About three miles south of Derby city centre, Osmaston is a suburb in the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. Its name stretches back to the Domesday Book, where it appears as Osmundestune, and there are in fact two places sharing this name in Derbyshire – this one and another in the Derbyshire Dales – a distinction that has existed for at least 900 years. In 1307, the manor of Osmaston was granted to Robert Holland, and it later became the seat of the Wilmot baronets, an ancient family who shaped much of the area’s early character.
Osmaston Hall and the Wilmot Baronets
The Wilmot baronets built Osmaston Hall on the estate, along with its chapel of James the Lesser. The hall itself was demolished in 1938 to make way for the Ascot Drive industrial estate, while the chapel survived a little longer before being taken down in 1952. In 1901, the civil parish recorded a population of 2,453. On 1 April 1902, the parish was abolished and merged with Sinfin Moor. Osmaston now sits within the unparished area of Derby, in the Derby district.
Rolls-Royce and the Second World War
From 1908 until 2007, Osmaston was the home of the Rolls-Royce manufacturing works. The Nightingale Road Main Works opened in 1908 to produce the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, and the rear of the site included a test track known as Miniature Brooklands, used to prove finished cars. On 27 July 1942, a lone Dornier Do 217 attacked the factory at low level, dropping four bombs – three of 550kg and one of 250kg – on the central stores and nearby houses in Hawthorn, Abingdon, and Handel Street. Twenty-three people were killed, including Arthur Bacon, a former Derby County footballer, and 120 more were injured. A memorial to those who died was unveiled on 27 July 2017, behind the Marble Hall. In April 2009, Derby City Council agreed to purchase the former Rolls-Royce site as part of ongoing regeneration efforts, after the facility had relocated roughly two kilometres south to Sinfin in 2007.
The Osmaston Triangle and Housing
The Osmaston Triangle is the area bounded by a railway line, Osmaston Road, and Osmaston Park Road, with the two roads converging at the Spider Bridge in Allenton. In 2003, an initiative called the Osmaston Housing Improvement Zone was approved to address local housing conditions, bringing 20 empty properties back into use and helping 93 low-income families with essential repairs to older privately owned terraced houses. Osmaston also experienced a serious arson incident on Victory Road on 11 May 2012, which resulted in the deaths of six children.