Aldercar and Langley Mill
Aldercar and Langley Mill are both situated in the English county of Derbyshire. Both towns are located in the East Midlands area of the country. Aldercar is technically a small village and Langley Mill is a slightly bigger town. The two places are often linked together nowadays as their boundaries do blur but in the past they were two separate villages/towns. They now form the combined parish of Aldercar and Langley Mill (as of 1984) in the Amber Valley district of the county.
In Norman times much of the area around Aldercar and Langley Mill was ruled by the Norman knight William Peverel. Codnor Castle is actually technically closer to Aldercar than Codner itself. The castle here was originally constructed in the 13th century by the de Grey family and had been in ruins since around the 16th century. It is still a popular thing to see if you are in the Aldercar and Langley Mill area.
Aldercar is a small place that has been relatively untouched by time. In the past the town was the home to a famous building in the area, Aldercar Hall. This house was originally constructed in the mid 1600s and was in later centuries famously the home of the Wright family who were local industrialists. The hall was rebuilt over the years and later turned into a school for a period of time.
Langley Mill was originally known by the name of Long Lea. In its early days this was a small predominantly agricultural settlement which was primarily used and known as a convenient crossing place for its river, the Erewash. It is thought, however, that the town had a water mill as early as the times of the Domesday Book.
Although a relatively small town Langley Mill played a significant role in the early days of industrialisation. This was in part due to the number of canals that sprang up in the area in the late 1700s such as the Erewash and Cromford Canals. The arrival of the railways in the next century also played a part in the role that Langley Mill played in industrial terms.
At one point the town was, for example, home to flour mills, pottery factories and the Aristoc company. For many years Langley pottery, for example, was particularly well known. The main pottery site here operated from the mid 1800s to the 1980s or so and was well known for producing tableware, ink bottles and items of general pottery such as hot water bottles and so on. At one point the pottery was owned by the famous Denby pottery family.