Matlock Bath North Parade, 1908, with the shops and businesses of Derwent Parade, part of North Parade, further along the road. The spire belongs to the Methodist Church. The railings on the right protected those strolling along the Promenade and the houses on the left are Fountain Villas. They are higher and more ornate than those placed along the roadside when the Promenade was first developed (see previous image).

Amongst the villas' residents in 1908 were Mrs.Elizh Bridgett, Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson who later moved to Brunswood Terrace, Miss Annie Lymn and Frederic Charles Lymn - the solicitor & commissioner & clerk to Matlock Bath & Scarthin Nick Urban District Council^[1]. Some properties were either boarding or lodging houses and others were private homes. During the 1870s and 1880s Helen Elizabeth & Frances Julianna Peall ran a "ladies' school" in one of the properties (No.3)^[2] and a few years after this card was posted Miss Fanny Picken, principal of a girls' school, was living at No.1.

Several Monkey Puzzle trees or Chile pines (Araucaria araucana), which are native to the Southern Hemisphere, were and still are grown in Matlock Bath. Of the two trees shown in this picture, the larger one is no longer growing but the other tree remains, with two further specimens close by^[3]. There was another on the Promenade near the War Memorial.

The card was posted in Matlock Bath on 3 May 1908 to Miss Blacham at Chesterfield from L Exford, probably Laura Exford who was born in Chesterfield and living there in 1901. "This view is just above my shop".

References:

^[1] "Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire" (1908) pub. London

^[2] See references to them in the 1871 census, the 1881 census and Kelly's 1876 Directory
Also see their school on Matlock Bath: North Parade, late 1870's (2)

^[3] The monkey puzzle trees of today - one is next to the tree shown in this picture and another in the next garden.