Adrian Farmer: 3 books

Acclaimed as the world's first cotton mill town, Belper nestles by the River Derwent, 8 miles north of Derby. From a tiny village by an ancient deer park, it was transformed by the Strutt family and others into a vibrant industrial powerhouse by the end of the nineteenth century. The town faced huge...

From the late eighteenth century, the Industrial Age transformed Belper from a small village of nail-makers to a busy and successful town. Thanks to the Strutt family, the town was the first in the world to have water-powered cotton mills, and the hundreds of people that flocked to work in those mills...

The textile mills in the Derwent Valley had a massive impact on world history. This was the birthplace of the modern factory, where the innovations of industrial pioneers, coupled with access to tireless water power, enabled mass production to occur for the first time. The communities created to support...