Member of the Planning & Design Practice team were fortunate recently to be given a behind the scenes tour of one of the Derby Museums storage facilities. Our Heritage Consultant Ruth Gray reports on our visit.
The former Derby Museums Service was made an independent trust around ten years ago. Derby Museums are the custodians and now administer, conserve, exhibit, and curate the collection of Derby City Council (DCC) the storage of the collections are currently held in four different locations around the city. Planning & Design Practice were thrilled to be invited to visit one of them.
Museums own and store many objects that were perhaps never meant for exhibition, but were acquired in order to preserve, for educational purposes for those who would study or write about them in the future. These collections are often vast and complex including things that need preserving very carefully to stop them from deteriorating. It is the responsibility of the collections managers to ensure that no harm comes to them from things such as infestation, damp and possible theft. It is a huge responsibility and a costly one. The buildings that house the collections are therefore equally important and should be of a high standard.
Recently museum collections in some parts of the UK have become incredibly high tech and one example is Leeds Discovery Centre where over one million objects are held in a state-of-the-art storage facility1. This facility is fully accessible to the public and allows the cities collection to be shared with everyone. Derby Museums are also making great progress in sharing their collections too as can be seen by the RIBA award winning Museum of Making where everything is on display and accessible, with no dusty off-limits archive2. But incredibly there are still many more objects held in the collections that the public cannot see.
The store we visited is quite small with a number of quite full rooms and has very narrow stairs so only eight of us were allowed to visit at a time. As we squeezed in Collections Manager Spencer Bailey explained that we should start at the top and work our way back down. So initially we had to climb four flights of narrow dusty stairs when we all reached the small landing at the top two doors either side led into small rooms on the one hand we found fossils dating back to prehistoric times when Derbyshire was under the sea and on the other was an intriguing room full of taxidermy birds of all descriptions but the one that stood out the most was the majestic Elvis the King Penguin.
As we descended the stairs, we visited many more rooms with racks full of diverse objects including butterflies and monkey skulls! Former offices full of files looked as they would have pre computer age they alone could be a display for the new generations to see. On the lower levels were racks of artworks all just waiting to be displayed again.
Clearly there is a need to update the management of the collection and we were very honoured to see these hidden objects and we are intrigued to see if there is some way that Derby Museums could amalgamate the four storage facilities into one manageable space along the lines of Leeds. After our visit we would certainly like to help them in that journey should the opportunity arise.
Ruth Gray, Heritage Consultant, Planning & Design Practice Ltd
Planning & Design Practice have a long, successful and healthy relationship working as planning consultants for the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHBD). Recently we have worked with the Trust to submit applications for a transitional care unit, 85 extra care apartments, a 72 bed care home, a community hub, a GP and primary care facility and a 100 place children’s nursery at the Outwoods Hospital site, Burton upon Trent. In addition we have recently submitted an application for the construction of a new outpatient’s department at the Royal Derby Hospital. We are lucky in Derbyshire to have these large-scale hospitals and their smaller partner hospitals, its hard to imagine life without them. In this article, our Heritage Consultant Ruth Gray takes a brief look at some of the more significant contributions to the healthcare system that have originated here in Derbyshire.
Almost accidently, quarantine was pioneered in Eyam in 1666, by the selfless acts of the villagers who segregated themselves from the general population after they discovered that the plague had manifested itself in the village via a parcel of cloth arriving from London. Doctors later realised that their use of an enforced quarantine zone limited and helped prevent the spread of disease. Other break throughs discovered from this terrible episode were around contamination with the realisation that the washing of coins in vinegar before being left in payment for food parcels prevented the spread of the disease to those who left food parcels at the edge of the village.
Riley Graves – Eyam
Before the 18th century medical provision in Derbyshire, and across the country as a whole was not the concern of the state. If you became ill you had to depend on family, friends, neighbours, and the poor and labouring classes either used the services of friendly societies or if they couldn’t afford that the clergy and parish provided some outdoor relief and medical treatment. Medical advice was unregulated and provided by a variety of commercially motivated apothecaries, surgeons and physicians. With the industrial revolution came the need to keep the workforce healthy and it was this need that allowed for the beginnings of a public owned health service.
