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Florence Nightingale: remembering our local pioneer
This week will mark 100 years since the death of Florence Nightingale - and Derbyshire is set to celebrate the Lady With The Lamp's life and work with a special festival.
Events have already started in her honour with a walk last Sunday at Christ Church in Holloway where she worshipped.
On Monday, the Florence Nightingale: A Derbyshire Legend exhibition was opened by the Florence Nightingale Derbyshire Association and will run until the end of the month.
Chairman John Rivers said: "We are justly proud that we have created a fitting tribute to one of the most famous women in history as a pioneer of professional nursing practises and the rights of women to pursue a professional career rather than conforming to the socially accepted path for women in the late 19th century."
On Saturday, the celebrations will continue with a heritage festival at John Smedley's sports field in Lea and Holloway.
A free bus shuttle outside the exhibition in Cromford Mill will take visitors to the festival and guide them around the new heritage car trail.
There will also be an exciting programme of drama, film, music, traditional games, family activities and food and drink.
Also, more than 20 free workshops and demonstrations will be available with the chance to watch blacksmiths, spinners, wood carvers and other heritage craftspeople at their work.
Two new Florence Nightingale heritage trails will be launched, so visitors will be able to follow in her footsteps visiting historical points of interest in Derbyshire.
Florence Nightingale was romantically named The Lady With The Lamp and is mostly known for her work helping wounded soldiers during the Crimean War of the 1850s.
However, most people don't know about the work she continued to do once the war was over - and this month's exhibition at the Gothic Warehouse in Cromford Wharf plans to change that.
Although she was a pioneer in the field of health care, she also had a mathematical mind.
She was one of the first to use polar area charts (also known as coxcombs) in her work, to highlight the huge amount of soldiers who died of disease in the war.
Pam Rivers, secretary of the Florence Nightingale Derbyshire Association, who is running the exhibition with her husband John said: "The main reason for the exhibition is to make people aware of Florence Nightingale's Derbyshire connections and her work.
"Most people know her as The Lady With The Lamp but most aren't aware of the work she did when she came back from the Crimean War.
"She continued to work in health care but she was also a statistician who lobbied in parliament and fought for reform.
"She lived another 40-50 years after the war and spent a lot of that time working, even though she was ill for a long time."
She was one of the first to use polar area charts (also known as coxcombs) in her work, to highlight the huge amount of soldiers who died of disease in the war.
Pam Rivers, secretary of the Florence Nightingale Derbyshire Association, who is running the exhibition with her husband John said: "The main reason for the exhibition is to make people aware of Florence Nightingale's Derbyshire connections and her work.
"Most people know her as The Lady With The Lamp but most aren't aware of the work she did when she came back from the Crimean War.
"She continued to work in health care but she was also a statistician who lobbied in parliament and fought for reform.
"She lived another 40-50 years after the war and spent a lot of that time working, even though she was ill for a long time."
Born in 1820 into a prosperous Derbyshire family, Florence Nightingale lived her early life at Lea Hall and then at Lea Hurst in Holloway, which became her family's summer home.
It was the Nightingales who first brought prosperity to the area, when her father Peter, having amassed a huge fortune through lead mining, bought Lea Hall in 1707.
Her brother, also called Peter Nightingale, then grew up to establish a successful lead smelting business at Lea Bridge and extended an arm of the Cromford Canal up to where Smedley's Car Park stands today.
He also built a hat factory adjacent to the wharf on the canal which employed over 100 people. This was blown down in 1955.
In 1784, Peter Nightingale built Lea Mills. Originally, the factory produced cotton, but Richard Arkwright of Cromford successfully sued him for using his patent. Undaunted, he extended the factory and took up wool spinning and the manufacture of hosiery.
Although Florence's family had strong connections to Derbyshire through these business moves, they eventually moved to Embley House in Hampshire because her mother craved the fashionable social scene near London.
Yet the young Florence was completely unfazed by society's expectations and went on to dedicate her life to nursing and maintained a close link with the people of Derbyshire.
Upon returning to England after the Crimean War she set up a reading room in Holloway and provided books there as well as donating some to Lea Primary School - she even obtained the services of a doctor for the area.
Florence is also celebrated as a pioneer of women's rights who went against the wishes of her family and society's expectations to pursue her dreams.
In the late 19th century, women were generally not expected to have career ambitions and fathers would expect their daughters to marry into money.
However, despite direct and continuing opposition from her parents, Florence went on to become manager of the Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances in London.
It was not long after this that she went to Crimea where sick and wounded soldiers kissed her shadow as she passed and named her "The Lady With The Lamp".
There she worked to improve the appalling conditions of hospitals, making sure patients had a proper diet and that levels of hygiene were acceptable.
On her return to England she continued her work in improving standards of healthcare, opening the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and became a famous historical figure.
NMAMP100803B1.JPG
REMEMBRANCE: Members of the Florence Nightingale Derbyshire Association at The Florence Nightingale exhibition in Cromford.
Photograph courtesy of Derbyshire County Council
HISTORICAL: An original letter from the Florence Nightingale archives held in the Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock.
HEROINE: Florence Nightingale
Events have already started in her honour with a walk last Sunday at Christ Church in Holloway where she worshipped. On Monday, the Florence Nightingale: A Derbyshire Legend exhibition was opened by the Florence Nightingale Derbyshire Association and will run until the end of the month.
Chairman John Rivers said: "We are justly proud that we have created a fitting tribute to one of the most famous women in history as a pioneer of professional nursing practises and the rights of women to pursue a professional career rather than conforming to the socially accepted path for women in the late 19th century."
On Saturday, the celebrations will continue with a heritage festival at John Smedley's sports field in Lea and Holloway.
A free bus shuttle outside the exhibition in Cromford Mill will take visitors to the festival and guide them around the new heritage car trail.
There will also be an exciting programme of drama, film, music, traditional games, family activities and food and drink.
Also, more than 20 free workshops and demonstrations will be available with the chance to watch blacksmiths, spinners, wood carvers and other heritage craftspeople at their work.
Two new Florence Nightingale heritage trails will be launched, so visitors will be able to follow in her footsteps visiting historical points of interest in Derbyshire.
Remembering local pioneer
This week will mark 100 years since the death of Florence Nightingale - and Derbyshire is set to celebrate the Lady With The Lamp's life and work with a special festival.
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Weather for Bakewell
Thursday 24 May 2012
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