Belper

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Belper
Coordinates: 53.0292° N 1.475° W
Population	20,548
OS grid reference	SK351476
Parish	Belper
District	Amber Valley
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BELPER
Postcode district	DE56
Dial code	01773
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Amber Valley
European Parliament	East Midlands
List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire

Belper is a town within the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England.

It is eight miles north of Derby, on the A6, by the River Derwent, and has a population of 20,548 (2001 census); Belper town council claims to be responsible for 10,000 households. It has regular bus services to Derby and to the north, to Ripley and many surrounding villages. Belper railway station is situated on the Midland Main Line, and is mainly served by local trains on the Derwent Valley Line Derby-Matlock service.

As a relatively small town, it has three supermarkets (Morrisons, Somerfield, Co-Op), supplemented by a small but busy shopping area mainly centred around King Street, several primary schools and a secondary school.

Belper School and Sixth Form Centre (the town's secondary school) has approximately 1400 pupils aged 11-18. It was originally named "Belper High School" when it was built in 1973. It is adjacent to Belper Leisure Centre. Its most famous "old boy" is probably Ross Davenport, winner of two gold medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Contents 1 Origins 2 History 3 Recent times 4 Schools 4.1 Primary Schools 4.2 Secondary Schools 5 Famous residents 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Origins

At the time of the Norman occupation, Belper was part of the Manor of Duffield held by Henry de Ferrers. It is thought to have originated in a chapel in Duffield Frith provided by Henry for the use of his foresters. Originally consecrated in 1250 as the Chapel of St. Thomas, it was rededicated to St. John during the reign of King Henry VIII.

The town's name is probably a corruption of the name Beaurepair (beautiful location), the name given by Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England, to his country seat in the 13th century. (Duffield Frith by that time having passed to the Duchy of Lancaster)

[edit] History

The area had long been associated with the working of iron. It is thought that this was important for the de Ferers family, who were also ironmasters in Normandy. By the fourteenth century it was a major source of income, particularly nail making. By the end of the eighteenth century there were around 500 'naylor's' workshops in the town. It was hot exhausting work for very little remuneration and by the end of the century they had been superseded by machinery.

Much of their output was used in the expansion of the town from 1776, for Belper was one of the first 'mill towns', as a result of events at nearby Cromford. The industrialist Jedediah Strutt was a partner of Richard Arkwright and built a water-powered cotton mill of his own, the second in the world, at Belper. In 1784 he built the North Mill, and across the road joined by a bridge, the West Mill. In 1803 the North Mill was burnt down to be replaced by an innovative new structure designed to be fireproof. Other extensions followed, culminating in the East Mill in 1913, a present day Belper landmark. To this day the mill derives power from the river, using turbine-driven electrical generators.

Strutt had previously patented his "Derby Rib" for stockings, and the plentiful supply of cotton encouraged the trade of framework knitting which had been carried on in the town and surrounding villages since the middle of the previous century. Mechanisation arrived about 1850, but, in any case, the fashion for stockings for men was disappearing. However elaborately patterned stockings, for ladies especially, were coming into vogue, and the output of the Belper "cheveners" was much in demand.

The coming of the North Midland Railway in 1840 brought further prosperity and, in 1820 Belper was the first place in the UK to get gas lighting, at a works erected by the Strutts at Milford. Demand was such that in 1850, the Belper Gas and Coke Company was formed, with a works in the present Goods Road. Electricity followed in 1922 from the Derby and Nottingham Electrical Power Compay's works at Spondon. The first telephones came in 1895 from the National Telephone Company. The end of the century also brought the motor car, CH218, owned by Mr. James Bakewell of The Elms being possibly the first.

Belper remained a textile and hosiery centre well into the Twentieth Century. Meanwhile other companies were developing in various ways. Iron founding led to the Park Foundry, with Gloworm at Milford, becoming pre-eminent in the gas appliance and central heating industries. Adshead and Ratcliffe had developed Arbolite putty for iron-framed windows, while Dalton and Company which had been producing lubricating oils, developed ways of recovering used engine oil which proved especially useful during the Second World War. In 1938, A.B.Williamson had developed a substance for conditioning silk stockings. The introduction of nylons after the war seemed set to make it redundant, however mechanics and fitters had discovered its usefulness in cleaning hands and it is marketed to this day by Deb Proprietaries as Swarfega.

[edit] Recent times

Since 1983 Belper has been in the West Derbyshire constituency, represented in Parliament first by the journalist Matthew Parris and since 1986 by Patrick McLoughlin (Conservative). Before 1983 the town gave its name to the Belper constituency which from 1945 to 1970 was the seat of George Brown, the often controversial deputy leader of the Labour Party.

After the Second World War, J.W.Thornton, the chocolate maker moved into the town from Sheffield, which helped to alleviate the employment problems arising from the contraction of the earlier industries. Cotton spinning and textile production has virtually ended and all that nowadays remains of Strutt's Mills is the large East Mill and the smaller North Mill., preserved as part of the Derwent Valley Mills heritage sites. In 2001 the valley between Derby's silk mill, through Belper, to Cromford's Arkwright mills was given World Heritage status.

Among the Strutts' bequests to the town was the Herbert Strutt Grammar School, which is now a Primary School. Notable among its students were the actors Alan Bates and Timothy Dalton, while the actress Suzy Kendall was born and grew up in the town.

Belper is twinned with Pawtucket, Rhode Island , the connection being Samuel Slater of Milford who was an apprentice of Jedediah Strutt and absconded to America to found that country's cotton spinning industry.

Belper made international news in 2001 after rejecting a gift of a large fibreglass Mr. Potato Head model from Pawtucket, as residents considered it was "ugly".

At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Belper-born swimmer Ross Davenport won two gold medals and a silver for England.

[edit] Schools

[edit] Primary Schools

• St Elizabeth's Primary School
• St Johns Primary School
• Herbert Strutt Primary School
• Pottery Primary School
• Long Row Primary School
• Ambergate Primary School

[edit] Secondary Schools

• Belper School and Sixth Form Centre

[edit] Famous residents

• George Brown, Baron George-Brown Labour politician
• Timothy Dalton, actor, the 4th James Bond
• Ross Davenport Swimmer
• Tracy Shaw who played Maxine Peacock (1995-2003) in Coronation Street
• Samuel Slater "father of the American industrial revolution"

[edit] References

• Naylor, P. (Ed) (2000) An Illustrated History of Belper and its Environs Belper: M.G.Morris

[edit] External links

• Belper Town Council
• Belper Today - newspaper
• Derwent Valley Mills
• Site specific to the North Mill
• BBC: Historical account of the Belper nailers
• Belper School and Sixth Form Centre
• Belper Historical Research Website
• Belper Rugby Club
• Belper Town Football Club
• Belper Sub Aqua Club
• Belper Forum