A tale of two families

Mike Smith visits the winners of Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust’s Deborah Devonshire Award, commended for their work on the Grade I listed Long Mill at Darley Abbey

- Mike Smith

The industrial use of land formerly occupied by the Augustinian priory of Darley Abbey goes back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when several water-powered mills for the production of corn, flint, leather and paper operated on land between Darley Street and the western bank of the River Derwent. In 1778, land on the opposite bank of the river was purchased by Thomas Evans, a successful banker and businessman. Between 1782 and 1830, members of the Evans family developed the site to house one of the largest of the great cotton mill complexes built on a 15-mile stretch of the Derwent Valley – an area now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means it can rank alongside iconic locations such as Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids.

The huge complex constructed by the Evans family consisted of five mills and various ancillary buildings. Three of the factories were known as the West, Middle and East Mills, whilst a fourth factory, which was by far the largest, was called the Long Mill. The benevolent Evans family also built over 100 comfortable dwellings, arranged in neat terraces on the western side of the Derwent, to accommodate their mill workers. The later addition of a church and a school made this settlement one of the most complete early examples of a purpose-built industrial village in the world.

With the death of Walter Evans II in 1903, the involvement of the family came to an end. Walter’s mill manager, John Peacock, bought the factories and members of the Peacock family continued to run them until 1943, when the mills were sold to J & P Coats of the Viyella Group. Textile production ceased completely in 1970, but the sale of the mills for other uses had already begun in the previous year, when Sam Attwood acquired the East and Middle Mills.