Belper, Derbyshire

Saturday 2nd March 2024

This weekend, we had met up again with our motorhoming buddies, Jeeves, Michelle and their cockapoo Layla, at Broadholme Lane Caravan Park, which is around 30 minutes walk from Belper town centre.

The market town of Belper was a centre for nail making since the middle ages, but more recently expanded in the 18th century as a textile mill town. It now forms a part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. We previously visited Cromford Mill, another of the Derwent Valley Mills, in July last year. You can read that blog post <here>

The town is pleasant enough if perhaps unremarkable. There are however, some interesting buildings:

…but the main attraction is the mill complex at the northern end of the town, where the River Derwent has been managed to create water power for the cotton mills. Water levels are maintained via a horseshoe weir and a barrage with many sluice gates. The river is still used to provide power at this point, with electricity generation in the mill buildings.

There are in fact three mill buildings, the North, East and West Mills. Strutts North Mill was built first, then rebuilt following a fire, it now houses a museum. The West Mill, on the other side of the road (and linked with a bridge) is in use by Courtaulds and the East Mill, which had to be built over the river on cast iron pillars, as they had run out of land, seems to stand mostly empty and is clearly in need of some TLC.

Along the river bank to the north of the mills, is an area of pleasant parkland, The Belper River Gardens: