Country Images Magazine Derby April 2018 | Página 9

Darley Dale
Whitworth Park
towards the village mill. In the sixteenth century it became a fl ax-spinning
factory powered by three reservoirs further up the narrow valley. Owned
by the Dakeyne family, a dynasty of bankers and engineering inventors, it
prospered for at least two centuries. In 1793 Daniel Dakeyne patented a
machine known as the equilibrium, which he used in the mill as a more
effi cient way for preparing and spinning fl ax. Later, his brothers Edward and
James, patented a hydraulic engine. An early version of a turbine engine,
there is no record of its success, so one must assume that this innovative
machine, though ahead of its time, was a failure. When the mill stopped
spinning fl ax, it was taken over by S and E Johnson (East) Ltd for the
preparation of animal feedstuff s, but since its closure, parts of the mill
have been used by a variety of small industries, such as one making timber
furniture.
Mile Marker
High grade pink gritstone was quarried by the Stancliff e Stone Company in
Hall Dale Quarry on the hillside above Two Dales and carried by a narrow-
gauge railway into the valley bottom. Most of the stone used to build the
grand houses that sprang up along the valley sides and the A6 came from
there.
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