NOTES ON OLD HELPER AND OLD BELPER BOOKS. 3 



the original site, suggests brilliant possibilities to the antiquary. 

 Old walls of immense thickness, buried in the ground, are quite 

 discoverable to a practised eye, and whenever the Derbyshire 

 Archaeological and Natural History Society require a field for 

 operations, here is one close at hand, and one that will probably 

 prove immensely profitable. It is said that stones of the 

 old manor are incorporated in the present farm house, and 

 that a house in the Fleet has over the lintel a carved stone, 

 carried away from the site. Of this stone is given an engraving; 

 the crossed swords, in relief, are obviously of medieval date ; 

 whilst the incised heart, date, and initials were probably cut in 

 1750, when the stone was moved here. It is difficult to obtain 

 information respecting this old manor house, as Belper was 

 over-shadowed for centuries by Duffield, which was the mother 

 church of Belper, Heage, Turnditch, and other chapelries. 



The advent of Mr. Jedediah Strutt to Belper was the turning 

 point in the fortunes of the town. The romance of trade has 

 no more interesting chapter than the history of the firm of 

 W. G. & J. Strutt. It was about the year 1775 that Mr. 

 Jedediah Strutt commenced upon his own account the great 

 Cotton Mills at Belper, and laid the foundations of his own 

 fortune. Four years previously he had entered into partnership 

 with the celebrated Sir Richard Arkwright, only to be dissolved 

 by the prejudice of the Manchester manufacturers who could 

 not be prevailed upon to weave machine-spun cotton into 

 calico. In an interesting paper read before the Belper 

 Natural History and Philosophical Society, by the late Rev, 

 Robert Hey, Vicar of Belper, in 1878, the statement was made 

 that the cotton industry was introduced into Belper prior to 

 Mr. Jedediah Strutt taking up his residence in the town. The 

 Mill was situated at Chapel Hollow, on the Denby Road, and 

 belonged to a person named Robinson. Cotton was brought 

 to the town on the backs of pack horses. The old mill had 

 deep cellars in which two horses worked the machinery by the 

 familiar method still to be seen at well-to-do farm houses. 

 The work was very heavy, and every few hours fresh relays of 



