Edwin George Derrington
(1859-1943)
(1859-1943)
1891-1892 - The Laurels, St. Oswald's Road, Small Heath, Birmingham, England.
1895-1897 - Tufa Mount, Willard Road, Yardley, Birmingham, England.
"The reason it is called Tufa Mount is because that is where they brought the stone from in the USA." - James Darby
"It is interesting to note that Willard Road is named after an American woman preacher Frances Willard due to the fact that the founder member of a local building firm Josiah Derrington and his son went to the USA in 1886.
They were so impressed by her that on her return they named Willard Road in her honour and built Tufa Mount after the type of stone which was reset in the part of America in which they were staying." - Taken from an unknown newspaper article.
"Mr. Edwards is a landscape gardener, and on seeing the name he told Mr. Powell that he hewed tons of Tufa stone every year from Tufa Mount, a hill near Chicago. This caused Mr. Powell to make enquiries of the builders of the house, the firm of Derrington. Apparently, in 1886, long before the days of productivity teams, Mr. Josiah Derrington and his son went to U.S.A. to study house-building trends.
Being keenly religious men and temperance advocates, they made it their business to meet a famous American woman preacher, Frances Willard. The year after their return they built an American style house in a new road at Yardley, calling the road Willard Road, and the house Tufa Mount." - Birmingham Weekly Post, Friday, October 5, 1951.
