1950s: Tip really was man’s best friend
• 1950s: Train, plane and car crashes claim scores of lives
• 1950s: Yuletide spend spend spend as rationing ends
• 1960s: 'Old moon eyes' was racing hero
• 1960s: Bus driver delivers mum in labour to front door
• 1960s: Cliff Richard's one-night stand in Derby
• 1960s: Is Derby becoming a city with no character or soul
• 1960s: Kennedy elected as Presidential candidate
• 1960s: Kennedy visits sister's grave
• 1960s: Memorable times in Derby
• 1960s: Merseybeats keep Derby's teenage girls at arm's length!
• 1960s: No mission was impossible for the Rev John Tudor
• 1960s: Ready to face a nuclear attack on Derby...or simply pull open the opera show curtains
• 1960s: The great sounds and sights of the sixties will live on
• 1960s: The love story that broke the barriers of racial prejudice in Derby and lasted 42 years
• 1970s
• 1980s
• 1980s: 'Safe houses' scheme for kids
• 1980s: Prince Charles visits Derby in February 1981.
• 1990s

4

• 40s

5

• 50s

6

• 60s - The Swinging Sixties

A

• A force of nature
• A milkman’s life was full of fun – and suggestive offers
• A tale of Cold War and sunny peace in the heart of rural Derbyshire
• A waiting game as friends went to war, one by one...
• All the fun of the fair at Easter in Derby
• Americans were badly burned but glad to be alive

B

• Balloon proves war talk was more than hot air
• Battle of Britain Lace Panel
• Bell, Richard: Derby's first MP
• Busy life and times of man who lived through two world wars

C

• Car rides were a special treat in war years
• Central heating, TV, computers and no canes in schools - life just ain't what it used to be!
• Charles's last Derby trip as a bachelor boy
• Childhood memories of Empire Day
• Christmas: A glimpse of Christmas from ‘our time of life’
• Christmas: Christians awake! Santa’s been
• Clippie recalls great times on the buses in the 50s
• Coffin roads and corpse ways
• Colourful times at Co-op paint works in the 1950s
• Could the January sales become a thing of the past?
• Couple uncover tale of brave grandfather killed in Great War
• Courage of disfigured Derbyshire servicemen
• Cutting a dash as a dedicated follower of fashion

D

• Dad built longest PoW tunnel
• Death in the Trenches
• Derby cinemas in the 40s, 50s, 60s.
• Derby family’s aristocratic link
• Derby was given a First World War tank
• Derby/Recent history
• Derby/The Middle Ages to the 18th century
• Derbyshire welcomed the People’s Princess with flags, flowers and wide-open arms
• Doll and dreams lay shattered
• Domesday Book
• Dramatic moments before Cavendish Bridge collapsed

E

• Eagle Centre: Taking a trip down the streets where we lived in the Eagle Street area
• Election fever of the 1930s
• Eras

F

• Fans? We just wanted a go on the trike, Eric!
• Festive food displays ain't what they used to be
• Fidel Castro and the Derbyshire 'Whiskers Club'
• Fighting the enemy with pitchforks and brooms

F cont.

• First World War
• First World War misery inspired injured soldier to become a doctor, easing the suffering of thousands
• Food was scarce but that didn't spoil VE Day

G

• Growing up fast in Depression years

H

• How the Queen Mum saved Derby Mayor from hanging
• Hundreds of PoWs fell in death march across Poland

I

• I felt hot flames around my ears and saw burning petrol
• I hoped to find my family but they died in a Nazi camp
• I was not welcome to sit on a train with the “super race”
• Icy memories of Derbyshire's Big Freeze
• Industrial Revolution
• It’s not their fault they were born too late

J

• John’s search brings a “eureka moment”

K

• King George V
• King George VI

L

• Lambretta scooters were so cool in rockin’ 1950s
• Lasting Tribute

M

• Memories of Normanton's Austin Estate
• Memories of watching silent films
• Men scraped a living from rags and bones

N

• New Year celebrations of days gone by
• Newlyweds did not meet again until war had taken its toll
• Ninety years of Derby Rotary Club
• Nuns in Derby - The Enemy Within

O

• Old newspaper is window on life in pre-war Derby
• Orphanage children were part of my life in the 1920s
• Our War - Air raid shelters
• Our grandmothers were a tough breed in the 1920s
• Our head teacher bathed children in the cloakroom
• Our little caravan of love at Shelton Lock
• Our war: Lady Hilton's amazing story

P

• Paddling through the city in the floods of '32
• Pantomimes and mummers provided traditional New Year entertainment
• Papers give insight into past
• Parents bid an anxious farewell to youngsters
• Plea for recognition for March to Freedom PoWs
• Poetic Memories of a Derby Childhood
• Prisoner of war tells his story through diary which helped him stay alive
• Proud record of family with seven serving Sherwood Foresters

R

• RAF hero survived war to be killed in mid-air collision
• Rams success lifted the gloom
• Recalling the magic of a poor but happy 1950s childhood
• Romans

S

• Sales director proud to join Chaddesden's Home Guard
• Second World War
• Shattering shrapnel from our guns was lethal danger
• Shedding light on sundials
• Shelling out too much for eggs sparked anger
• Sister worked at Wardwick costume shop in 1920s
• Snow fell so deep it levelled up with the garden hedges
• Soul mates keep the vinyl turning for those who ‘get their kicks out on the floor
• Spooky Wirksworth links to Titanic voyage of discovery
• St Lukes Church, Parliament Street, Derby
• Swinging low with sweet chariot makers in 1980s

T

• THE BAILEY FAMILY IN TWO WORLD WARS
• Tea and sympathy at gas yard in 1947's Big Freeze
• Teacher mum was a Land Girl in Kedleston nursery
• The burning election issues in 1900s Derby
• The healthy children who were hospitalised for their own good
• The more things change, the more they remain the same
• The night the Luftwaffe came to Derby
• The stories that hit the headlines in 1970
• The stories that made the headlines in 1973
• The stories that made the headlines in 1974
• The stories that made the headlines in 1975
• The year in pictures - 1970
• The year in pictures - 1971