Derwent Valley Mills

Designated a World Heritage Site in 2001.

The Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, East Midlands, is home to a series of 18th and 19th century cotton mills, and the area is now an industrial landscape of high historical and technological interest.

Stretching 15 miles down the river valley from Matlock Bath to Derby, this World Heritage Site contains a fascinating series of historic mill complexes, including some of the world's first 'modern' factories. This site is where, in the 18th century, water power was first successfully harnessed for textile production. This revolutionised textile production, had a great effect on the British economy, and the model (known as the Arkwright model) informed and inspired developments in other countries.

The Derwent Valley Mills site is also home to another 'first'. Prior to the cotton mills, the Derwent Valley was a rural landscape, and once the factories were built, the need to provide housing for the mill workers and their families resulted in the creation of the first modern industrial towns. The structures that housed the industry and its workforce still remain, and they have survived remarkably well.

The Derwent Valley Mills site is made up of 10 key sites: Masson Mill; Masson Weir; Cromford; Cromford Mill Complex; Cromford Canal; Lea Bridge (Smedley's Mill); Belper and Milford Mills; Peckwash Mill; Darley Abbey Mills and the Silk Mill.

When Lombe's Silk Mill opened in 1721, it brought technology developed in Italy to England, which enabled silk to be made on machines powered by water. But it was Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mill that provided the true blueprint for factory production, and by 1788, over 200 Arkwright-type mills had been built all over Britain.

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