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Secondary sourcePhotograph15 December 2007

Tutbury Mill, Rocester

Chris Allen · 15 December 2007

A 2007 winter photograph of Tutbury Mill at Rocester, one of Arkwright's mills, beside a narrow millrace. The mill was then owned by JCB and being converted.

Shows one of Arkwright's mills as it stood before conversion, linking his industrial legacy to a site in transition.

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Brick mill buildings beside a narrow canal-like millrace in winter. A multi-storey red brick mill with rows of windows and red metal fire escapes stands at left, a tall chimney rises behind a turret-like tower, and a brick chimney stands further right beside a low brick building. Dead reed and bare trees line the water in the foreground under an overcast sky.
Chris Allen, Tutbury Mill, Rocester, 2007. Wikimedia Commons.

About this source

What it is

This is a photograph of Tutbury Mill at Rocester, taken by Chris Allen on 15 December 2007 and shared on Wikimedia Commons. It shows multi-storey red-brick mill buildings beside a narrow millrace, with a tall chimney and a brick chimney further right. Dead reeds and bare trees line the water under an overcast sky.

Why it matters

The Commons page describes Tutbury Mill as one of Arkwright's mills. The uploader's note says the mill was then owned by JCB and being converted into an apprentice training school, and it predicts that the boiler house and chimney may be lost. This note is one photographer's personal comment, not an official record, but it shows how old mill sites change when their use changes. The photograph records the site before that work.

Look closer

  • What features of the buildings suggest that they were built for industrial work?
  • Why might a photographer's personal comment be useful, and what might it fail to tell us?
  • What would be lost if the chimney and boiler house were removed, and who would decide?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Richard Arkwright on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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