Funny facts

“Richard Arkwright” outside the Silk Mill’s Bakewell Gates

Did you know that your cotton T-shirt started life as a plant? Cotton comes from a plant which is grown in very hot countries.
When Sir Richard Arkwright died in 1792, he was one of the richest men in England with a fortune of about £75 million in today’s money.
In Georgian times, Derby’s Silk Mill was a popular tourist attraction.
The power of flowing water can be used to turn wheels and drive machinery and even create electricity. Turbines at Belper, Milford and Masson still provide electricity today!
Silk worms have 11 brains!
A small railway freight truck is called a bogie!
The Derwent Valley has four forms of transport running alongside each other – canal, river, road and rail.
The noise of the machinery at Cromford Mill was so loud it was said that they could hear it in Matlock, 3 miles away.
In the eighteenth century rich men wore silk stockings.
Masson Mills chimney is 180ft high (54.87m tall).
There are 1121 world heritage sites in the world, including the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal in India, the Egyptian Pyramids and the Acropolis in Greece. The United Kingdom currently has 32 World Heritage Sites.