Exeter Bridge is a bridge in the centre of

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

spanning the River Derwent 200 metres south of the more modern

Cathedral Green Footbridge The Cathedral Green Footbridge is a pedestrian and cycle swing bridge in the centre of Derby, spanning the River Derwent. It forms a third side to a triangle between The Cathedral and the Silk Mill Museum. The bridge and adjacent re-landsca ...

History

Derby's original Exeter Bridge started life as a timber footbridge built by the Binghams of

Exeter House Exeter House was an early 17th-century brick-built mansion, which stood in Full Street, Derby until 1854. Named for the Marquess of Exeter, Earls of Exeter, whose family owned the property until 1757, the house was notable for the stay of Cha ...

, in order to access their gardens on the other side of the River Derwent. Exeter House was eventually demolished because of cost and to allow improvements to the bridge to be made. The old Exeter Bridge was demolished in 1929 and replaced by a single-span concrete bridge designed by Charles Herbert Aslin of the City Architect's Department, who was also responsible for Derby's now demolished

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

-style bus station. During construction a test was carried out to see if it would hold the weight of the traffic. Civil engineers ran a procession of traction engines, steam rollers and heavy lorries across the bridge to check it could take the strain. It was officially opened by the minister of transport,

Herbert Morrison Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, (3 January 1888 – 6 March 1965) was a British politician who held a variety of senior positions in the Cabinet as a member of the Labour Party. During the inter-war period, he was Minist ...

on 13 March 1931. Exeter Bridge features ''

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

'' sculptures of: *

John Lombe John Lombe (1693 in Norwich – 20 November 1722 in Derby) was a silk spinner in the 18th century Derby, England. Biography Lombe was born in Norwich in approximately 1693, the son of a worsted weaver. He was a younger half-brother of Tho ...

, founder of the Silk Mill Museum, one of England's first modern factories, now a

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

site. * William Hutton, who worked at the Silk Mill as a child before becoming a bookseller and writing the first published history of Derby in 1791. *

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...

, born in Exeter Street, best known for coining the concept "

survival of the fittest "Survival of the fittest" is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. The biological concept of fitness is defined as reproductive success. In Darwinian terms, th ...

", which he did in ''Principles of Biology'' (1864), after reading

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

's ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

''.
*

Erasmus Darwin Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosophy, natural philosopher, physiology, physiologist, Society for Effecting the ...

, physician, botanist and poet; Darwin lived in Derby for the last 20 years of his life, dying at Breadsall Priory. Like Hutton he was a radical thinker, supporting the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. The sculptures were cast in Cheltenham by H.H. Martyn & Co.

References

{{reflist Bridges completed in 1931 Bridges in Derby Bridges across the River Derwent, Derbyshire

History

See also

References