Page 21 - HeritageEbooklet

A growing community

In July 1841 the Derby Mercury reported that the population of Osmaston
parish was 177 people (81 males and 96 females) living in 28 inhabited houses.
One hundred years later, that rural parish had altered beyond all recognition.
When the Rolls-Royce factory was constructed in the early twentieth
century, it employed around 400 people and was surrounded by open
countryside. As the company expanded, so did its workforce. In 1913-14
there were around 1,000 people working at the Derby factory and by the
mid 1920s, that figure had grown to 4,000. In 1935 the workforce in Derby
was 8,000. By the end of 1944 the company employed a total of 57,000
people at various sites across the country.

Housing was needed to accommodate the Derby workers and their families
and it wasn’t long before a network of residential streets had developed in
the heart of Osmaston.

Shops and schools were also built to fulfil the needs of the community.
Nightingale Road School opened in 1927, followed by a Junior School and
Girls School in 1928.

Left: This aerial view of the
Rolls-Royce Main Works on
Nightingale Road was taken
in the 1950s . It shows the
Photo: Derby City Council and picturethepast.org.uk
extent of the housing that
had grown up around the
factory by that time.

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