Context

Belper was a relatively insignificant place before Jedidiah Strutt chose to build his Cotton Mills there in the late eighteenth century. These developments caused the population to rise from 500 to 5000 within a few years, the modern town has a population of more than 20,000.

During the Saxon period a small hamlet was established in the area, its exact location is uncertain. It was called Bradelei in the Doomsday Book (Bradley). It came into the possession of the Norman Ferrers family who ruled large estates in the area, known as the Honour of Tutbury, from the massive keep of Duffield Castle. When Robert de Ferrers challenged the King and was defeated in 1266 his lands were confiscated, Duffield Castle was torn down, the bare hilltop and a few stones are the only remains. The new owner, Edmund “Crouchback”, the Earl of Lancaster turned his attention immediately to the development of Duffield Frith, which had big implications both for Belper and Belper Parks.

Belper is first recorded in 1231, it was the Ferrers new centre of administration for the Derbyshire Estates within the Honour of Tutbury. The first mention of the deer park in Belper is in 1313. A small town gradually grew up on the hill to the north of the Park. It is possible that forges were established to make horseshoes and nails for the many horse riders associated with Duffield Frith. There was iron stone, coal and charcoal to be had in the immediate vicinity. This may have been the origin of nail making in the town, the first of its major industries.

With the decline of the Parks, Belper settled down to being a quiet rural town with a few industries. In 1750 the Belper Pottery was established but the Bourne family who ran it soon moved to Denby in the next valley, when they found that the clay was better there. The real turning point was the arrival of Jedidiah Strutt who built the first Belper water powered cotton mill on the Derwent, near the bridge, and a weir to divert the flow, in 1776. At that time Strutt was in partnership with Richard Arkwright and they had built the first cotton mill, sometimes called the "World's first factory", at Cromford 5 years earlier.

The Strutts went on to build further mills and to develop the town into a modern industrial community of the highest standards for the times. Other industries moved in to provide related products, including iron foundries, clothing and stocking factories. By the twentieth century the whole character of the town had changed and the importance of the old Belper Parks and Duffield Frith had almost been forgotten.

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