The end of the century also brought the motor car, CH218, owned by Mr. The first telephones came in 1895 from the National Telephone Company. Electricity followed in 1922 from the Derby and Nottingham Electrical Power Company's works at Spondon. Demand was such that in 1850, the Belper Gas and Coke Company was formed, with a works in the present Goods Road. Belper was the first place in the UK to get gas lighting, at a works erected by the Strutts at Milford. The construction of the North Midland Railway in 1840 brought further prosperity. However elaborately patterned stockings, for ladies especially, were coming into vogue, and the output of the Belper "cheveners" was much in demand. Mechanisation arrived about 1850, but by that time the fashion for stockings for men was disappearing. Strutt had previously patented his "Derby Rib" for stockings, and the plentiful supply of cotton encouraged the trade of framework knitting which had been carried on in the town and surrounding villages since the middle of the previous century. Although no longer used to manufacture textiles the mill still derives electricity from the river, using turbine-driven generators. Further extensions followed, culminating in the East Mill in 1913 – a present-day Belper landmark. In 1803 the North Mill was burnt down and replaced by a new structure designed to be fireproof. In 1784 Strutt built the North Mill and, across the road, the West Mill. With the expansion of the textile industry Belper became one of the first mill towns. The industrialist Jedediah Strutt, a partner of Richard Arkwright, built a water-powered cotton mill in Belper in the late 18th century: the second in the world at the time. Some of the nail-makers' houses are still in existence and form part of local tours of the town. The workshops were eventually superseded by machinery during the 19th century. By the end of the 18th century there were around 500 workshops in the town supplying nails to the newly built textile mills. įrom at least the 13th century there were forges in the Belper and Duffield areas and iron-working became a major source of income, particularly nail making. However, in a Parliamentary Commissioners' report of 1650 regarding Duffield and its chapelries, Belper is described as "a hamlet appertaining to Duffield". It is recorded that in 1609 fifty-one people died of plague. By the reign of Henry VIII Belper had grown to a substantial size. It is thought that this was important for the de Ferrers family, who were ironmasters in Normandy. Initially obtained from surface workings, it would later have been mined in shallow bell pits. The coal deposits of Derbyshire are frequently associated with ironstone within the clay substrate. St John's Chapel is still in use today and is thought to be the oldest building still standing in Belper. Originally consecrated in 1250 as the Chapel of St Thomas, it was rededicated to St John during the reign of King Henry VIII. The chapel built at that time still exists. This would have been the property of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster who died in 1296, the record of his estate mentioning "a capital mansion". The town's name is thought to be a corruption of Beaurepaire – meaning beautiful retreat – the name given to a hunting lodge, the first record of which being in a charter of 1231. It was possibly appropriated by William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby at some time after it was disafforested in 1225 and became part of Duffield Frith. At that time it was probably within the Forest of East Derbyshire which covered the whole of the county east of the Derwent. The Domesday Book of 1086 records a manor of "Bradley" which is thought to have stood in an area of town now known as the Coppice. Originally a centre for the nail-making industry since Medieval times, Belper expanded during the early Industrial Revolution to become one of the first mill towns with the establishment of several textile mills as such, it forms part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.Īt the time of the Norman occupation, Belper was part of the land centred on Duffield held by the family of Henry de Ferrers. As of the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 21,823. As well as Belper itself, the parish also includes the village of Milford and the hamlets of Bargate, Blackbrook and Makeney. Belper ( / ˈ b ɛ l p ər/) is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England, located about 7 miles (11 km) north of Derby on the River Derwent.
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