September 1st-26th

The Strutts Family Global Cotton Connections

Belper Library, Derwent Street | Normal opening hours

An exhibition looking at the Strutt connection to global cotton markets, and the plantations which used enslaved workers. Includes a display of artefacts relating to enslavement, labelled ‘The Cruel Cost of Cotton’.

Free entry

Saturday September 5th

Walk – The 1842 Strikes

Meet Belper Market Place | 10.30am

A walk led by Roger Tanner. As strikes swept across the Midlands and the North in the summer of 1842, the Chartists stepped up their campaign for the Vote. The people of Belper and its surrounding villages, like Holbrook, were at the centre of these events. This walk will tell their story as it unfolded through August 1842. It will follow in their footsteps, crossing fields and pathways on the walk to Holbrook Moor, No need to book – just turn up.

Free entry, donations welcome

ALCHEMY LIVE – A Tribute to Mark Knopler & Dire Straits 

St Peter's Church, Belper | Doors at 6:30pm

Alchemy Live are all about the music, no lookalike competitions here. They recreate the music of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits as accurately as possible, with a painstaking attention to detail. It is over thirty years since Dire Straits last performed but their music and legacy lives on with Alchemy Live who will feature two hours of music including Money For Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Telegraph Road and Sultans of Swing.

Booking essential: from livetickets.org (booking fees may apply) and St Peter's Church.

£25 Per Person

Saturday September 12th

Preserving Belper’s Industrial Heritage

No.28, Market Place | 9am-1pm 

A project coordinated by Belper Historical Society (BHS), engaging with communities in and around Belper who may have family artefacts from Belper factories. Volunteer BHS ‘curators’ will help to collect, organise and preserve factory-related photographs, documents and artefacts, creating virtual scrapbooks. 

Once catalogued and digitised, original materials will be offered to the Derbyshire Record Office for long term storage. 
Free entry

An evening of musical celebration with Karen England, Opera Babe

St Peter's Church, Chesterfield Rood, DE56 1FD | 7.30pm

Born in Derbyshire, Karen was a member of The National Youth Choir of Great Britain before doing a degree in Music and English at the University of Leeds, followed by a Postgraduate Vocal Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Karen has her roots firmly in Belper and enjoys singing in the Royal Opera House as well as on the football pitch for the cup final. 

Also performing will be The Dalesmen Male Voice Choir, A Choir D'Taste, and the Derventio Mixed Voice Choir. All profits for Hope for Belper. Tickets available from St Peter's Church. 

£10 per person

Sunday September 13th

Walk: What are the Strutt links to the Pentrich Revolution?

Start from outside the Ritz Cinema, King Street | 2pm

Lead by Sylvia Mason. The Strutts supported the rebels declining jury service and pushing for pardons. Joseph Douglas Strutt wrote to his cousin Edward about the executions: ‘People are flocking into Derby… good God, are these things to be suffered much longer in our once free and happy land.’ There's much more... 

Free walk, donations welcome

Thursday September 17th

William Strutt, FRS: A tradesman of some eminence

Room 107, Strutts Community Centre | 7pm for 7.30pm

Talk by Ian Jackson for Belper Historical Society. As William Strutt left no journals or diary, we need to look at contemporary, third party, accounts of his work and legacies, to understand why he was so respected by his peers, including his appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

This talk traces his life, both personal and work, with the progression of his more famous improvements, such as fire-proof mills and the stove heating system, and other less well-known activities. Whilst William Strutt was recognised widely during his lifetime he is not on the list of great British Engineers today, and this research hopes to change that.

Free to members, £5 for visitors

September 19th-20th

Cromford 250 – A Shared Celebration

Cromford, further north within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, is also celebrating important anniversaries in 2026, with the 250th anniversaries of the first industrial workers’ housing on North Street and Arkwright’s second mill on the Cromford Site. There will be celebrations at Cromford Mill, and the Landmark Trust will be opening 10 North Street for a rare chance to take a look inside a very early millworker’s cottage.
 

Wednesday September 23rd

History Enslavement and the Strutts of Belper: Understanding, acknowledging and representing the histories and legacies of cotton textile production in the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site

Belper Library, Derwent Street | 7pm

An illustrated talk by Dr Susanne Seymour, from the School of Geography and Institute for the Study of Slavery, University of Nottingham. This talk will draw on historical research and collaborative heritage interpretation work on enslavement and the Strutts undertaken as part of the Global Cotton Connections projects since 2014.

Places are limited so booking is essential – either by coming into the library, by ringing 01629 533192 or emailing belper.library@derbyshire.gov.uk

Free entry, donations welcome
 

Friday September 25th

Welcome Meal Project

No.28 Market Place, Belper | 12-2pm

The Welcome Meal Project is a monthly community meal run by volunteers and offers pay-what-you-can for soup, bread and a pudding is supported by Transition Belper 

No need to book – Pay what you can

Saturday September 26th

Berkins Court: a community made and shaped by Strutts

Chevin View, off Bridge Street | 10.30am-4.30pm 

Guided tours take place on the hour 11am-3pm

Visit the courtyard where some of the first housing to attract millworkers to Belper was built. See how settlement design was used by the Strutts to induce (and keep) a workforce in Belper. Find out who came here and how our community changed over time. Historical information and pictures on display in Stones Garage. No need to book. 

Free entry

Sunday September 27th

Belper in the Frame: the 1920s to the Second World War

No.28, Market Place | 6pm

Fifth in a series of six talks by Adrian Farmer, looking at the past 250 years in Belper through historic images. This session concentrates on images from between the wars, and during the Second World War.

Refreshments available for a donation. To book, email belpertalks.walks@gmail.com with your name and number of places required. Booking essential.

Entry £5

September & October

Station mural / arches 

Mural on Poundland depicting Belper's past but also future and welcome; mural / boards on channel off King St; arches on the channels to the station. TBC