Milford was once a quiet hamlet in a part of the large deer forest that spread from Duffield to Wirksworth. The village owes its fame to Jedidiah Strutt who set up a water powered cotton mill here in about 1780, and built housing for his workforce. Some of the housing still remains in Hopping Hill. The remainder of the building associated with the mill were demolished between 1952 and 1964. What remains is used by small businesses and a mill shop.