Calver

Calver
Calver Mill in Derbyshire. Imposing 6 storey textile mill of 1803-04 that replaced an earlier mill of 1785. The wheelhouse on the left dates from 1834 and housed a pair of water wheels of 80 hp each. Now converted to apartments and secure behind electric gates.
OS grid reference	SK2474
District	Derbyshire Dales
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HOPE VALLEY
Postcode district	S32
Dialling code	01433
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	West Derbyshire - Derbyshire Dales from 2009

The River Derwent at Calver

Calver is a village in Derbyshire, England.

Overview

Calver is a small village situated in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire. The village is bordered by the River Derwent and intersected by the A623 trunk road, responsible for carrying traffic between Manchester to the west, Sheffield to the north & Chesterfield to the east.

Today, the village's buildings are predominantly residential, but some local enterprises, including a craft centre, garden centre, post office, petrol station and shop, garage, shoe shop, outdoor pursuits shop and two pubs remain. There are two camp sites in Calver and many walkers visit the area.

Historic mills

The village is the site of an historic cotton mill opened in 1778 by John Gardom of Bakewell and John Pares of Leicester in place of a corn mill at leased from Thomas Eyre of Hassop.

By 1785, the mill had been developed and stood at three-storeys. In 1799, however, the River Derwent washed away Calver Bridge and took part of the mill with it; shortly after this event, the mill was burned to the ground. A new mill was subsequently constructed, and began production in 1804. By 1830 it employed 200 workers and in 1833 new, larger, water wheels were constructed.

Spinning finished in 1923, but during World War II the mill was used as a storage depot and as a plant for crushing and washing fluorspar used in steelmaking. In 1947 the mill was bought by W & G Sissons to produce stainless steel holloware.

The water wheels have disappeared, though their housings still exist and the building has been restored for use as apartments.

The village was also the home to an interesting corn mill, also confusingly called Calver Mill. It was constructed in the mid eighteen hundreds on the site of a smelting mill. The pitchback type wheel was about 5m in diameter and 1.7m in width. The millpond may have had various sources, including water in Calver sough extracted from the mine.

Media

The Mill was used as a set during production of the television series "Colditz Castle". It has since been converted into apartments.

References

Cooper, B., (1983) Transformation of a Valley: The Derbyshire Derwent Heinemann, republished 1991 Cromford: Scarthin Books

External links

• [www.pdmhs.com/.../Bulletin%2010-5%20-%20Calver%20Mill.pdf The Calver Mill (corn) survey 1989]