Derbyshire- Lost Houses
THE LOST HOUSES OF DERBYSHIRE
by Maxwell Craven
It never ceases to surprise me the number of really very substantial houses that once existed within the boundaries of the present City of Derby . Most of them have already appeared on these pages , but Darley House has so far escaped being chronicled .
DARLEY HOUSE DARLEY ABBEY
Although no great shakes aesthetically , it has a triple importance : first that it was built for the Evans family who in 1782 began establishing their Boar ’ s Head cotton mill on the Derwent here ; secondly because it was without doubt designed by William Strutt , FRS ( 1756-1831 ) and thirdly because Coleridge spent some time there . It was also a very substantially sized house , probably slightly larger than Darley Hall nearby into which the family moved in the 1830s .
Thomas Evans ,( 1723-1814 ) was the son-in-law , second cousin and heir of William Evans who had in 1734 established a wrought iron works on The Holmes in the Derwent at Derby , adding a copper rolling mill in 1737 , becoming exceedingly wealthy thereby . Thomas used his newly inherited wealth to found a bank in 1774 and was lucky enough ( if indeed luck had anything to do with it ) to have been appointed receiver in the bankruptcy of Messrs . John & Christopher Heath in March 1779 . He seems to have done very well out of it , too , acquiring the Darley Abbey site , including a paper and flint mill on the river , as well as the site of the Cockpit Hill pottery factory .
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