The Old Silk Mill Derby.

I had a couple of hours to kill in Derby today and stumbled across the Old Silk Mill.
The Derwent Valley mills are recognised by UNESCO as the birthplace of the factory system. The Silk Mill forms the southern gateway to a World Heritage Site running
15 miles along the River Derwent to Matlock Bath.
The valley contains unique mill complexes, settlements,
waterways and the remains of one of the earliest railways. The Silk Mill, operating on this site from 1721, employed workers and produced thread on a scale never seen before. Fifty years later, Richard Arkwright built his famous water-powered cotton spinning mill at Cromford. Arkwright organised machines
and workers in new ways. The Derwent Valley mills and the ‘Arkwright System’ influenced factories worldwide.

The Old Silk Mill is now a museum of making- including a mixture of the industrial past, present and future

So that was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain. What’s the next step? The museum laid this out clearly.

‘The next episode or the Industrial Revolution will be the growth of Automation and Artificial Intelligence (Al).’

‘The demand for digital and advanced technological skills, and emotional skills such as leadership and managing others, will grow. Creativity and critical thinking will be essential as our workplaces change.
Our future challenge will be to create a society that has a workforce with
the right skills to complement new technology, and also to keep pace with demographic change as people live longer. There will be equal demands for highly technical and creative skills, and empathetic and caring skills.

It was an interesting morning and really enjoyed learning the local history of the area.