Arkwright’s industrial settlement at Cromford
Arkwright established his industrial settlement in
Cromford
over a period of 20 years. The first significant
house-building
was in 1776 in North Street, followed soon after
by
the three-storey houses towards the top of Cromford
Hill.
From 1776 until 1789 Cromford was owned by Peter
Nightingale, and it was not until Sir Richard had
purchased
the estate that the pace of development accelerated.
Nor is
it possible until that time to discern any element
of
conscious planning in the community’s development.
The village continued to grow under the stewardship
of
Richard Arkwright junior, and by the time of his
death in
1843 it had acquired the size and shape it was to
retain until
well after the Second World War. It is fortunate
that most of
the modern housing development in Cromford has taken
place in areas which are largely separate from the
historic
community.
The Market Place provided the heart of Arkwright’s
community. It extended right across the road and
pavements and included the area to the East. The
main
bulk of the development within this part of Cromford
dates
from c.1790. The market which Arkwright started
in 1790
was an integral part of his strategy for the development
of
Cromford and was fundamental to the success of
his
pioneering achievements. In order to attract the
families
which were to provide his workforce, it was not
enough
to supply good housing. It was also necessary to
ensure
that there was a regular supply of provisions,
and this
was achieved by attracting traders to the Cromford
Market
and building the new commercial premises which
would
retain them.
Unambiguously the principal building of the Market
Place
development, a dignified pedimented, three-storey
building,
constructed in sandstone with a Roman Doric doorcase
and
raised quoins.
The Greyhound provided lodging for visitors to Cromford and was used as the location for festivities organised by Sir Richard for his workforce. The Arkwrights also used it for business. It was here in the public room that Richard Arkwright junior instructed Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire to leave her answer as to how she intended to repay the money she owed him.
One of a row of six houses, converted for retail
use in the 19th century. Constructed in
coursed gritstone with slate roofs. The two bowed
shop windows are a rare survival from
the early 19th century. Originally it had a slate
roof.
Three-storey gritstone houses built as part of
Sir Richard
Arkwright’s Market Place development with
later inserted
shop-fronts. Originally they had slate roofs.
A rare example of a single-storey range of Georgian
shambles. The range is constructed of regular coursed
gritstone with a hipped slate roof. A similar structure
once
stood in the other corner of the Market Place where
the
Cromford Community Centre now stands.
Architect:
William Thomas. Interior by Thomas Gardner of
Uttoxeter.
A mansion house located on
rising ground and set in a
Grade ll landscaped park. It
was commissioned by Sir
Richard Arkwright, who died
before it was completed. It
is constructed of ashlar
sandstone. The central
facade is defined by projecting turrets. Contemporary
observers described Willersley as “an effort
of inconvenient
ill taste” and “a great cotton mill”.
The Arkwright family
occupied the castle until after the First World
War. In the
grounds of the castle the stable block and home
farm
buildings (though not the farmhouse, which predates
the
Castle), by Thomas Gardner of Uttoxeter, survive
though in
an altered form. It is now in the ownership of
Christian
Guild Holidays.
Thomas Gardner of Uttoxeter
A picturesque lodge to Willersley Castle. It has an ashlar facade; the remainder is coursed rubble.
A
small gritstone structure standing by the ruins of the
15th century bridge chapel
and created from an earlier
range of farm buildings. The
fishing lodge was fashioned
by Richard Arkwright junior
to function as a dwelling for his water bailiff.
By the early
nineteenth century it was in use as a workman’s
cottage. It
is a copy of the fishing lodge on the River Dove
made
famous by Isaac Walton and Charles Cotton. The
inscription
over the door lintel reads “piscatoribus
sacrum” - sacred to
fishermen.
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Built by Peter Nightingale for Richard Arkwright, it became his home during his time in Cromford. It was extended in the 19th century. A three-storey brick and ashlar house constructed on a cliff, it overlooks the Cromford Mills in stark contrast to Willersley Castle which, though constructed in an elevated location, is entirely hidden from the mills and almost entirely from the village. It has been converted to flats.
The first of Sir Richard Arkwright’s workers’ housing
in
Cromford. The street consists of two long gritstone
terraces
which face each other across a broad street, comprising
27
dwellings in all. The accommodation is superior
to rural
housing in Derbyshire at this date 
and North Street
set a
pattern for what was to follow elsewhere in Cromford,
though it exhibits a higher standard of construction
and
design than some of the later houses in the community.
The
mixture of leaded lights and sashes on two storeys
and
doorways which echo classical design features,
convey a
social pretension which would not have been lost
on the
skilled workers Arkwright sought to attract to
Cromford.
Sash windows would have been generally reserved
for
farmers or the commercial classes in this part
of Derbyshire
at this time. Provision for domestic accommodation
was on the ground and first floors with workshop
space on the top
floor, characterised externally by distinctive ‘weavers’
windows’. These workshops enabled members of
the family
not employed within the mills to earn an income.
When
these houses were built they were intended for weavers
and
their families.
A three-storey terraced house constructed
in coursed
gritstone with a tiled roof. This is one of 83
similar dwellings within the settlement. Unlike
the earlier houses in North Street, the houses
on Cromford Hill provided purely domestic
accommodation with no workshop space. The terrace
forms part of a long linear
arrangement of different housing forms constructed
by the Arkwrights on either side of Cromford Hill.
Part of the second generation of Cromford industrial
housing. These two-storey terraced
cottages, two cells deep, were constructed in coursed
gritstone with Welsh slate roofs. This
is one of 36 similar dwellings within the village.
