| Description | Mill personnel records (English Sewing Cotton Company) 1910-1934, 1951-1968, employment statistics 1902-1916, 1961-1971, pension fund register 1943-1951; architect's drawings 1962-1966; Milford rent book 1926-1935; printed booklets and articles 1882-1977 including re Belper Boating Association and Belper River Gardens; photographs of workers, buildings and social activities 20th cent; newscuttings re English Sewing Cotton Company 1920s-1960s, other |
| Administrative History | Richard Arkwright and Jedediah Strutt became partners in 1770, building mills in Cromford, Belper and Milford before dissolving the partnership in 1781. Arkwright concentrated his work at Cromford, Bakewell and Masson Mill (1784), while Strutt developed three mills at Belper, two at Milford and one at Derby. Jedediah Strutt’s son, William, was also concerned with industrial architecture. In the Derby Mill (1792) he introduced fire-proofing measures such as brick-vault floors and plaster covers for wooden beams. When the Belper North Mill burned down in 1803, he replaced it with an iron-framed building incorporating hollow pots into the floor vaulting to improve fire resistance.
In 1897, with a dozen other companies, Arkwright's and Strutt's formed English Sewing Cotton Company Limited. Milford became a bleaching and dyeing centre, with Belper specialising in doubling and finishing industrial sewing thread and Masson concentrating on high quality yarn. Additional mills were built in Matlock in 1911 and 1928, with Belper East Mill built in 1912. Despite reorganisation and rebuilding in the 1960s, all the mills had ceased operation by the early 1990s. |
| Custodial History | The records were deposited in July 1992 on the closure of Masson Mill. |