Derwent Valley Mills - Legacy

Legacy

The Derwent Valley is considered the birthplace of the factory system. The machines developed in the Derwent Valley such as the water frame allowed continuous production. Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mill and the associated workers' settlement provided a template for industrial communities, not just in the valley but internationally. The reason a settlement was built contemporaneously with Cromford Mill was to provide housing for the workers; the only way to secure the labour the mill required was if homes were provided for the labourers and their families. The success of Arkwright's model lead to other industrialists copying him. Entrepreneurs such as Peter Nightingale, Jedediah Strutt and Thomas Evans founded the settlements of Belper, Milford, and Darley Abbey within the Derwent Valley for their employees. As well as the economic standpoint of ensuring a supply of labour, the industrialists were also concerned for their employees and families and acted out of a sense of paternalism.

Arkwright's innovations were not confined to developing workers' settlements; he also had patents on many technologies used for water-powered spinning. They were so successful that rival industrialists risked legal action by copying his designs. His patents expired in 1785, and by 1788 over 200 Arkwright type mills had been founded in Britain. New Lanark in Scotland – also a World Heritage Site – was directly influenced by Richard Arkwright and the developments in the Derwent Valley; Lanark was identified as a potential site for a mill on a visit by David Dale and Arkwright in 1784. Dale later established four mills at Lanark; they were struturally similar to Arkwright's Masson Mill and at least two of the mills used technology developed in the Derwent Valley, although the factory system was different to that used in the Derwent Valley. New Lanark was acquired by Robert Owen in 1799 who developed paternailism further than had been done in the Derwent Valley, experimenting with education for young and old and social control. Saltaire – another World Heritage Site – was founded in 1853 and featured worker's housing and facilities, as well as other elements of the factory system developed by Arkwright.

In 1774, the British government passed an acted outlawing the export of "tools or utensils" used in the cotton and linen industries. As a result, the only way for the new technologies being developed in Britain to spread to other countries was through industrial espionage. Carl Delius worked in England and gave plans for many of Arkwright's inventions to Johann Gottfried Brugelmann; Brugelmann used the information to establish a mill in Ratingen, near Düsseldorf, which began production in 1784. He named the settlement associated with the mill Cromford. The mill was the first Arkwright mill in mainland Europe. The techniques for spinning cotton developed in the Derwent Valley were also spread to America. In 1790, the United States had less than 2,000 spindles which were powered by spinning jennys, compared to 2.4 million machine driven spindles in Britain at the same time. The Arkwright mill was introduced to America by unskilled migrants from England, many of them being unskilled. Among them was Samuel Slater who was from the Derwent Valley and an apprentice of Jedediah Strutt. He founded Slater Mill. Many of the technologies developed in the Derwent Valley Mills endured and were adopted for other textile industries; until the mid-20th century, carding was still performed with machinery invented by Richard Arkwright. The factory system made it possible to produce cheap textiles and clothing.