It is close to the border with Cheshire and above the Torrs, a 70 feet (21 m) deep gorge cut through carboniferous sandstone, on the north-western edge of the Peak District National Park.

New Mills has a population of approximately 12,000, in a civil parish which includes the villages and hamlets of Whitle, Thornsett, Hague Bar, Rowarth, Brookbottom, Gowhole and Birch Vale.

The climate, good construction stone and the availability of stable land by fast-flowing water was ideal for cotton spinning.

It is pleasantly situate on the borders of Derbyshire and Cheshire; and, within a comparatively few years, has risen to importance in the manufacturing district; cotton spinning being carried on here to a considerable extent, affording employment to numerous hands.

The factories are in a great measure hidden from public view in passing through the village, being built at the foot of the stream, under high towering rocks.

Good house coal, as well as other kinds for the purposes of machinery, is obtained near to the village, the top bed strata running from sixteen to twenty inches thick.

The village is built chiefly upon a stone quarry, but the soil in many parts is fertile, producing good crops of wheat and potatoes.

[5]A second group of 'later' mills formed by the newly opened Peak Forest Canal in Newtown, a hamlet 800 metres (2,600 ft) away on the other side of the Goyt in what was then the parish of Disley in Cheshire.

[6] Before the construction of the high-level bridges the Torrs was a major obstacle; traffic had to descend 70 feet (21 m) to cross the Goyt and then climb the same height on the other bank.

The first station in New Mills was at Newtown, on the Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway; this opened on 9 June 1855.

Heavy rain over the area culminating in a cloudburst over Rowarth caused the River Sett to rise rapidly by up to 20 feet (6.1 m).

At Watford Bridge the river took away part of the printworks, and at Bate Mill gouged a new channel taking with it the sewage plant, 250 tons of coal, most of the road and the gas main.

At Birch Vale, the problem was caused by the waters cascading down from Lantern Pike; the culvert being inadequate, the roadways became rivers washing away sections of walling.

The town is on the north-western edge of the Peak District, but only the eastern part of the parish is within the official boundaries of the National Park.

The town includes the hamlets of Thornsett, Hague Bar, Rowarth, Brookbottom, Gowhole, and most of Birch Vale.

Various parts of the town are given local names: Eaves Knoll (north-western part between Brook Bottom Road and Castle Edge Road); High Lee (northern part between Castle Edge Road and the River Sett); Hidebank (the area on the eastern side of the River Sett and north and west of the A6015); Low Leighton (the area south and east of the A6015); and Torr Top (the area around the confluence of the rivers).

The watercourses to the north, particularly the Rowarth Brook, drain the southward slopes of Mellor Moor, Cown Edge and Lantern Pike.

The Goyt rises on the moors of Axe Edge, near the River Dane and the Cat and Fiddle Inn between Buxton and Macclesfield.

The sides of the Goyt valley have been used to carry two railway lines, the Peak Forest Canal and the A6 trunk road from London to Carlisle via Manchester; these all pass through New Mills.

In the Torrs Gorge, the Rivers Goyt and Sett cut a new channel into the strata of the Woodhead Hill Sandstone which forms the centre of New Mills.

Down cutting occurred, exposing previous layers, creating terraces that were covered with silty clay alluvium.

[15] New Mills' economy was originally built on agriculture, then coal mining and then cotton spinning and bleaching.

[19] Tourism was boosted in 1984 when the Torrs was reopened as a riverside park, and further when the Millennium Walkway opened in 1999, joining the two ends of the gorge.

At first, meetings were held in people's homes; then land was bought on the High Street for a Wesleyan chapel in 1766.

[4] By 1808 that chapel was too small, and a larger one was built in St Georges Road, Brookside (Low Leighton).

The church was influential and many of the millowners were members: Samuel Schofield, of Warksmoor House and of Torr Mill, the Armstrongs of Torr Vale Mill, the Hibbert family, including Robert Hibbert, of Warksmoor who built the first cotton mill in Newtown, the Barnes, Thatchers, Arnfields, Bridges, Willans and Bennetts, all industrialists, are buried in the chapel except Robert Hibbert who is buried at St Mary's Slough.

Until January 1970, a short branch of the Midland Railway led from New Mills Central station to Hayfield; this route's closure was one of the last recommended in 1963 by Richard Beeching's rationalisation programme.

New Mills Town Council hosts a free bonfire and fireworks display in High Lea Park during November, which in 2013 attracted an estimated 3,000 people.

New Mills town centre has been designated a Conservation Area, originally established in 1985, although it has been extended several times since then.

Its topography and the supply of fast flowing waters led to its development as a thriving mill town and important centre for the textile industry.