Two cast iron windows from Wm. Strutt's cotton mills (south mill) at Belper

Two cast iron windows from Wm. Strutt's cotton mills (south mill) at Belper, 1811-12.

William Strutt, a civil engineer, architect and entrepreneur in cotton, is well known for being an early pioneer and promoter of fire-resistant building design. William Strutt was inspired to improve the safety of buildings after seeing his father's old mill burn down. He applied these ideas to his own buildings. This material are examples of how he redesigned cotton mills, avoiding the use of timber and other flammable materials. Instead using cast ironwork, bricks, and ceramics.

This ironwork was taken from William Strutt's rebuild of his father's old mill, later called the South Mill, in Belper, which was constructed between 1811-1812, making this one of the first fire-proof building designs in the world. William Strutt's would continue to improve his buidlign designs over the next 30 years, contructing increasingly impressive fireproof buildings on his Belper estate, laying the foundations of modern building design and illustrating the popularisation of metal framework in building construction later seen in Victorian dockyards, rail stations, and factories.

Of Strutt's original mill sites, only the North Mill in Belper remains, and is now a World Heritage Site.