If I had the job of commissioning a new statue for Derby’s city centre, I’d suggest a giant pair of hands, writes Lucy Stephens.
Or someone doing some welding.
They could be carefully fitting a piece of tubular metal to another one – or doing something with a rivet.
Listen, I’m not from Derby.
I’m actually from all over the place. Born in Scotland. Travelled around the UK as a child (dad was in the army). Moved around a fair bit since.
I’ve ended up in beautiful Derbyshire by virtue of marriage and job opportunities, finally settling in perhaps one of the prettiest towns of all – Melbourne.
But I digress.
Sometimes when you’re not from a place you can see it more clearly than if it’s where you grew up.
Fresh eyes sometimes see what jaded ones don’t.
Derby: the city of making things
One of the things that I’ve enjoyed most about moving to and working in Derby is the city’s beautiful history in making things.
Manufacturing, to give it its industrial name. ‘Making things’ if we want to be more informal.
I think the Museum of Making is well named.
The ‘Assemble’ Makers Fair in October is a highlight on my family calendar. Honestly, if you haven’t been – do. It’s a bustling, vibrant, colourful festival all about different ways of using your hands and making stuff.
There is a history of manufacturing in this city and beyond its borders that is – in my view – really worth celebrating a lot more.
Excellent initiatives like the fair are great, but it would be wonderful if Derby was known for its history in making the things that have – it’s no exaggeration to say – forged considerable progress in the world.
Step into Burton-upon-Trent, for example, and the city is proud of its heritage in cooperage – the craft of making and repairing wooden casks for the brewing industry.
The main shopping centre is named after this craft and those who perfected it.
There’s an excellent statue that shows a cooper in action. Look at it and your eye is really drawn into the process of how those casks were made.
Back in the day when a cooper would be going about his daily business, he would certainly never have guessed that his way of making a living would in the future be celebrated in this way.
He was probably stressed about deadlines. How many casks he had to make that day. Perhaps not being paid an awful lot.
But it’s quite right that cooperage is celebrated like this. Coopers helped make Burton rich. Not just that, they helped create the Burton we know today. Everyone knows it’s famous for brewing (and Marmite).
In that respect, I think Burton has done an excellent job in telling its story.
Take Nottingham, too. Everyone knows it’s famous for making lace. There are lovely lace-themed public pieces of art. Street names reinforcing the heritage.
What making story should Derby tell?
Mercian Cycles
All of this was brought home to me this week when I had the pleasure of visiting Mercian Cycles after we Penguins had arranged for the BBC to film what has been a brilliant story for Derby.
Two Derby businesses – Huub and Mercian – have both contributed their innovation, design and craft to propelling Radio One DJ Greg James round the country on a tandem bike in aid of Comic Relief next month.
Huub has kitted Greg out with its top performance sportswear.
Mercian (which has been making steel-framed bicycles since 1946!) has made the tandem.
Stepping into the Mercian workshop, seeing all the tools laid out on the work bench, you could feel the history and the love for making beautiful things that goes into all quality craftsmanship.
Yes, Britain does still make things
People (some people) like to say that Britain doesn’t make things anymore.
It’s such nonsense.
Lots of things are being made in Britain.
They might not be the same things that used to be made between these shores.
But there are plenty of companies, many of them in Derby and Derbyshire, which are still making things and exporting them round the world.
I’m reading a great book at the moment – it’s called ‘Less’ by Patrick Grant.
I’m a big fan of Patrick, through his work presenting The Sewing Bee, probably in my top five fave shows.
I just can’t get enough of watching people making clothes. Again, it’s about craftsmanship. The joy of watching someone make something very well. Seeing the finished product and watching Patrick and Esme Young cast their expert eye of the seams, the cuffs, the positioning of the buttons, and even offer occasional comment on the dreaded ‘hungry bum’. (don’t ask).
Sometimes when it comes to the final catwalk show where the models display what’s just been made, I well up a little bit.
What can I say? It’s actually quite moving.
In his book, Patrick – whose Community Clothing initiative in Lancashire is completely inspiring in its championing of UK-made, plastic free clothes made to last – talks about the joy of celebrating things that are well made.
He thinks we should have less stuff, but better stuff.
He talks about a 1980s sweatshirt his gran bought for him from a charity shop. A wonky mug made in the Hebrides that he cherishes because you can see how it was made.
I love all this kind of thing.
Let’s hear it for the makers
We often champion design, invention and entrepreneurship in this country.
That’s quite right – those things are all worth celebrating.
Manufacturing, making things, crafts – this type of industry is perhaps less shouted about.
That’s a shame, because if you’ve ever experienced the joy of making something yourself, there’s nothing really to beat it.
It doesn’t really matter if you’re talented or not. Getting out a sewing machine and making something, creating a set of shelves, or putting together a nice meal – it’s just so satisfying.
Maybe it’s that it doesn’t involve looking at a screen. It’s about using your hands and relaxing into the process.
Over the centuries there have been – and continue to be – lots of people in Derby who’ve made their living by making things.
It would be great to see the city tell their story even more.
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