History of Aldercar & Langley Mill

by courtesy of Heanor & District Local History Society www.heanorhistory.org.uk 

Mention of Langley Mill and its history will bring to many people's minds a picture of an industrial village par excellence. Although the village of today appears to remain a thriving concern, many of the household names of the past have now disappeared and have been replaced with smaller industrial concerns, employing less people and being more responsive to the employment and economic climate of today.

The names G.R.Turner, Pickersgill & Frost, Lovatt's, Aristoc and Vic Hallam remain only in people's memory, but to many they help paint a picture of a bygone industrial age when the village provided employment to many in the area. 

Until the onset of the turnpikes and the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, the area which was to become Langley Mill was simply a crossing place on the River Erewash, with links to Derby, Heanor, Eastwood, Mansfield and Nottingham. A road to Codnor Castle had used the old wooden bridge since the 12th century, but there were very few houses in the area, and the majority of these were farmsteads.

Although there had been a water mill in the area since Domesday times, it was the Canal Age which initiated the development of the industrial village which later became known as Langley Mill.

Prior to the 19th century, the growth of the canals had given rise to an area of housing known as Langley Bridge. The Erewash Canal in 1779, the Cromford Canal in 1794, and the Nottingham Canal in 1796, all used the valley of the River Erewash, and together brought about the early prosperity of the area through the movement of coal, in order to satisfy the southern hunger of the industrial centres of Nottingham and Leicester.

Although housing and wharves were built to sustain the canal age around the area of Langley Bridge, where the three canals converged, it was the development of the Midland Railway, a little further west, in 1847, which promoted the development of Langley Mill through the resulting move of the centre of the village over the River Erewash into Derbyshire. Later, the Great Northern Railway also came to the village, but the shift to the Derbyshire side of the river was now unstoppable.

Large industrial concerns used the geography of the area to grow and develop along the fringes of the railway, with the resulting growth of many large industries including G.R.Turner, Pickersgill & Frost, Lovatt's and the Langley Mill Gaslight and Coke Company. The growth of housing obviously followed and the industrial village of repute was born.

Further industry followed in the 20th century, including Aristoc, the Midland General Omnibus Company, Vic Hallam, and F.Sisson & Sons. The associated social and commercial growth of the area helped to cement the industrial fabric.

The past 50 years has seen the pattern of life change for numerous reasons, with the resulting loss of many of the names associated with the village, and the growth of smaller industrial units of today.

The growth and development of Langley Mill over the past 200 years provide the student of history with a remarkable journey and an almost perfect example of the rise and fall of an industrial village linked so closely with its geography, economics, and aspirations of its inhabitants.

Langley Mill is always linked with what was the hamlet of Aldercar - it is hard to know where one starts and the other finishes. Today, the administrative parish is named "Aldercar and Langley Mill." This site separates the two places - Aldercar has its own page. Also have a look at the Forgotten Place Names page for information on "The Puzzle."