Belper, Derbyshire, Travel Britain
The market town of Belper lies in the heart of the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire. Celebrating the local contribution made to the Industrial Revolution, the Derwent Valley Visitor Centre at Bridgefoot documents the history of the mills, cotton spinning and Belper itself. The town’s football team, the Nailers, commemorates another past industry – nail making. At the height of the cotton industry, the Derwent was the hardest working river in the world, with the cotton mills at Belper and neighbouring Millford the largest industrial complex under single ownership in the world. Still seen in the town today, is the first industrial housing estate ever built, developed by the mill owning Strutt family for their workers. On alternate Summer Sundays, band concerts are held in the River Gardens, an Edwardian water garden on the banks of the Derwent, gifted by the Strutt family in 1906. The Belper Parks near the town centre is a nature reserve marking the location of a Medieval deer park. A bird sanctuary on Wyver Lane contrasts the beauty of nature with the power of industry in a town which has its roots well steeped in that industry and is still dominated by the
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