Global Cotton Connections: East meets West in the Derbyshire Peak District, UK

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Britain is famous for its 'Industrial Revolution' and cotton textiles were a key component of this. Many early mills were located in rural areas where water power could be harnessed. The Derbyshire Peak District, now partly covered by a National Park, is one such area. Amidst small towns and farmland the sites of the earliest water-powered cotton mills in the world are found, several of which form the heart of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Yet the global connections of this important cotton textile heritage area often remain obscured. The sources of raw cotton grown in India, Egypt and on slave-worked plantations in the Americas are rarely identified. The importance of the cotton goods produced for not only domestic but colonial markets, including the slave trade and plantation supplies remain hidden. Such absences contribute to feelings of exclusion and alienation amongst Indian and African Caribbean heritage groups already poorly represented as visitors to such heritage sites and the wider countryside.This project sets out to reconnect this important world site of industrial innovation with the people and places involved in cotton textile production in the past and now. Through examination of historical archives it will provide new information on cotton supplies and product use. It will use this new historical information to inform collaborative work with three local community-based groups from different heritage backgrounds: former Derbyshire textile workers based in Glossop, a Sheffield Hindu heritage group and an inner city Nottingham group of African Caribbean heritage. The groups will be encouraged to reflect on this new information and undertake visits to the mill sites, facilitated by the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, to help them gain further insight into the issues. In conjunction with the project team the community groups will consider how global, diverse heritage perspectives might be better represented in the heart of the Peak District and will develop a set of materials to help do this. As well as this very local approach, the project will run an international cotton workshop, hosting cotton experts from India and the Americas, to provide new perspectives on the Peak District cotton textile industry and its heritage sites. This will be attended by academics, charities and representatives of the community groups involved in the collaborative research. Bringing people together in this way will help develop personal links between academics, third sector organisations and publics interested in the connections of cotton and with the aim of encouraging more collaborative work in the future.