Railways and Victorian Derby
With the Midland Railway's headquarters and works in the town, railways shaped Victorian Derby. The North Midland Railway's workers' cottages opposite the station, built in 1841 and 1842 to designs by Francis Thompson, include Calvert Street, Midland Place and Railway Terrace, all Grade II listed, and 57 of the original 92 houses remain. Eight of Derby's sixteen conservation areas are grouped as Victorian Derby, among them Railway, Arboretum, Little Chester and Strutts Park, the Arboretum taking its name from the 1840 park described as the first planned urban public park in the country. Victorian homes were built with lath and plaster ceilings, and in a listed house, replacing them can need listed building consent. Where boarding is allowed and the old ceiling has failed, new plasterboard screwed to the joists and skimmed gives a solid surface.
Interwar and post-war suburbs
Slum clearance in the 1920s and 1930s moved families from the centre to new council estates in the suburbs, where private houses were built too, and rehousing and building carried on at a large scale for about 30 years after 1945. That means many Derby homes date from between the 1920s and the 1970s. Interwar houses can have either lath and plaster or early plasterboard overhead. Post-war houses are more likely to have board from the start, often nailed and now sagging slightly between joists, or with the joints showing through the paint. Overboarding with screws into every joist straightens them out. If a post-war ceiling has a textured finish, boarding over it leaves the coating undisturbed; have it tested before anyone sands or scrapes it, as older coatings can contain asbestos.
Newer estates and alterations
Boulton Moor and The Pastures at the Mickleover Country Park development are newer still. Homes there are boarded throughout, so plasterboarding is mostly about change and wear: a garage turned into a room, a loft opened up, a stud wall to make an extra bedroom, or a ceiling cut out and replaced after a bathroom leak. The board suits the room, whether that is moisture-resistant in a bathroom, fire-rated over a garage, or acoustic between rooms. In any home, we locate joists and check for pipes and cables before fixing through a ceiling.
Getting in touch from Derby
Derby is at the western edge of our area, linked to Nottingham by the A52 Brian Clough Way. We cover the city and suburbs such as Mickleover, Spondon and Chellaston. Mention the age of the house if you know it, then call 07877 353120 or send photos through the enquiry form. We work seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
