Approximate Population: 233,700
Derby has Roman, Saxon and Viking connections.
The Roman camp of ‘Derventio’ was probably at Little Chester/Chester Green. The site of the old Roman fort is at Chester Green. Later the town was one of the ‘Five Boroughs’ (fortified towns) of the Danelaw. The Tower of Derby Cathedral, England’s third tallest (Anglican) cathedral church tower.
The popular belief is that the name ‘Derby’ is a corruption of the Danish and Gaelic Djúra-bý (recorded in Anglo-Saxon as Deoraby) (Village of the Deer). However some assert that it is a corruption of the original Roman name ‘Derventio’. The town was also named ‘Darby’ or ‘Darbye’ on some of the oldest maps, eg. Speed’s 1610 map. Derby recently celebrated its 2,000th year as a settlement.
Modern research (2004) into the history and archaeology of Derby has provided evidence that the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons probably co-existed, occupying two areas of land surrounded by water. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (c. 900) says that “Derby is divided by water”. These areas of land were known as Norþworþig (”Northworthy”, = “north enclosure”) and Deoraby, and were at the “Irongate” (North) side of Derby.
Business Insurance Derby East Midlands
Approximate Population: 99,876
The first historical reference to Basildon is in records from 1086. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Belesduna’. The name ‘Basildon’ means ‘Beorhtel’s hill’ and is derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name ‘Beorhtel’ and the Anglo-Saxon word ‘dun’, meaning hill. In historical documents, this name had various forms over the centuries, including Berdlesdon, Batlesdon and Belesduna.
By the beginning of the 1900s, Basildon had evolved with much of the land having been sold in small plots during a period of land speculation and development taking placed haphazardly with building by plotowners ranging from shelters created from recycled materials to brick-built homes and with amenities such as water, gas, electricity and hard-surfaced roads lacking.
In the 1940s, Billericay and Essex County Councils, who were concerned about the lack of amenities on the area and how it had evolved, petitioned the Government to create a New Town, and on January 4 1949, Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town and Country Planning, officially designated Basildon as a ‘New Town’. Basildon Development Corporation was formed in February 1949 to transform the designated area into a modern new town. The New Town incorporated Laindon and Pitsea and was laid out around small neighbourhoods with the first house being completed in June 1951. The first tenants moved into homes on 18 June 1951, in numbers 59, 61, and 63 Redgrave Road in Vange.
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