I spent an nice afternoon following the A6 from Cromford to Derby, which gave me a chance to view most of the sites inscribed on the list.

Masson Mills (pictured) on the edge of Cromford, has a textile museum where you can see some fabric making machines in action, the staff here were dressed like mill workers and they were really dedicated to the up-keep of these machines and they took great pride in explaining small details to us. The museum was nice but I was not massively interested in the process and I whipped around pretty quickly, the main body of the mill is now a shopping centre.

A little further on was Cromford Mill the worlds first water powered cotton mill, and I was very disappointed here, this was the site I was looking forward to but the main courtyard was very untidy and the museum was exceedingly outdated, again the people running it seemed very dedicated, but just needed some real investment to get the best out of the site, Next to it is a nice stretch of the Cromford canal.

The mill at Belper was one of the first Iron Framed buildings in the world, an inspiration for many architectural advancements that came later, noticeably the early skyscrapers, it looked a little like the work of the Chicago School. Both Cromford and Belper were planned towns for the workers of the mills but I only managed a quick look as I drove through.

I finished off in Derby, a very normal English city that had the world's first factory and the Silk Mill is now an industrial heritage Museum, unfortunately it was closed by the time I got there.

The natural surrounding of the Derwent valley was very nice, and the transport links were excellent, there is a railway station with in walking distance of each of the major sites. On the whole I enjoyed my day at the sites, and it is defiantly worth its place on the list, but some sites could do with some investment of money as there are people dedicated to their up-keep. This site goes into the lower catagory of sites that i have visited and it is not a must see unless you have a real interest in Mills or engineering.