Collections volunteer, Ian, delves into the history of Lea Hurst’s most famous occupant…

At first sight it’s just another Victorian country house, its bay windows and pitched roofs hinting at an Arts and Crafts influence, ivy clinging to its walls, but this is no ordinary country house. It may be a fraction of the size of Chatsworth, but it’s the childhood home of a girl who became a household name. Lea Hurst, near Matlock, was built for the parents of Florence Nightingale.

Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy in 1820 and named after her birthplace. Her family returned to Britain in 1821 and divided their time between Embley Park in Hampshire and Lea Hurst in Derbyshire.

In 1853 the Crimean War broke out. Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia (now part of Italy) were ranged against mighty Russia. During this conflict, medical care for the soldiers was so poor that more died from disease in hospitals than on the battlefield. When the British public became aware of this, a team of nurses were dispatched to improve matters. Their leader was Florence Nightingale and it is from Lea Hurst that she left to join the wounded and war weary.

In her lifetime, Florence was revered for her work nursing wounded soldiers. Images of her patrolling the hospital at night as “The Lady with the Lamp” became iconic. The Crimean War was marred with strategic error and failed to produce a “Wellington” or a “Nelson”. Did a country desperate for a hero turn to Nightingale to fill that role?

More recently, some have argued that her contribution was exaggerated by the Victorian media. Indeed, another famous figure in the history of nursing was on the frontline at the same time as Florence Nightingale. Mary Seacole was of British and Jamaican descent, and she offered her services to the British War Office at the same time as Florence. Sadly, she was rejected, seemingly on account of her race, but Mary was unperturbed. She funded her own journey to Crimea and set up a hospital close to the battlefield. Whilst Mary’s work was reported upon and hailed by the press during the conflict, it is only in recent times that her contributions to medicine have been fully recognised and appreciated.

Nightingale’s defenders argue that her work after the Crimean War was important, more so in the long term, than her nursing during the conflict. The first place that Florence returned too after the war had ended in 1856, was Lea Hurst.

From here she continued to work. Up until this point, nurses had received little training and their status was low. She raised the standard of training by setting up the first secular school for nurses. It was the Nightingale Training School at St Thomas Hospital in London, and it was supported by a fund in Nightingale’s name. Florence also pioneered the use of Polar Area Diagrams – circular charts divided into segments each with the same angle. The radius of each segment varies depending on the value it represents. For example, if some causes of mortality are more frequent than others, the frequent causes are represented by segments with a larger radius and bigger area.

Florence Nightingale died in 1910, aged 90. Today, Lea Hurst is a hotel with a suite named after it’s famous daughter. I haven’t stayed there, but it has good reviews online!