The Plaques on Exeter Bridge, Derby, England

On Exeter Bridge over the River Derwent in Derby, England, are four impressive plaques dedicated to people associated with the city.

'WILLIAM HUTTON

HISTORIAN.

BORN FULL STREET, DERBY,

SEPTEMBER 30^TH 1723.

DIED SEPTEMBER 20^TH 1815.'

'HERBERT SPENCER

PHILOSOPHER.

BORN EXETER ROW, DERBY,

APRIL 27^TH 1820.

DIED DECEMBER 8^TH 1903.'

'ERAMUS DARWIN

PHYSICIAN, BOTANIST

AND POET.

BORN NEWARK [ELSTON], DECEMBER 12^TH1731.

 DIED APRIL 18^TH 180[2].'

'JOHN LOMBE

1694–1722.

PIONEER OF THE SILK INDUSTRY IN DERBY.

LIVED IN FULL STREET'.'

At the age of seven, the poet and historian William Hutton went to work in Lombe's silk mill a few hundred yards to the north of Exeter Bridge, which now houses a museum.

Hutton is also remembered by a statue on the former Boot's building on the corner of St Peter's Street and Thorntree Lane in Derby.