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Borrowash Cottage

This house is on Nottingham Road, just round the corner from Borrowash Road.  Mr Vincent Jobson lived here.  He was Managing Director of Qualcast when the first lawn mowers of that name were put on the market soon after the First World War.

The Jobson family owned an Iron Foundry in Sheffield and bought the Litchurch Iron Foundry in Derby in the late 1800s, and later Derwent Foundry in Exeter Place.  They made fire grates, kitchen ranges, fenders and fire irons.  The firm moved from Exeter Road to Victory Place in 1929.  As fashion changed to gas and electric fires, the firm turned to making precision castings for the motor trade: Quality Castings and Qualcast mowers.  Guy Brighouse wrote: "My father and grandfather both bought one.  If anything went wrong with them they contacted Mr Jobson, who would send a man to put it right.  The man had to do this in his own time.  I expect the customers would give him a tip."

Since 1987 it has been White House Nursery.

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