On September 5th, David Skillen gave us a talk entitled ‘Knitters, Nailers and Traitors’.

This excellent talk was about the town of Belper in Derbyshire, known for cottage industry production of horse nails, which became a cotton-spinning town through Jedediah Strutt funding, developing and patenting inventions during the 1700s connected to the manufacture of cotton stockings. With Arkwright, he built a factory that contained ‘Water Frames’ powered from the river Derwent. Linked to Spinning Jennies, he produced fine cotton using less than two per cent of the workforce.

When one of his mills caught fire, Jedediah’s son, William, designed a modern factory with brick floors, iron supports and innovative (and safe) heating systems. As a good employer he built homes for his workers as well as workhouses and a pleasure garden for the town.

One of Arkwright’s apprentices, Samuel Slater, became known as ‘Traitor Slater’ when he stole and sold the machines’ details to the USA. The last cotton spinning mill in the town closed in 1969, but some of the historic buildings remain as museums and apartments, making the town a tourist centre.