Why were the Derwent Valley Mills inscribed on the World Heritage List?
The Derwent Valley Mills were inscribed on the World Heritage List because the site met two of the criteria established by UNESCO. back to top Which criteria did the Derwent Valley Mills meet? Derwent Valley Mills satisfied two of the criteria, as follows: Criterion (ii) The site should exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design. The nominated site relates to developments in technology in the eighteenth century that introduced the mechanically powered factory system within the textile industry. It began with the construction of the Silk Mill in Derby in the early 1720s for the brothers John and Thomas Lombe, which housed machinery for manufacturing silk thread, based on an Italian design. The scale, output and numbers of workers employed were without precedent. However, it was not until Richard Arkwright constructed a water
