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Derby Racecourse

1848 establishments in England1939 disestablishments in EnglandDefunct horse racing venues in EnglandParks and commons in DerbySports venues completed in 1848
Sports venues in DerbyUrban public parks in the United KingdomUse British English from February 2023
Derby Racecourse AJKeene
Derby Racecourse AJKeene

Derby Racecourse is a former horse racing venue in Derby, England, from 1848 to 1939. It was preceded by two earlier courses, at different locations.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Derby Racecourse (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Derby Racecourse
Nottingham Road, Derby Pride Park

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Wikipedia: Derby RacecourseContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.929166666667 ° E -1.4616666666667 °
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Address

Derbyshire County Cricket Club

Nottingham Road
DE21 6DA Derby, Pride Park
England, United Kingdom
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Derby Racecourse AJKeene
Derby Racecourse AJKeene
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Derby Nottingham Road railway station
Derby Nottingham Road railway station

Derby Nottingham Road railway station was a railway station about half a mile north of Derby station on the Midland Railway line from Derby to Leeds and the line from Derby to Ripley in England (see timetable below). One effect of the railways was that racing became a national sport with owners being able to transport their horses over much larger distances. Most racecourses had a nearby railway station with suitable facilities. Derby Racecourse opened in 1848 right next to the Midland line beside the Nottingham Road. It is now the County Cricket Ground. The station opened in 1856, with several improvements over its first decade, being extended three times in 1860, 1867 and 1868. A siding was built along with improved facilities for the horses. It had platforms on either side of the two passenger lines, the goods lines passing to the east. On 9 November 1870 there was an accident at the station which resulted in 29 casualties. During the earlier part of the day there had been a collision between luggage trains slightly further north near the Little Eaton junction which resulted in a derailment which delayed the train from Manchester to London by several hours. In the afternoon a heavy fog set in which added to the delay. A slow train from Derby to Manchester, due at 6.50pm left just after 7.00pm and passed the City Road junction at Little Chester. It was then delayed by a few minutes because of luggage trucks on the up line ahead. When these trucks were moved, the Derby to Manchester train started up again, but shortly afterwards the Derby to Ripley train scheduled to leave Derby at 7.00pm ran into in behind with considerable force. The guard's brake of the Manchester train was smashed. Several passengers jumped from each train and proceeded back to Derby on foot. The Midland Railway had installed the block signalling system between Manchester and Derby but not between Derby and Ripley.On 18 June 1875 the left luggage office was broken into by Thomas Harris who abstracted a quantity of items. He was spotted by a Police Constable Madeley on Chaddesden Road who followed him and when he eventually caught up with him, discovered he had changed his clothes. The items were later identified as those stolen from the station and Thomas Harris was sent to prison for six months.The station saw two fatalities in quick succession. On 15 December 1880, Frederick Holt was struck by a train whilst he was on the line. On 5 January 1881 Joseph Jolly, an employee of the Hide and Skin Company was standing on the tracks between the platforms when he was struck and killed by the Manchester to Derby express.King Edward VII used the station when he arrived in the Royal Train from St Pancras at Derby on Friday 28 June 1906 to unveil a statue to Queen Victoria. He was welcomed at the station by the Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire, The station was specially decorated for the occasion with an awning under which the company officials welcomed the King, and the palings on the approach to the station were draped with red, white and blue awnings. It also served the local trains to Ambergate closing in 1967.Derby Racecourse was doubly blessed, for the Great Northern Railway also provided a station to the north of the course on its line into Derby Friargate, which is also now closed. The approach road and station area are now used for parking and storage by a local builder's merchant.

Exeter House
Exeter House

Exeter House was an early 17th-century brick-built mansion, which stood in Full Street, Derby until 1854. Named for the Earls of Exeter, whose family owned the property until 1757, the house was notable for the stay of Charles Edward Stuart during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Exeter House was replaced by offices, which in turn were replaced by Charles Herbert Aslin's Magistrates' Courts, built on the site during 1935. The courts were closed at the beginning of 2004, and after a decade vacant the building returned to use as an office development, Riverside Chambers. This is where Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie" or "the Young Pretender") stayed, 4–6 December 1745. He dined with a widow, Mrs Ward; her son Samuel Ward (born 1732) acted as food taster for the Young Pretender. On the morning of 5 December a council of war was called at Exeter House. The commander of the prince's forces, Lord George Murray, argued that the lack of support from the French and from English Jacobites made success unlikely and retreat necessary. The prince was opposed to a retreat, and some members of the council objected strongly to giving up their advance on London. Meeting with the council again later in the day, the prince took the decision to retreat, and he left Exeter House the following morning. He gave Ward's mother a diamond ring in thanks for their service before he left. The decision to retreat meant that the Young Pretender would not take George II's crown and his army returned to Scotland, where they were finally defeated in 1746 at the Battle of Culloden. After the death of the 8th Earl of Exeter in 1754, the house was sold in 1757 by his widow to John Bingham, Mayor of Derby for that year. Bingham lived at the house until his death in 1773 after which, in 1795, Jedediah Strutt purchased it. Strutt lived there until his death in 1797. The last owner was a lawyer, William Eaton Mousely, twice Mayor of Derby, who, after making some alterations in the 1830s, had the house demolished in 1854, believing Exeter House to be too large to maintain, and also to allow improvements to Exeter Bridge. A timber footbridge had been built by the Binghams of Exeter House to access their gardens on the other side of the River Derwent.On visiting Exeter House in 1839 Lord Stanhope noted the drawing room on the first floor, the room in which the final council of war was held, as being "…unaltered, it is all over wainscotted with ancient oak, very dark and handsome…". It was reached by a dark oak staircase, with carved balustrades. Another visitor, a Mrs. Thomson, described the house as standing back from Full Street within a small rectangular court. The wide staircase ascended from a small hall to the drawing room; on either side of the drawing room were small panelled rooms which had served as the bedrooms for the prince and his officers. A spacious drawing room on the ground floor (altered by Mousely) gave access to a long garden, enclosed between high walls, which led down to the riverside. Mousely had intended to sell off the panelling from the house in separate lots. However an appeal by the MP for Derby Michael Thomas Bass, the Earl of Chesterfield and William Bemrose among others persuaded Mousely to call off the sales. The panelling of the drawing room was instead removed to the cellars of the Derby Assembly Rooms. It was later reassembled within Derby Museum and Art Gallery when the museum opened in 1879. In 2021 the exhibition of the Exeter Room in Derby was reconfigured and the mannequin of the prince was gifted to the Battle of Prestonpans [1745] Heritage Trust which displays it in the Museum & Jacobite Heritage Centre at Prestonpans Town Hall. Below is an extract from Stephen Glover's History of Derby (1843): Exeter House, the mansion house which communicates with the Full Street, from its connection with the history of this county, in the year 1745. At that time it belonged to the Earl of Exeter, and Prince Charles Edward, commonly designated "the Young Pretender," took up his abode there, and held his Council of War in a fine old oak wainscoted room (now used as a drawing-room) before he determined to abandon his project. This house was subsequently occupied by an ancestor of the late celebrated William Strutt, esq., and by other families, and is now the residence of William Eaton Mousley, esq., to whom it belongs.