History

What is Strutt's Park ?

 
 
Strutt’s Park is the area of residential development laid out to the north of the old Derby street, Bridgegate, on the land that used to be the garden and park to Saint Helen’s House. The Strutt family, whose fortune was made in the cotton mills of Belper, had lived at Saint Helen’s House for some time before deciding to move to a house in the country at Kingston-on-Soar. When they moved the house became a school and the parkland was laid out with streets and, subsequently, housing, beginning with North Parade in the 1820s. The first main phase of development began in the 1840s and eventually extended as far north as North Street and then, from the 1890s, further north to include the area up to the top of Belper Road.

The Strutt family connection is perpetuated in many of the street names, Arthur, Edward, Henry and Margaret being names of the children, Otter being the surname of an episcopal son-in-law, Kingston coming from the family’s country seat and Lord Belper being the title adopted when the head of the family was created a baron.