The mills of the moguls
A beautiful valley where the world of the factory changed forever.
IT’S NOT TERRIBLY glamorous to reward an area for being ‘the birthplace of the modern factory system’, but it means a lot here in Derbyshire. It wasn’t just that the mills of the Derwent Valley (from Matlock Bath southwards through Cromford and Belper, down to central Derby) revolutionised the production of cotton and silk. It was how their owners treated the workforce. Here, magnates like Richard Arkwright and Jedediah Strutt built not just technologically advanced mills, but safe housing for workers and their families, with schoolrooms and churches alongside. They believed in keeping their labour force healthy, and that children should be able to read and write before they started work among the looms. Conditions were of course still fairly brutal, as any of the museums along the trail will tell you, but it was certainly an improvement on anything prior. And while this wooded, twisting valley may nestle just outside the Peak District National Park, it’s by no means short of wonderful walks, such as the one which loops around Cromford – hub of the whole operation – in this issue.