Tag: belper

The elusive Elizabeth Strutt

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Jedediah Strutt by Wright of Derby

There’s a common misconception that few people travelled before the nineteenth century, due to the state of the roads. In fact, the economic and agricultural progress of the eighteenth century would have never happened without extensive journeying, as illustrated by the letters of Jedediah and Elizabeth Strutt, who both grew up in Derbyshire in the mid-eighteenth century. Due to the survival of some of their personal correspondence from the early years of their marriage we can gain a glimpse of the movements of some (at that time) quite ordinary folk.

Strutt’s Belper mills in the nineteenth century

Jedediah was born in 1726, and was apprenticed as a wheelwright at the age of 14 in Findern, while his future wife Elizabeth, born in 1729, started her career as servant to a Dr Latham in Derby. It is notable that both were part of the Non-Conformist world, and both were fully literate; in fact their letters reveal a rich enjoyment of language. Their courtship, as shown by their correspondence, was lengthy and intermittent; this was no sudden infatuation but rather a stately and respectable dance.

In 1749 Betty moved to London and became servant to another well-respected Non-Conformist minister, Dr George Benson, a man who was so impressed by her qualities that he left her £40 in his will (worth over £5,000 today). Jed, (or Jerry as she called him) had meanwhile inherited some livestock from his uncle and set up as a farmer at Blackwell, northeast of Alfreton. On the strength of this they married in 1755, when he was 29 and she 26.

Their letters from 1757 reveal some details of their travels. They were trying to raise money to finance his ambitions in the hosiery business, and Jed had been to Derby:

I did not get home till fryday. I stayed at Derby on Wednesday night and came on Thursday to Heage before it began to snow so I stayd there all night …

The unseasonal weather also affected Betty, who had gone to London to visit her ex-employer:

I reechd London a bout 3 O Clock on Satturday, when we reechd Glen, 6 miles from Leicester I was so sick I was not able to travel further but staid behind ye waggon mor then an hour, & then walked 5 miles before I came up with it, we staid none at market harborough, but went forward to Germage Inn, where we lay, we never Dined, only just beat ye next day at Northampton and lay at Lathborough, ye next day we beat at Hockley and lay at redfearn 4 miles short of St Albans, it has been very windy bad weather & Rained and snow’d all Day on Thursday, and I caught a very Bad Cold …

(NB ‘beat’ = ‘ate’)

Both journeys illustrate the slowness and perils of travel at that time: it is notable that Betty was travelling by the cheapest method, the lumbering wagon, rather than the faster and more comfortable coach. The waggon took five days to make the trip. Despite her significant contribution to both the marriage and their business, and bearing five children, she seems to have been pretty much written out of Strutt history: no portrait of her survives. Elizabeth died in 1774 at the age of 45, Jedediah went on to re-marry, and lived to 1797.

The lost fords of the Derwent – 2

On By SteveIn Places, Rivers and bridges1 Comment
Savepenny Lane looking towards Duffield on the opposite bank

The road layout south of Belper has changed hugely in the past 230 years. Before the Strutts built Milford bridge in about 1790 there were no bridges between Belper bridge and Duffield bridge. Milford was only a hamlet, and its name was originally ‘Muleford’, but with the growth of industry a better all-weather crossing was needed, as well as the construction of the impressive weir. Downstream the Derwent was forded at a point near the current railway station, as shown on Burdett’s map of 1791, and then near the church Duffield bridge is thought to have been built as early as the thirteenth century. In the eighteenth century this crossing was part of the Derby-Chesterfield-Sheffield turnpike route, and so would have been quite busy.

Burdett’s map showing river crossings near Duffield

The Duffield ford must have been more convenient for villagers, especially those going to Makeney or Belper, as well as for drovers moving cattle. In the eighteeenth century and earlier Makeney was a more important settlement than Milford, and it lay on the route of the Portway, which is thought to have crossed the Derwent nearby. The Holly Bush Inn claims to be one of the oldest in the county, and may have served long-distance travellers as well as locals. It may be significant that a holly bush is one of the earliest inn signs, as in the saying ‘A good wine needs no bush’.

The Holly Bush at Makeney

The route from Makeney to Duffield via the ford was once known as Savepenny Lane, since it allowed users to avoid paying the toll which the Strutts charged on their new bridge. However, this route was blocked by the Strutts; deepening the river at that point and blocking the lane on the west bank. The curious result is that today the lane still exists on the east bank, and in fact has recently been confirmed as a BOAT (byway open to all traffic), although it is a cul de sac. An ideal stroll, perhaps, before moving on to a lunchtime pint at the Holly Bush?