20th Anniversary of Inscription onto the World Heritage List

This year the Derwent Valley Mills will celebrate 20 years since its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List – 13th December is the actual date!

To celebrate in these strange times, we are releasing some videos on Social Media everyday from our anniversary until Christmas Eve. If you miss any they will all be available on our website in the New Year.

The first of our short videos to celebrate:

…to where it begins…

The Belper Mills before 1898 – West to East

The Belper Mills before 1898 – East to West

The Story of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site

The Milford Mills – West

The Milford Mills – East

Burn Bright by Emma Pass

The Belper Mills c.1921 – West to East

The Belper Mills c.1921 – East to West

Women of the Valley by Aofie O’Connor

Walter Evans’ Workers Union by Sophie Sparham

A Look inside Willersley Castle

Paint along with Ruth Gray

The Derwent Valley Mills and World Heritage 2021

Next spring, we will bring all our Partners together to look back at all that has happened and set out our future plans.

In September we will be joining with Buxton Heritage Trust to launch the first Georgian Derbyshire Festival.

Although there is still work to do in order to realise the Site’s full potential as a world-class visitor attraction, in this special place which changed the way the world works, there have also been many achievements in the last 20 years of which we are proud, including:

• The opening of the Museum of Making at Derby Silk Mill and the southern gateway to the World Heritage Site
• The transformation of a toxic old mill building into a fabulous Visitor Centre and office spaces for small businesses at Cromford Mills
• The regeneration of Darley Abbey Mills into much sought-after business suites, and a spectacular wedding venue.
• The Great Place Scheme which, among other things, brought fantastic art projects to the Site
• The Townscape Heritage Initiatives and PSiCA grants which helped enliven and conserve the High Street in Belper, and gave grants to restore important heritage assets in Cromford, Belper and Milford.
• Belper winning the Great British High Street competition twice.

World Heritage is not just a list of marvellous sites – it is a vision for peace with the power to change the minds of all people to shape a sustainable future for all. It is about mobilizing heritage as a force for creativity, innovation and sustainable development.

Councillor Barry Lewis, Chair of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Partnership, said: “This is an important day in the calendar for the Derwent Valley Mills and we would have liked to celebrate in style, and we hope that we will be able to do so next year. Heritage is not a luxury – it is a precious asset. Everyone should be encouraged to make their best efforts for the promotion and preservation of our shared heritage. Everyone should respect and cherish these irreplaceable World Heritage Sites. There will be no global sustainable future for humanity without the engagement of each and every one of us.”