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.
By about 1850 the village had reached more or less its modern form, the work of three generations of Arkwright squires. Here the reader will find descriptions of many of the village's key features: the several mills and their watercourses; Willersley Castle, the Arkwright mansion; Cromford Church; Cromford Canal Wharf, and the village schools.
The authors also depict life in this paternalist community and when it came to an end, the struggles and deprivations of the inter war years. The book concludes with the discovery of Cromford as a heritage destination following the celebration in 1971 of the bicentenary of Sir Richard's first Cromford Mill and the subsequent inscription of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site in 2001.
Audiences have welcomed this latest production from our Charity for its authentic voice and diversity. Life one hundred and fifty years ago in this small Derbyshire town was smelly, tough and dirty for almost everyone and especially hard on the children. But there is humour, pathos and relief here. Relief that while human nature may not have changed, the plumbing has; and children are no longer sent out to work, or put to work at home, before they are ten.
Join us; hear it and see it all for yourself. You won’t regret it.
Admission: £7.50
Book in advance by phone 07784 875333
or by email [email protected].
Doors open 1:45 pm. Tea, coffee and soft drinks available.
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.
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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.
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