If anywhere is the birthplace of the industrial world, the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire is a shoe-in.  On a stretch of water between Matlock and Derby, was built two hundred and fifty years ago, a chain of “Mills”, giant factories as we would now call them, to house machinery manufacturing on a scale never seen before anywhere in the world.  The products then were mainly cotton and silk fabrics but the idea worked for whatever a machine could make, so for Cotton Mill  read “Widget Factory”. 

Two men above all were responsible for inventing the Widget Factory: Jedediah Strutt and Thomas Arkwright.  When the Luddites swept Britain two hundred years ago smashing the hated machines that destroyed jobs, it was Strutt’s Mill system that was their enemy.  One of Arkwright’s protégés left  Derbyshire and took blueprints with him to America.  The U.S. textile industry was the result.  When factory buildings first became commercially insurable, it was because of a revolutionary design using materials that would not burn.  Strutt’s son designed it, based on the work of his father.

Eight miles north of Derby, and a little further south of Matlock lies the pretty town of Belper.  A World Heritage site, and a small market town now,  Belper is the Industrial Revolution in microcosm and is an unmissable destination for a day out.

To scroll back to the beginning, Belper was a Norman hunting centre, hence the name “Belper” which comes from Norman “Beau Repaire” which means “nice resort”. The oldest building in Belper is St John's Church, said to have been built by Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, in the 13th century.  The Church now doubles as the town council offices, but the nave still functions as a church and is worth seeing.

Belper started its industrial life as the centre of the nail making industry.  This was a cottage industry, except the cottages were back to back terrace houses with windowless lean-to sheds, each a miniature foundry.   The smoke and noise must have been unbearable.  Some of the original nail sheds are still standing, although their original residents would do a double take at the prices they now sell for.   The nailers were a fearsome group of men.  When the railway came through (see below), dug by Irish navvies, the nailers were not happy.  The ensuing hostilities were on the scale of a small war.  Belper’s football team are still called 'the nailers'.

The first water powered cotton mill, North Mill, was started in 1776, completed in 1786 and destroyed by fire in 1803. It was replaced a year later by Jedediah's son and admired at that time  as the most beautiful and technologically advanced building of the era, mainly due to its fire proof structure, the warm air central heating and the breast shot water wheel.   North Mill still stands and is now the home of the Derwent Valley Visitors Centre, with excellent exhibitions showing the development of the mill community in the 18th and 19th centuries. On show are working examples of the Spinning Jenny, Arkwright’s Water Frame and stocking making machines. You can also see the ancient art of chevening - the decoration of stockings by hand.  The “apprentice pieces” are breathtaking.  (If you want to see the finished article look at the costume displays in the royal palaces of Europe.  All the crowned heads wore Belper stockings).
 
Up the hill is a beautiful stone archway over the road. From end to end the archway is punctuated with musket holes covering both approaches. This is not a relic from the Civil War. Built around 1795, it once connected North Mill to West Mill and protected the West Mill counting house. When the Luddites were smashing Spinning Jennies, they turned right just before Belper, and Nottingham felt their wrath.  Perhaps you can see why.

The Strutt family were benevolent despots in Belper.  The whole town centre is a grid of pretty streets built of grit stone with the original cobbled paving. These were built to house the workers.  When the railway came through in 1838, running the line along the river was out of the question.  There were by then five mills at Belper.  The railway engineer, one George Stephenson, had to get permission to take the line through the town.  The Strutts agreed, on condition that the trains would not be visible and the road system unaffected.  The result was a one mile stretch of track with 16 bridges, 10 simply carrying streets in StruttTown.  The cuttings to take the line below ground level took two years to complete and are an engineering masterpiece.  If every mile of track in the UK  had cost as much, we’d still be in horse and carts,  but in the early 1800s, Mill owners like the Strutts held the cards, not upstart railway men like George Stephenson.

Today Belper is dominated by the massive, red brick, seven storey East Mill  built in 1912.  Below the mill complex, the River Derwent is spanned by a fine stone bridge of 1795, replacing an older one washed away in a flood.  (2007 floods  swamped the basement of North Mill, a clear case of plus ca change.) Here in a lovely natural setting the river makes a crescent shaped waterfall on its way down to the lower valley. Next to it are the well laid out River Gardens, an attractive place to escape the hurly-burly of the town centre. If town centre hurly-burly is what you are after, try the Red Lion or the George and Dragon, fine Classical buildings, (and nice pubs)  both in Bridge Street. Belper holds it's annual Well Dressings in mid July, but Belper is a great place to visit all the year round.  Even if your name isn’t Strutt.