2-913-528 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Statue of Mr Strutt, in the Arboretum, at Derby, 1854. 'Joseph Strutt [a cotton mill owner]...saw with sorrow that no open heath or common-land existed in the neighbourhood of his native town, and resolved to supply the deficiency, and give the inhabitants of their large and increasing town the opportunity of enjoying with their families exercise and recreation in the fresh air, in public walks and grounds devoted to that purpose. To accomplish his beneficent idea, he purchased nearly twelve acres of land...and engaged the services of the late J. C. Loudon, the distinguished landscape gardener, to lay out the grounds. No expense was spared....To the credit of the workingiclasses, for whose advantage it was intended, few, if any, depredations have been committed during the fourteen years it has been a place of public resort'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.