Five on Friday

It's Friday again!  Where has that week gone?  It is also a very special Friday as it is a celebration of Five on Friday being a year old.  Thank you to the lovely Amy for organising us all, it is always such fun to see what everyone has posted each week.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to find other bloggers who are joining in too.

Yesterday we visited the City of Derby just for a couple of hours to photograph a small pterosaur bone in the City Museum and Art Gallery.  Below are some of the other things we saw there and elsewhere in the city centre.

 1. In the Museum - an inventive way to raise funds for the Museum.  Up the staircases were different pictures of birds with the donors' names underneath.  Local company Rolls Royce were there and so was television presenter Michaela Strachan. You can buy a bird from £25 upwards and for the top price of £250 plus you get a Peregrine Falcon. Every year the Peregrines nest on the tower of Derby Cathedral.   Lots of local families seem to have joined in but there is plenty of wall left to fill with birds.

2. Joseph Wright of Derby -  best known for his light filled and interior paintings most famous of which is The Orrery.  These are on the walls in the main gallery where, of course,  I couldn't take photos (you can see the works here) but there was a workshop full of ideas for writing stories and drawing pictures around his painting of a Blacksmith's shop.  Again lots of activity and people joining in.  Although in the next gallery a live giant stick insect seemed to be the most popular exhibit of the day.

 

 3. Bess of Hardwick (1527 - 1608) - From the Museum to the Cathedral where there was a seminar in progress up by the main altar and also visitors like us wandering around.  We found the memorial to the famous Bess of Hardwick in the Cavendish Chapel and were able to take a few quick photos as this was where refreshments for the seminar were to be served.  You can see the blue clothed table in front of the memorial.  Also in here was a stone slab made for the grave of Joseph Wright of Derby as well as many other brass inscriptions to various members of the Cavendish family including Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1757 -1806) just over the stairs to the St Katherine's Chapel.  More on Bess of Hardwick here.

4.  Glimpses into the past - lots of little nooks and crannies can be found around the Cathedral Quarter.  Amen Alley runs down the side the building; we also found the Blacksmith's shop at the end of Blacksmith's Alley.  The date over the black door is 1675 and the date on The Old Bell Hotel 1717 both can be found on Sadler Gate. 

5.  Bonnie Prince Charlie - Charles Edward Stuart (1720 - 1788) also known as the Young Pretender.  In 1745 he and his supporters set out for London to try and claim the throne back for the Stuarts.  He got as far as Swarkstone Bridge and retreated from there via Ashbourne to Derby and thence back to Scotland where he escaped to France after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden.  More history here

Hope you've enjoyed this short visit to Derby.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.