Thomas Cook Almshouses, Melbourne

We went to Melbourne in Derbyshire today for an evening with friends. It is a 20 minute drive from where I work in Derby, and we got there in plenty of time to look around the attractive town in search of a blip.

I nearly went for a shot looking across the lake towards Melbourne Hall, the home of Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first prime minister.

But I have decided upon this shot of the Thomas Cook Almshouses. Thomas Cook, the pioneer of modern tourism. was born in Melbourne in 1808. Sadly, the house in which he was born was demolished in the 1960s, but these Almshouses remain. He had them built in 1891 for housing the poor, and they are currently used as housing for the elderly.

Cook was clearly not a man to hold grudges. He built the almshouses for the town, even though many local residents had objected when he had earlier applied to rent Melbourne Hall for his retirement. They didn't like the fact that he was "new money".