Made in Derby

The first ever walk of the famous, named Made in Derby, was launched in May 2018 to honour some of the city's most outstanding citizens and celebrating the city's heritage.

The project, conceptualised by the private sector and supported by the city council, was two years in the making, according to Steve Hall, Managing Editor of the Derby Telegraph who spearheaded the working group.

"Many of us had long felt that Derby had not done enough to publicly celebrate its fantastic heritage and that feeling returned as City of Derby swimmer Adam Peaty raced to gold in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. How could it be that our people were fêted around the world but there was so little obvious in the city where they were born or where they had such strong associations to celebrate their achievements? A group of us from across the business and political sectors decided the time had come to rectify matters – and, with leadership from the Derby Telegraph and Derby City Council, and funding from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, momentum gathered behind the campaign," he told crowds gathered at the opening ceremony on 12 May 2018 in Albion Street and Exchange Street in the city centre.

A selection panel chose the first 10 people to be honoured with 10 stars from a pool of hundreds of nominations made by the people of Derby. The first inductees are:

• Alice Wheeldon - Derby’s most famous suffragist and a fervent anti-First World War campaigner;
• Bess of Hardwick - England’s richest Elizabethan woman after Queen Elizabeth I used her considerable wealth to help Derby poor and needy;
• Brian Clough and Peter Taylor - the top management duo that took Derby football from obscurity to national fame;
• Sir John Hurtin recognition of his sterling contribution to the arts as an accomplished actor;
• Joseph Wright - a globally recognised English landscape and portrait painter and the first to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution;
• Louis Martin - the Jamaican-born sportsman who became Britain’s greatest-ever Olympic weightlifter;
• Philip Noel-Baker, a former MP for Derby, credited with saving the 1948 Olympic Games for Britain;
• Charles Rolls the pioneer aviator and Henry Royce the engineer and designer who formed Rolls-Royce which sets the global standard for excellence in automotive and aviation technology.