The Arkwright Society was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Dr Patrick Strange, whose extraordinary knowledge, vision and dedication helped transform our understanding of Cromford Mills and its wider industrial heritage. On behalf of everyone at The Arkwright Society, we owe an immense debt of gratitude for his lifetime of work, and we are honoured to share this personal tribute by his long-time friend and colleague, Christopher Charlton (former Director of The Arkwright Society).
Dr Patrick Strange
Dr Patrick Strange has died. He was 93. He was a man of many talents and the master of several disciplines. By profession he was an electrical engineer and his working life was spent lecturing on that subject at the University of Nottingham. But this was not enough for Patrick and he added to his skill set classical archaeology, industrial archaeology, vernacular architecture and historic building conservation.
His association with the Cromford Mills began in 1967. He and I had worked together to plan and deliver the Pentrich Revolution Festival which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Pentrich Rising. We were looking for a new challenge. The mill site was known to be the site of Arkwright’s first water powered mill but there was uncertainty as to what remained that might be historically important and no understanding of how the site had worked as an industrial unit. The site was still a functioning colour factory, in effect a chemical works; would there be access for two academics with no claim to any relevant expertise or institutional support? I approached the manager. He was sympathetic; perhaps even enthusiastic. We could have free run of the site on Saturday mornings. And so our survey of the site began. We surveyed all the buildings, the wheel pits and all but one of the waterways. On one particular Saturday we crawled all the way from the mill to beneath the Market Place. As we crawled our faces kept bumping into lumps of something we could not at first identify. We eventually realised it was rotten meat. A local butcher had been throwing what he could not sell into the watercourse. Our understanding of the history of the site and Pat’s plan found a public in 1971 in the publication Arkwright and the Mills at Cromford which I wrote for the Arkwright Festival.
The Festival itself was closely linked to these Saturday morning explorations. It grew from them as these things do in small communities. We would emerge from the colour works covered in the yellowy-green lead chromate dust that pervaded the site and often the adjoining road. We needed refreshment. But filthy dirty as we were, which pub would let us in? Usually it was the Pig of Lead. Of course we were observed. Our mission became public knowledge. As a result a deputation of local residents approached me to lead a committee to plan and deliver a celebration to mark the bicentenary of Sir Richard Arkwright’s Cromford Mill and so the Arkwright Festival was born.
Patrick’s next contribution to Cromford’s heritage emerged during the build up to the festival and in the years that followed. The Corn Mill was given to the Festival Committee and so became a part of the Society’s estate. Under Pat’s supervision machinery from Longford Mill and Millers Dale Mill and a water wheel from Darley Bridge was dismantled and some of it reassembled in Cromford Corn Mill.
Patrick then turned his attention to Lumsdale. A series of Summer Schools under the auspices of the University of Nottingham Department of Adult Education and one held jointly with the University of Cambridge, researched the history of the valley by both excavation and documentary research. It proved this to be a nationally important site. There were two outcomes. The predecessor body of English Heritage recognised its significance and afforded it protection; and Mrs Mills, the owner of most of the valley, convinced of its importance, leased and then bequeathed her holding to the Arkwright Society. It was a matter of some regret to Pat that the authors of the book about Lumsdale did not consult him.
An unexpected development from the summers spent in Lumsdale emerged from Ratingen, the small town in Germany where Brügelmann had established his Cromford Mill. The Summer Schools had attracted some foreign participants. One of them was Axel Fohl. He became a major figure in the identification and retention of West Germany’s industrial heritage. When Ratingen Mill was to be researched and recorded prior to its use as a museum, at his instigation, Pat and I were invited to report on the interpretation of the Ratingen Mill excavations. We were then asked to produce a replica water frame for the museum. We commissioned the late Charles Haycock. His clockmaking business had been established in Ashbourne in 1826 and had at one time, Charles believed, made parts for the textile industry. Charles made a water frame but in its first iteration it did not spin cotton; at best it produced a string-like strand. We faced just the same problem history tells us Arkwright had confronted and solved. The weights on the rollers had to be just right. The machine was brought to Cromford where Pat and Charles tinkered with it until, like Sir Richard, they had it spinning perfectly.
There was a time when we realised we could talk the building conservationist’s talk about lime mortar and breathable paint but how much did we really know? Patrick enrolled us both on a course at South Wingfield Manor. For a day or two we raked out joints, mixed mortar and pointed up. We were quietly pleased with our work. I took my wife to see the joints I had carefully pointed. Alas, only to find they had been raked out and repointed by a professional. What had been learned enabled Pat to advise the Society’s building team working on the Cromford Mill buildings on their mortar mix and pointing.
The next chapter in this story has Pat engaged at our mill on a daily basis. This work emerged from the County Council’s decontamination of Sir Richard Arkwright’s second mill and the subsequent lottery grant which funded a detailed archaeological study of the first mill. The decontamination revealed the second mill wheelpit and confirmed the layout of the ground floor. The lottery funding enabled the Society to pay Pat, now retired from his University post, to give the investigation of the first mill his full attention. There emerged a comprehensive analysis of how the first mill had operated. We now know how the cotton entered the mill; how the power source was linked to the machines and how this one building also contained its own administrative compartments. All this plus an analysis of the site’s other buildings was contained in the Conservation Report which I wrote based on Pat’s notes.
Patrick was among the first within his generation to recognise the potential of water power in the production of electricity. He had studied water mills throughout the county and knew the strengths and weaknesses of Derbyshire’s many streams and its major rivers. He reckoned the Bonsall Brook offered the potential to accommodate a small hydro scheme. It would cost around £100,000. The money was raised; a turbine was installed and tested. It was found to deliver exactly as planned. The completed scheme was handed to the managers of the Society but they decided not to proceed.
Patrick never wanted a part in the Arkwright Society’s management. He was heavily involved in the work of the Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust and in any case he was a doer rather than a debater. And though he was never a member of the Society’s inner circle his contribution to the Society over so many years must surely place him alongside the Society’s most important figures. It is to be hoped this will have earned him some form of permanent recognition and acknowledgement.
My own reward has been his friendship over the sixty years we worked together. A privilege I treasure. Patrick is survived by his wife Ann and daughter Bridget. To them both we must surely say thank you for sharing so much of Pat’s time with us and of course we offer our condolences at what will be for them the saddest of times.
Christopher Charlton