Wage Forfeits at Strutt Mills

Whilst cataloguing the D6948 collection relating to Messrs W G and J Strutt, the cotton mill owners in Belper and Milford, there have been some interesting records to look at, including lots of employee records. You may have seen some previous blog posts relating to the child mill workers, which are part of this collection. …

Buffalo Bill and His Wild West Show in Derbyshire

If you mention the name of William Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, then it might conjure up images of America’s Old Wild West, rather than the rolling hills of Derbyshire. Whilst touring around Europe the famous Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show made many visits to Derbyshire, including Derby, Chesterfield, Glossop, and Ilkeston. With cowboys, stagecoaches, horses, …

Catalogue Available for Messrs W. G. & J. Strutt and English Sewing Cotton Company Limited Collections

We have recently been reworking the catalogue for two collections connected to the mills owned by the Strutt family, which were later taken over by the English Sewing Cotton Company. Both collections relate to the various mills in Belper, Milford and Derby, which were once thriving workplaces within Derbyshire. Snippet view of the D6948 catalogue …

Education of Child Workers at the Strutt Owned Mills

Back in November, I wrote about the registers of child workers I came across during the renumbering of our D6948 collection, which relates to W. G. and J. Strutt Ltd. There was little information in them about the children they referenced, besides when they were taken on and possibly their age. Recently I came across …

Mary Vincent a friend to the World War One Soldiers of Belper

Today's post comes from Adrian Farmer, Heritage Coordinator at Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and Chairman of the Belper Historical Society, who has been helping us to identify photographs in our D3638 collection for the English Sewing Cotton Company Limited. Whilst looking through some Belper-related photographs in the Record Office, we came across some …

Child Workers at the Strutt Owned Mills

Recently I’ve been busy renumbering our D6948 collection, which relates to W. G. and J. Strutt Ltd, who once ran mills at Belper, Milford and Derby. There is a collection which we are currently re-cataloguing, and there is a lot of material to get through, comprising of fifty-one boxes and eighty outsize volumes. Whilst going …

Mining the Seams Exhibition

It’s been a long time since there was an exhibition in our vitrine wall which separates reception and the search room. Now though we have the exhibition space full of archival material again for our first exhibition on display in nearly three years. The exhibition showcases just some of the many items from the National …

John Franklin and John Herschel’s Telescope

When deciding whether I had anything to contribute to World Space Week, I realised with a bit of dismay, that I had missed an opportunity whilst on a recent holiday in Bath, to have visited the home of brother and sister, William, and Caroline Herschel. The pair had been famous for their endeavours in astronomy …

The Escape of General Exelmans and Colonel de la Grange

I wrote previously on the Napoleonic officers held as prisoners of war in Chesterfield. Whilst there were many interesting stories that came from that topic, I thought it best to tell of the story that first inspired my research into the prisoners at Chesterfield. That story is the escape of General Joseph Exelmans and Colonel …

Napoleonic Prisoners of War in Chesterfield

The number of prisoners of war captured during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars with France was unlike those seen previously in British campaigns. By 1809, after over fifteen years of war, the numbers had risen to a staggering 40,000, which was just over three times the population of Derby at the time. In the early …