Local History

Bryan Harris with his book

The idea to write a book about his home village of Quarndon came to Bryan Harris back in 1986.

At the time he was still managing editor at BBC Radio Derby so the project was put on the back-burner until his retirement in 1992.

With more time on his hands Bryan starting piecing together the village's history but found himself frustrated when he tried to pin down real facts and the project was left unfinished.

But now, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the book has been completed and is in bookshops.

Bryan explained: "At first it was difficult to get it going. People would argue over facts and conjectures and I simply got bored.

"But eventually I bit the bullet in 2004, appealed to the Heritage Lottery Fund and received a grant.

"So then we really got going and I got a team of nine volunteers together. Over the past four years we've got cracking and the book has finally made it to the bookshelves."

As you'd expect, 'Quarndon Then and Now' goes into great detail about the history of the village and has lots of information about what the place is like today.

At the suggestion of the Heritage Lottery Fund, every household in Quarndon has been gifted a free copy of the book so that people in the village can find out more about where they live.

Bryan said the team worked well as it brought together a range of skills.

He said: "We were all volunteers and each of us had some form of specialism in our background.

"One person had a diploma in local history and another specialised in maps which was good news because that's an area I've always found very difficult!"

The book costs £5 and Bryan says the funding and production process could be used as a blueprint for people living in other villages and towns in Derbyshire who want to produce a similar tome.