aheed-ud-Din, who resides and works in Derbyshire, is an old acquaintance and a member of the extended family. I contacted him one lovely summer morning. I had never been to Derby before because most of the time, we travelled up north, going directly to Manchester, Liverpool or Scotland or staying in the Lake District or Preston. I have wanted to visit Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, and Stoke-on-Trent for a long time, mainly due to my interest in their industrial past throughout the British colonial era and beyond. Waheed-ud-Din got excited to hear about our plans to visit these areas. He is a traveller, hiker, YouTuber, art/ design/ architecture enthusiast and a systems engineer.

Home to the world-famous Rolls Royce, Derby is a tranquil and peaceful English city by the River Derwent. Their luxury cars are much loved all over the world. Using a fleet of Rolls-Royce small modular reactors (SMRs) might result in substantial electricity cost reductions, making alternative energy a more reliable contender to wind and solar power and opening the doors for long-term cost reduction. In addition to offering a rare chance to produce enough clean energy to run entire towns and cities, it may also spur a significant economic upturn. Rolls-Royce vehicles are well-known in Pakistan, with numerous oral histories and legends about them that have been passed down.

The nation’s founding father, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was known to possess two Rolls Royce vehicles. One was a vintage Rolls Royce Silver Ghost 1924 that later went to Karim Chapra. He bought it from the Nawab of Bahawalpur’s collection. The automobile allegedly stood on bricks in the Nawabs’ garage for 46 long years due to litigation before being sold at an auction and purchased by Chapra in 2004. The car was then reportedly refurbished. The other vehicle was a silver Wraith Hopper travelling limousine, which according to its owner Altaf Hashwani, was given to Jinnah by the English government in 1948 and was used by him to travel to work till his death.

For those who enjoy antique and historic cars, a 1922 Rolls Royce that has undergone a thorough restoration is on show in the foyer of the Pearl Continental in Lahore. The Nawab of Bahawalpur imported this in 1924. The car was used by several Pakistani presidents, most notably Gen Ayub Khan. The owner at the moment is Pakistan Services Limited. The Derby plant was behind building all these vehicles and continues to make the handcrafted Rolls-Royce. It is a piece of art that the RR team of expert designers and craftspeople develop hand-made, just for you. I also remember seeing the famous RR logo on an aeroplane. In most Air Buses and Boeings I’ve flown with, this famous logo gives you more trust to believe that the aircraft is a safe vessel to travel in.

We also visited the Museum of Making (MoM) in the Derwent Valley Mills. Celebrating the area’s rich history of innovation, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is a contemporary space telling Derby’s 300-year history of making to inspire new creativity. The people of Derby designed this unique museum full of exhibits, workshops, activities and events. Waheed-ud-Din told us that the Derby Silk Mill is widely regarded as the site of the world’s first modern factory, built in the valley, that changed the world of mass production. We entered the museum, and a giant jet engine welcomed us from a distance; a Derby-made Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine was winched into the new museum’s lofty glass atrium by a team of specialists from RR and the architects. This colossal piece utters the wonders of aviation and engineering, including what it takes to design and build the cleanest, quietest, lightest and most efficient aircraft engines used in modern aviation today. Rolls-Royce has been working with MoM since the beginning. They believe it will encourage curiosity and help people get the STEM skills they need to create cutting-edge technology for the Twenty-First Century.

Museum of Making is an open archive where volunteers arrange things as part of a perpetual work-in-progress. The museum is constantly rebuilt and reinvented.

