The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Educational Trust is a registered Charity established in 2003 to provide carefully researched publications about the history of the Derwent Valley.
This is the first of two books describing life in Belper in the nineteenth century. These were the years that saw the town establish itself within the county as an administrative centre and, with its early railway connection, a flourishing horse-nail industry, and the seemingly inexorable growth of the Strutts' empire, what could go wrong? But the railway didn't bring investment; handcrafted nails were overtaken by those made by machine and then by imported products; and the mills contracted and were sold. The growth of the town stalled.
In this volume the focus is on the town's early transport links, skillfully enhanced by the Strutts; the coming of the railway; the rise and fall of the Belper horse-nailers and their union, with a detailed description of its black arts which included the use of dynamite to blow up those who challenged its rule; and an examination of the last unhappy years of the Strutts' business, culminating in the sale of the mills in Belper and Milford.
The book is generously illustrated and both the specialist and the general reader will find much to enjoy in these pages.
View details and purchase
Here is the story of Matlock Bath from its origin in the late seventeenth century to the recent past. At first, a remote rural spa, a century later, though still no more than a small village, its awesome scenery and mineral springs had become so highly regarded by fashionable visitors that it was spoken of alongside Bath, Buxton and Tunbridge Wells.
View details and purchase
This new study of Cromford, the Arkwright family's factory village, uses water-colours, drawings and photographs and previously unexplored archive material, to present an authoritative account of the origins and growth of this iconic settlement.
View details and purchase
This book tells the story of the industrialisation of Derbyshire's Derwent Valley during the last 30 years of the eighteenth century and beyond by successive generations of textile factory masters.
View details and purchase
R.S. Fitton and A.P. Wadsworth's pioneering case study of the birth of the factory system in Derbyshire's Derwent Valley, has long been recognised as a classic in the literature of the industrial revolution.
Out of print for many years, this paperback edition was commissioned by the Trust in 2012.
View details and purchase
This is the definitive biography of Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) and the first detailed account of the life of his only son Richard Arkwright junior (1755-1843), and the dynasty of land owning gentry he founded and sustained from his immense wealth.
View details and purchaseJOHN TAMS returns to St Peter’s following a sellout Christmas show with a fundraiser for the publication of Belper Voices Volume Two.
Saturday 13th July 2024 at St Peter's Belper. Doors open 7pm. Performance 7:45pm.
Tickets £15 from livetickets.org, belperfringe.org, eventbrite.co.uk.
This is the first of two books describing life in Belper in the nineteenth century. These were the years that saw the town establish itself within the county as an administrative centre and, with its early railway connection, a flourishing horse-nail industry, and the seemingly inexorable growth of the Strutts' empire, what could go wrong? But the railway didn't bring investment; handcrafted nails were overtaken by those made by machine and then by imported products; and the mills contracted and were sold. The growth of the town stalled.
View details...
Here is the story of Matlock Bath from its origin in the late seventeenth century to the recent past. At first, a remote rural spa, a century later, though still no more than a small village, its awesome scenery and mineral springs had become so highly regarded by fashionable visitors that it was spoken of alongside Bath, Buxton and Tunbridge Wells.
View details...