Derwent River Cruise Celebrates the Belper 250 – May 2nd, 2026
Volunteers from the Paddle Peak Canoe Club hosted a special river cruise over the May bank holiday weekend to celebrate ‘Belper 250’ – a year-long celebration of the mill industry established by the Strutt family in Belper.
The Derwent River Cruise welcomed 70 paddlers on a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon, launching from the Belper River Gardens, then paddling up to Ambergate and back.
Belper is celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jedidiah Strutt opening the first water-powered mill in 1776. This was pivotal for the town as it transformed into one of the world’s first factory towns. We were incredibly proud to be able to play a small part in this celebration.
A huge range of ages enjoyed their time on this scenic stretch of the River Derwent – with three generations from the same family paddling together. The Derwent River Cruise was also a timed event, local competitive paddlers, Jamie Christie and John Stoner made a real race of it, with Jamie just edging John at the line, finishing in a time of 40 minutes 5 seconds.
After disembarking the water, paddlers were awarded a commemorative Belper 250/DRC medal supplied and manufactured by our good friends at Charlie and Jane.
Thanks
A huge thanks has to go to our Paddle Peak Volunteers, especially Peter ‘Pedro’ Montgomery, who gave endless amounts of drive and passion to make the event possible. Big thanks also to our on-water safety crew, Louise and Steve, our car park Marshalls, Steph and Nicola for time keeping, Park Life Cafe for being so welcoming and accommodating, Louise, for the supply of amazing looking medals and finally to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site team and Amber Valley Borough Council. See you all again in another 250 years perhaps!
