Strutt’s North Mill Museum, Belper,  hosted an exciting event showcasing arts and music inspired by the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site on 19th May 2019.  This event offered a unique opportunity to see inside the Grade II* listed Strutt House and enjoy a range of specially crafted pieces of music, poetry, performances and activities which was part of Belper Arts Festival.

About Strutt’s North Mill

‘Strutt’s North Mill’ is part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site where, in the 18th century, the factory system was born, cotton spinning was revolutionised and building technology and the world of work changed forever.

Once a part of the Strutt family’s extensive Belper mills complex and powered by the River Derwent, the North Mill (1804) was designed by William Strutt to be fire-resistant and is one of the earliest completely iron-framed mills in the world. Here using the water-frame technology devised by his former partner, Richard Arkwright, Jedediah Strutt and his family helped to introduce mechanised cotton spinning to the Derwent Valley, an industry that formed the mainstay of Belper and the surrounding area for over 200 years.

The Belper North Mill Trust runs the museum and visitor centre in the North Mill and its mission is to protect and to promote the industrial heritage of the North Mill and of the Derwent Valley for the benefit of the public. With its staff and volunteers the Trust works to share the story of the mills and the surrounding Strutt community, the world’s first ‘cotton town’ and of this part of the lovely River Derwent, in ‘the valley that changed the world’.

This free event is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund & Arts Council England as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Great Place Scheme and co-ordinated by arts organisation Beam.

Beam is  co-ordinating a full programme of arts interventions including 3 major commissions, the first of which will be from artist Jo Fairfax at Cromford Mill, and more pop up events over the course of the next two years.

Artists Involved
Event compered by local presenter Fliss Goldsmith
Grawl!x & Umbilica
Debjani Chatterjee and Charu Asthana
Sarah Hinds
Spindrift
She Speaks
Dave Sudbury

Drop in weaving activities were provided by artist Toni Buckby at The Makory, Derby Museum’s mobile museum of making and artist Seiko Kinoshita inside Strutt House

The Belper North Mill Trust is a registered charity and all donations are gratefully received!

Find out more at the event page here!