“Will the Real Samuel Slater Please stand up”!

 Local Experts invited to Prestigious Heritage Conference in America

 Mary Smedley, manager of Belper North Mill and Stephanie H. Hitchcock, local researcher, have been invited to speak at a prestigious conference in Rhode Island, USA, because of their knowledge of the cotton-spinning industrial heritage of the Derwent valley.

 The conference, entitled ‘The Mill Village: Industry, Transformation & Power’ will be held in November to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the founding of Slatersville village by Belper born brothers Samuel and John Slater.

  “A New Paternalism: Preserving Mills and Mill villages” is the title of the panel on which Mary will speak, with an introduction by Dr Joyce Appleby, Professor Emeritus UCLA and author of ‘Inheriting the Revolution: First Generation of Americans’.

“The re-use and preservation of our mill heritage is equally important in the Derwent Valley as in Rhode Island. This invitation is an honour for Belper and will help to further forge links between the two important Heritage Corridors” commented Mary at the start of a very busy Heritage month. The American conference directly follows the Derwent Valley Discovery Days on the 20^th and 21^st October, when over 60 free events will take place along the World Heritage site from Derby to Cromford.

 Stephanie, co-author of ‘Samuel Slater - Hero or Traitor?’ book and film will be the sole British panel member on “Hero, Traitor, Innovator – A new approach to understanding the American Industrial Revolution”.

“ I have been invited to put the case from England that Samuel was a Traitor when he took the secrets of Arkwright’s cotton spinning machinery over to America” said Stephanie “and I am looking forward to the trip immensely”.

Slater was later honoured as the ‘Father of American Manufactures’ and became a hero in his adopted land, while he was nicknamed ‘Slater-the-Traitor’ back in Derbyshire. There is a free showing of the film, produced in 2006 by Maypole Promotions (Milford) with Heritage Lottery funding, at Herbert Strutt School, Belper at 11.30am on Sunday 21 October.

 Visit www.derwentvalleymills.org Community Events