Derbyshire Infirmary opened June 4, 1810, its establishment in Derby had its beginnings with the inventor, poet, and Lunar Society member Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)-who founded a clinic and dispensary in Derby financed through a philanthropic society. Darwin and some fellow Doctors gave their advice for free whilst the local apothecaries benefited from alternating in making up prescriptions. The aim of the Enlightenment philosophers, philanthropists, architects, and governing committees was to limit infection by isolating the sick from the rest of the population ensuring that the general labour force remained productive 1. Darwin hoped his clinic and dispensary would be the foundation of an infirmary and if he had been younger, he may have taken on the task himself but that was left to William Strutt (1756–1830)2.
Derby Royal Infirmary 1819
Strutt already had considerable experience of designing bridges and mills. One of Strutt’s most important concerns was the development of fire-resistant structures and technology in textile mills (one he pioneered when he rebuilt Belper North Mill) and the application of these in other contexts. The Infirmary was one of the first British hospitals to use, iron pillars and beams, iron-framed windows, and a fire-proof ceiling (over the baths). It also contained (amongst other innovations) a new heating system that allowed the patients to breathe fresh heated air whilst old air was channelled up through the glass and iron dome at the centre. Strutt’s design is significant not just for its construction but also because it is an example of design bringing together all the concerns of Enlightenment architecture, scientific rationality, and the in-built design efficiency of public institutions.
Outside of the main city, smaller towns across Derbyshire began to benefit from voluntary hospitals being more conveniently situated, patients benefited from remaining close to relatives and friends 3. Initially these were founded by aristocratic benefactors such as the Duke of Devonshire but as the Victorian era progressed it was the industrialists that organised their workforces into contributing their wages towards forming hospitals that provided accident and emergency facilities that were essential in saving lives for the workers of the heavy industries of mining, steel and railways. Voluntary hospitals became an integral part of the Derbyshire community, and society as a whole. Funded by charity, subscriptions, and public events such as fetes, parades, and concerts, voluntary hospitals mirrored the fortunes of the local community with the hospital thriving if the community was thriving.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) understood from her own experience as a charitable gentlewoman that charity alone was failing the large industrial populaces, since they lacked the training and organization required to tackle the problem at scale. Nightingale who was raised in Lea in Derbyshire was a very influential figure in nursing following the Crimean war in 1854 her passion for creating a better healing environment for patients prompted her to write ‘Notes on Hospitals’ in 1863 outlining her priorities for designing hospitals. She concentrated not just on the efficiency aspects of hospitals to get people back to health but also the social requirements of patients 4. Nightingale was revolutionary in that not only was she was instrumental in steering healthcare provision away from religious groups and charities towards state run systems 5, but also her influence on hospital design was recognized and implemented over the next hundred years.
Healthcare pioneer- Florence Nightingale
The twentieth century with its two world wars proved that as Florence Nightingale had known, healthcare provision would suffer under a poor economy. The National Health Service Act in 1946 was the death knell for the voluntary system 6, and the 5th of July in 1948 was the end to voluntary fundraising for the hospital system. By the time the NHS came about, people expected medical cover as a part of their professional and personal life.
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust now provide healthcare for the region, and we at Planning & Design are happy to have been able to assist with their expansion, helping to provide infrastructure for the 21st century, and support as visitor numbers increase to pre-Pandemic levels.
For more information on our team and our work, and to find out how we can help you achieve a positive planning decision contact us on 01332 347371 for a no obligation consultation.
