UNESCO World Heritage Site: The Derwent Valley
The trip to the Derwent Valley a few weeks ago was a wonderful way to round off Zig Zag’s touring season. About 20 of us – many already known from previous tours this year – met at Nottingham Station, for the trip to Derby. Here we met the remainder of the party and then journeyed on to Belper, where we met Barry Joyce. Barry’s energy and commitment is what led the drive – over five long years until 2001 – to have the Derwent Valley Mills added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Without an enthusiastic and knowledgeable leader to provide the commentary, you may well look, but see and appreciate nothing. Barry is that commentator, both in Belper and later in the day at Cromford.
We learnt that thanks to entrepreneur Jedediah Strutt (2nd half of the 18th century) and several generations of his family, Belper became the first mechanised cotton spinning town in the world – and led the way in developing fire-proof construction methods. These then enabled the design of the first skyscrapers in America. After Belper, then Cromford and the world of Sir Richard Arkwright.
In Cromford, Arkwright took mechanisation and industrialisation many steps further. This enabled him to employ large numbers of unskilled workers (many of them children as young as seven) for the process of producing cotton yarn suitable for spinning into cloth. They came from areas further afield and so needed housing, so Arkwright built them rows of cottages, which still stand today. Just like the innovations launched by the Strutts in Belper, this housing was also a new concept, seen now as the first factory housing development in the world.
We looked, we saw and, thanks to Barry, we understood and appreciated the historical importance of the Derwent Valley, the long battle to get it UNESCO listing, and the religious tensions underlying these developments. And yet we had plenty of time to appreciate the beautiful weather, admire the beautiful buildings in both towns, savour Cromford’s Apple Day celebrations outside the eccentric Scarthin Books (described by one of the party as the best bookshop in the world), and enjoy a seriously good lunch. Something for everybody, as usual, on this tour – thanks to the organiser’s attention to detail. Even the weather was perfect.
By David Shackleton reporting for Zig Zag.