As we progressed, we came across an exhibition hall with multiple light boxes, projections, machines and tools used in the olden days. The display is a thoughtful gesture to pay homage to the Derby people and those who contributed to its evolution by working hard and celebrating the pride. Beautiful single-glazed windows since the Lombe’s Mill inception around the 1720s, made with wrought iron and glass, allow one to view the River Derwent flowing as calmly as when Italian silk throwing machines, the Filatoio and the Torcitoio, were first installed here. The most intriguing piece was The English Spring, a partially completed automaton that has been Paul Spooner’s primary focus since it was conceptualised around 2019. The concept was straightforward: create a replica of England where a cross-section of its citizens gathered to honour their country, its institutions and their respect for one another. Built upon that strong foundation, it was only when factors outside the scope of conventional engineering procedures came into play that it became evident that disaster lay ahead. Besides his spectacular mechanical skills, Spooner is a funny fellow who makes anecdotes out of situations that reflect in his sculptures. The message in the chasm between the two parts of the machine is a dialogue by Leopold, one of the most unpleasant monarchs in history. He used to ask his peasantry, cultivators, tenants — members of the general public, “What do you want? Are you not Happy?”

The upper floors of the MoM are full of objects on racks with rows and columns, medical and scientific tools, machines, waterwheels, pulleys, shafts, cogs, a narrow fabric loom, circular throwing machines, maps drawn on trigonometric methods, a log boat from the Bronze age, timekeeping devices, vintage motorbikes, bus stop signs and signage from the closed down pubs, and countless bits and bobs from the age of the machine. We observed an excellent transition through displays from hand-operated looms to digital design and economy. We were impressed by the statement at our exit, which announced the climate emergency and how hi-tech industries and highly conscious consumers can play a vital role in combating that. For that purpose, there are facilitations for weekly clubs, competitions and exhibitions that anyone can join for free to spark a vision of a better world. The MoM is an open archive where volunteers arrange things as part of a perpetual work-in-progress. The museum is constantly rebuilt and reinvented. Contrarily, some people paint model railroad scenery amid a busy activity scene, while others struggle with a machine that folds paper aeroplanes. Before leaving the museum to see another attraction, we were entertained for a while by an interactive exhibition about the Rolls-Royce jet engine.

Derby Cathedral, with its 212-foot-tall perpendicular Gothic tower, has been standing since the early 1530s. Twelve large, prominently carved grotesque animal figures – three on each face – stand atop the structure. Walking through the downtowns, town centres, and high streets is similar to scrolling through the historical timeline as it evokes curiosity to comprehend more layers – virtual and physical - exertion aside.

Made in Derby is a trail of cast iron and mosaic plaques affixed along the paved surface of the pedestrian paths, honouring the lives of those who have made a significant contribution to the city and have assisted Derby in leaving its mark on the globe. Joseph Wright, a globally recognised English landscape and portrait painter; Charles Rolls and Henry Royce are among the other notable names. Each plaque can be brought to life using augmented reality via a dedicated app on your smartphone.

We also experienced the epitome of cultural diversity by looking at the world-touring Tolerance Project as a street poster show. The founder of this global show Mirko Ili asked artists/ designers to create a poster about tolerance, the only requirement being that they wrote “tolerance” in their native language, incorporating any visual of their choice from photographs to illustration or just the typographic expression.

Another interesting small talk was generated between Waheed-ud-Din and me when he told me about the QUAD. The comprehensive centre includes a cinema for indie films and an art gallery. It comes with the support of a team of creative artists, designers and digital technicians with expertise in technical design and delivery, digital development, creative audiovisual and mobile cinema.

Exhausted from walking miles and miles, we decided to take a break and treat ourselves to some Tesco meal deals. After a bit of stay, we decided to visit a unique estate known as Elvaston Castle Country Park, where Waheed-ud-Din’s wife and kids would also join us. The grassland spans around 321 acres, including open parkland, woods and more formal historical gardens. Elvaston Castle, a gothic revival masterpiece built by James Wyatt in the early 1800s on the foundation of the ancient house built in 1633, is located at the centre of the estate. We saw the sunset on our way to the castle. As it was getting dark, we couldn’t see much around and decided to have a quick dinner at MacDonald’s before returning to our hotel. We promised to revisit Derby as according to our cordial and enthusiastic host family we had not seen much.

The writer is an art/ design critic. He heads the Department of Visual Communication Design at Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts &Design, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore