Jedediah Strutt, who was Arkwright's partner in the first Cromford Mill, built mills at Belper and Milford in 1776 – 1881.

He established a mill at Belper, about south of Cromford ; it was probably complete in 1781.

Belper was already an established village with its own market before Jedediah Strutt began building mills, so he was not required to have as active a role in developing the community into a self-sustaining entity as Richard Arkwright did at Cromford.

Slater Mill Historic Site | Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, incorporated many elements of the factory system developed in the Derwent Valley, and was built by Samuel Slater from Belper.

At the time of the Norman occupation, Belper was part of the land centred on Duffield held by the family of Henry de Ferrers.

However elaborately patterned stockings, for ladies especially, were coming into vogue, and the output of the Belper " cheveners " was much in demand.

Belper was the first place in the UK to get gas lighting, at a works erected by the Strutts at Milford.

Demand was such that in 1850, the Belper Gas and Coke Company was formed, with a works in the present Goods Road.

Before 1983 the town gave its name to the Belper constituency, which from 1945 to 1970 was the seat of George Brown, the deputy leader of the Labour Party.

' ( Belper Against Tesco Superstore ) was formed in 2007 to protest against them.

A rival group, Belper For Tesco, was set up in support of the development.

It was originally named " Belper High School " when it was built in 1973, and is adjacent to Belper Leisure Centre.

It became a primary school in 1973 with the opening of Belper High School, and remained in use as such until spring 2008 when it was replaced by a new building on a different site.

Also, during the 1970s and 1980s, Belper was the site of an experimental three-tier education system, comprising a number of primary schools ( age 5 – 9 years ), feeding into two main secondary schools ( age 9 – 13 years ), pupils from both then usually attended a single American-style high school ( age 13 – 18 years ).

* Admiral Sir Trevor Alan Soar, a former Commander in Chief Fleet of the Royal Navy, was born in Belper.

He was selected for Belper, a mixed constituency near Derby which was one of the top Labour target seats.

Despite the attraction of the Burton Road Babington lane route, it is possible that the course of the original Rykneld Way did not deviate but continued in a straight line through the rear of what was the Crest Motel, across Chain Lane, then following Owlers Lane and Constable Lane, across what is now the Bemrose School fields, eventually joining what is now called Uttoxeter Old road and further to the recorded camp around Belper Road.

After the Changabang expedition in 1976 Hilary arranged for Boardman to give a slide show at Belper High School where she was the teacher responsible for outdoor activities.

He moved to Blackwell where he had inherited a farm from one of his uncles and, in addition developed a business carrying coal from Denby to Belper and Derby.

The records of the Duchy of Lancaster have many references to Duffield Frith, including, in 1314, a great larder at Belper, where the venison of the deer was salted down for winter use, and a large cow-house stood in the lower part of Shottle ( Cowhouse Lane, listed by the Post Office as " Cowers Lane ").

* 1793 – Samuel Slater of Belper establishes the first successful cotton spinning mill in the United States, at Pawtucket ; beginnings of the " Rhode Island System "

Belper is twinned with Pawtucket, Rhode Island after Samuel Slater-an apprentice of Jedediah Strutt-went there and founded the American cotton spinning industry.

The Strutts estimated that by 1789 they had invested £ 37, 000 (£) in theirs mills at Belper and Milford (£ 26, 000 at Belper and £ 11, 000 at Milford ), and had a return of £ 36, 000 (£) per year.

Compared with Cromford, whose population had plateaued at around 1, 200 in the early 19th century, the population of Belper rose from 4, 500 in 1801 to 7, 890 in 1831 due to the prosperity of the business.

By the reign of Henry VIII Belper had grown to a substantial size.

Tesco have had plans to build a supermarket in Belper since 1998 and later identified the site of the old Thorntons factory on Derwent Street as their preferred location.

Brown's constituency of Belper had been the site of considerable development since he had been elected.

In 1941 he had founded a detergent-sales company, Deb Silkware Protection Ltd., based in Belper, to produce a formulation for extending the life of silk stockings.

Flax, for linen, had been grown in Flaxholme, from the fifteenth century, on the instructions from King Henry V. Silk thread began to be produced in quantity by John Lombe in Derby, likewise cotton thread in Belper.

He had many favours granted to him by the king, among them the right of free warren in Beaurepair ( Belper ), Makeney, Winleigh ( Windley ), Holbrooke, Siward ( Southwood near Coxbench ), Heyhegh ( Heage ) Cortelegh ( Corkley, in the parish of Muggington ), Ravensdale, Holland ( Hulland ), and many other places,

Both Lovatt brothers were born in Belper, Derbyshire and had previously been employed as potters at the nearby and larger Denby Pottery, operated by Joseph Bourne & Son.

Until then the main road from Belper northwards had been through Wirksworth and such traffic as there was, would have been mainly cotton from Arkwright's Mill at Cromford.

By then Shining Cliff and the manor of Alderwasley had been transferred to the Lowe family, leaving the three wards of Duffield, Belper and Hulland.

* Lady Margaret Coke ( 1852 – 1922 ), married Henry Strutt, 2nd Baron Belper and had issue.

* At Belper, while much of the site has been converted to other business uses, the Belper North Mill building houses the Derwent Valley Visitor Centre.

The town of Belper has been moved into the new Mid Derbyshire constituency.

It has been suggested that this is the origin of nailmaking in Belper.

Entrepreneurs such as Peter Nightingale, Jedediah Strutt and Thomas Evans founded the settlements of Belper, Milford, and Darley Abbey within the Derwent Valley for their employees.

The industrialist Jedediah Strutt, a partner of Richard Arkwright, built a water-powered cotton mill in Belper in the late eighteenth-century: the second in the world at the time.

* Jedediah Strutt, inventor, opened his first mill in Belper ( 1777 )

Jedediah Strutt ( 1726 – 7 May 1797 ) or Jedidiah Strutt – as he spelt it – was a hosier and cotton spinner from Belper, England.

Jedediah died in 1797 and is buried in the Unitarian Chapel in Field Row, Belper.

However, the works continued supplying the Belper nail makers among others and by the time Jedediah Strutt bought it, it consisted of two forges and a slitting and rolling mill, occupying both sides the river.