Qualla: Derby Silk Mill

Derby Silk Mill: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ashley Dace, CC BY-SA 2.0. On an island in the River Derwent, on the ground where the first true factory in the world once stood, a flooded museum reopened to the public in January 2024. Storm Babet had put two feet of water through the lower galleries of the Derby Silk Mill three months earlier. The Museum of Making, as it is now known, had been open less than three years when the storm hit, and the speed of the recovery was a kind of validation for the way the redevelopers had designed it: exhibits on the upper floors, mechanical systems above the flood line, a building that expected the river. The river, after all, is why the original Silk Mill is here in the first place.

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Image: Ashley Dace | CC BY-SA 2.0

Derby Silk Mill: Southern Anchor

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The Derby Silk Mill is the southernmost site of the Derwent Valley Mills, a fifteen-mile stretch of river that UNESCO inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2001. The inscription recognized the Derwent valley as the place where the modern factory system was invented, where the bui...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Derby Silk Mill: From Industrial Museum to Museum of Making

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roger from Derby, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. The site reopened to the public as Derby's Industrial Museum on 29 November 1974, after the demolition of a power station that had hidden the old mill from view for decades. For forty years it was a quiet, slightly dusty city museum showcasing Rolls-Royce aero engines, Royal Crow...

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Image: Roger from Derby, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Derby Silk Mill: Building Without Blame

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0. The redevelopment is also a quiet experiment in construction management. The project was delivered under an Integrated Project Insurance contract, a relatively rare procurement model in which the architect, the contractor, the engineers, the museum, and the insurers all sign a si...

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Image: Chris Allen | CC BY-SA 2.0

Derby Silk Mill: Living With the River

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aethonatic, CC0. Storm Babet arrived in October 2023. The Derwent rose, the island flooded, and the lower workshop areas of the museum took on serious damage. The building closed for three months. When it reopened on 25 January 2024 the curators noted that the layout had partly saved the collecti...

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Image: Aethonatic | CC0

Derby Silk Mill: What the Mill Now Makes

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Derby Theatre, CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk into the Museum of Making today and the most striking thing is not what is displayed but what is being done. People are making things. There are 3D printers and lathes, a fully equipped wood workshop, a textiles area, and dedicated programmes for schools and community groups...

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Image: Derby Theatre | CC BY-SA 3.0