Building record MDR8447 - Dakeyne Ladygrove Mill and Two Dales Mill, Darley Dale

'In Darley Dale, on the east of the Derwent, is a beautiful vale, called Sydnope, through which runs a stream of water, called Sydnope brook, on which are situate the manufactories of Messrs. Dakeyne, for spinning of flax. Seventy-five feet vertical fall on this stream, supported by four reservoirs, is applied to these works by means of three overshot water wheels, the water descending from one to the other' .. 'the manufactories in Darley Dale were commenced about the year 1780, by the beforementioned Daniel Dakeyne Esq.' (1) Dakeyne's Flax Mill of 1789 stands alongside the Ladygrove Brook. It was originally built as a cotton mill and was equipped with 612 spindles. The cotton mill business went bankrupt in June 1802, but it was later operated as a flax mill. The water-powered mill was driven by a machine invented by the Dakeynes (a disc engine) worked by a 96ft head of water which produced around 35 horsepower. A patent for the machine was granted in 1830. By 1881 the flax mill business was over. The mill, which is now fairly obscured by modern buildings, is a fine example of a textile mill of this era. (2) The building is named as a Cotton Mill on Sanderson's map of 1835 and as a Flax Mill on the OS map of 1898. (3, 4) Three storey gritstone building erected by the Dakeyne Family on top of the spinning mill of 1785. (5) The mill has little changed since the Dakeynes left it. The link block between the 1826 mill and Daniel's original flax mill has been demolished and whilst the original cotton mill has been incorporated in a modern warehouse building (and the ground floor filled in), it is still there. The Bell Tower dominates the complex and water from the regulator still pours down the pipe from the penstock into the cellar where the turbine is housed although the latter has not been in use since 1974. Across the lane is a house, once the mill forge and foundry. (6)