Notes and Further Reading:
1: The Derbyshire General Infirmary and the Derby Philosophers: The Application of Industrial Architecture and Technology to Medical Institutions in Early-Nineteenth-Century England PAUL ELLIOTT 2: M.Craven, Derby an Illustrated History. Breedon Books. 3: Community and the Voluntary Hospitals in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, 1900-1946: Economy, Society, Culture. Edward Cheetham A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In collaboration with the Midlands 4 Cities Doctoral Training Partnership September 2020. 4: http://www.mahlum.com/pdf/HistoryofHealthcareArchBurpee.pdf 5: R. Bates and J. Godshaw Memel, Florence Nightingale and Responsibility for Healthcare in the Home. 6: Community and the Voluntary Hospitals in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, 1900-1946: Economy, Society, Culture. Edward Cheetham A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In collaboration with the Midlands 4 Cities Doctoral Training Partnership September 2020
Ruth Gray, Heritage Assistant at Planning & Design Practice looks back at her time spent living in Australia, and how that continent’s natural heritage led her to re-evaluate the built heritage of her homeland, and why preserving our heritage buildings must take account of modern concerns such as climate change.
Personally, I had no idea what heritage meant to me until I went to live by the Murray River on the border of New South Wales and Victoria in Albury Wodonga Australia, and after a while realised what I felt was missing was my own heritage, for example the food was familiar but different, their customs around holidays were great but different. But it was the buildings that at the time I didn’t realise held so much within their construction that connect with you. Having a tin roof and wood constructed walls with single glazing and no insulation in one of the hottest countries left me yearning for solid brick and mortar with stable foundations beneath my feet. With all but a few stone buildings there is not much physical to connect you building wise to the past.
Australia has of course natural heritage in spades and the landscape speaks to the people of its past, but nature also takes away swiftly anything that gets in its way and being there during the Black Saturday fires of February 2009 which destroyed over 3000 buildings the impermanence made me think it was time for me to return to the UK. According to UNESCO: ‘Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration’. This I agree with our heritage is irreplaceable, once it is destroyed, we have all lost something. To pass it on is important but its not to say that it can’t develop.
The daily struggle in planning is the tension between the clients who want to change and evolve their properties and those who push against those changes. I am all for preserving our heritage but not at the expense of keeping every single thing set in its time forever we must evolve especially in light of climate change and improve our buildings carbon footprints. I believe Australian buildings have moved on in the last 15 years since I was there as they continue to bear the brunt of environmental disasters. Locally technological changes with innovative products (for example, double glazing that mimics single glazing) means that we can both advance and preserve our old buildings while at the same time improve their footprint.
One of my first assignments for Planning & Design has been Grade II listed Belmont Cottage situated on a steep hillside in Matlock Bath, which was nearly destroyed by fire also, this Georgian Villa revealed itself to be of heritage significance because not just because of its structure but for the artist who lived there James Rawlinson. The group of buildings that Belmont is a part of were built by the Rawlingson family. The Rawlinson’s over three generations were a talented family, and James was the most eminent. Although his father George Rawlinson (1734-1823) was a Derby architect of whom it has been said ‘was Arkwright’s architect of choice’. Through working on this property, I have been able to see what the impact that a combination of artistic and architectural heritage significance has had on the client plans. There has been a balancing act of sensitive new additions and preservations that we hope will be approved soon and bring back into use this lovely family home.
Houses like Belmont Cottage which need careful consideration are a perfect example of a building that could be lost if it is not allowed to be sensitively developed. My time in Australia showed me what happens when something is destroyed for good by fire it is devasting to see entire towns disappear in one weekend. In the UK we are very lucky to have layers of heritage assets and to be able to read those and understand our past it is truely a privilege. While it may not be possible for clients to make all the changes they want to a building and others to ensure everything stays exactly the same, this is our heritage and it is important to the wider community. However, it also it has to meet 21st century living standards, along with meeting climate change targets. Therefore, it is a fine line to be trodden when dealing with a heritage building, respecting its past but also guaranteeing it has a sustainable future to ensure it is passed on as a viable asset for generations to come with a low impact on the environment.
Ruth Gray, Heritage Assistant, Planning & Design Practice