Pair of houses within a row of eight built for
Richard Arkwright junior to accommodate
workers in the textile mills. They were constructed
in coursed rubble with render and have
cast iron windows with opening casements. They are
set back behind front gardens which
divide them from Cromford’s main thoroughfare,
The Hill. The rear elevation has small
single-light windows to the upper floors with low
lean-to sculleries.
A row of three-storey gritstone houses similar
in form to
those found on The Hill. These are thought to have
been
constructed for the mill workers even though they
may stand
on land which was not Arkwright property at the time
they
were built.
These are three-storey, semi-detached houses,
stone-built
and rendered. Six houses follow this pattern;
all are on Water Lane. With their substantial gardens,
relatively
spacious accommodation and privies, they are believed
to
have been provided for the overseers or foremen in
the mill,
Cromford’s equivalent of the Darley Abbey and
Belper
cluster houses - though, of course, they are less
innovative
in design.
Founded by Sir Richard Arkwright as a private chapel
within
the grounds of Willersley Castle and opened to public
worship by his son in 1797, the church was substantially
altered and partly gothicised in 1858. It has an
extensive
system of mural decorations by Alfred Hemming, of
1897,
depicting scenes from the Bible. A memorial to Mrs
Arkwright (1820) by Chantrey hangs on the north wall
of
the nave. In the corresponding position on the south
wall is
a similar plaque dedicated to Charles Arkwright (1850),
by
Henry Weeks. Sir Richard’s remains were moved
from
Matlock Church to St Mary’s and interred in
a bricked-up
vault within the chapel.
The school was built by Richard Arkwright junior
to provide
accommodation for the young mill workers who, under
the
terms of new legislation, were to be required to
work under
the ‘half-time system’, whereby part
of each day was to be
spent at school and part at work. The school was
extended
in 1893. Both the school and the school house are
constructed of gritstone with hipped slate roofs.
The School
House is accommodated in one of two wings attached
to the
main building.
A two-storey three-bay building constructed of
coursed gritstone with a graduated
Derbyshire slate roof. It was originally built
as a terrace of three cottages early in the 18th
century, but in 1790 the ground floor of the
centre cottage was converted to a village lock-up.
The lock-up contains two small cells with metal
doors. One cell retains its original
bunk, which is suspended from the walls by chain.
The lock-up, the adjacent space and the
room above have been renovated by the Arkwright
Society and the upper floor is now in
commercial use.
Sandstone privies built in pairs and roofed with
monumental gritstone slabs.
Sandstone pigcotes constructed as part of the Arkwright
community development. Pigcotes played an important
part
in the cottage economy of a village such as this.
They are
situated amongst allotments, small barns and workshops.
The Bear Pit, as it is known among Cromford residents,
was
constructed in 1785 by Richard Arkwright. It
consists of a
more or less oval stone-lined pit sunk into the
course of
Cromford Sough, a lead mine drainage channel,
across
which a dam and sluice have been erected. The
dam forced
the sough water back into a new underground channel
which connected the sough to the Greyhound pond.
By this
means Richard Arkwright was able to supplement
the water
stored in the pond with sough water. He used
the device
each weekend while the mills were not at work
so that the
Greyhound Pond was adequately supplied when work
began
again on the Monday morning.
The principal supply of
water for the cotton mills
was from Cromford Sough.
The first mill was powered
exclusively from that source
until, from the mid 1780s, it
was extended and a second
wheel added. This wheel
derived its water from the
Bonsall Brook via an
underground culvert
controlled by a sluice in the corner of the Greyhound
Pond (adjacent to the present day Boat Inn).
It is not easy to date the
construction of the Greyhound Pond. It may have
been one of the ponds referred to by William
Bray in 1783, but he may
have had in mind the ponds created on the Bonsall
Brook for the corn mill which had been erected
in 1780. Certainly, the
Greyhound Pond must have been in existence by
1785, when Richard Arkwright incurred the wrath
of the lead miners by
damming the Cromford Sough at the Bear Pit so
that he could force the sough water into the
Greyhound Pond. The culvert
Arkwright built for this purpose can be seen
from Water Lane to the rear of the Greyhound
coach-house and stable-block.
This
water-powered corn mill with its attached cottage was
built by George Evans in 1780. It is constructed
in coursed
rubble and squared block gritstone with ashlar
dressings; the
cottage has Venetian windows. The kiln adjacent
to the corn
mill was in existence by 1797. The maltings, now
the
Cromford Venture Centre, was added in the 19th
century.
It is interesting to note that the corn mill was
constructed
within two years of the destruction of the Cromford
corn
mill to make way for the second cotton mill.
The mill was originally constructed as a lead slag
mill
associated with a lead smelting enterprise higher
up the
valley. It was later converted to wood turning
and produced
bobbins and pulleys for the cotton mills. It is
set in an area
of great natural beauty dominated by Slinter Tor.
The
adjacent woodland has been designated an SSSI and
an SAC.
The structure still retains a small breast-shot
wheel with
wooden buckets. The cottage is in the course of
renovation
by the Arkwright Society.
In 1849 the Manchester, Matlock, Buxton and Midlands Junction Railway opened a line to Rowsley passing through Cromford. The station-master’s house and the up line waiting room were built in c.1855 and 1860 in coursed gritstone with slate roofs. The design by G H Stokes bears witness to his work in France with his father-in-law Joseph Paxton in the 1850s. The station buildings on the down line were built in 1874 and are being restored by the Arkwright Society to create office space, with a long term aspiration for creating a portal for visitors arriving in to the World Heritage Site by train. The Butterley Company erected the ornate footbridge in 1885.
Once known as Senior Field House, it is a 17th
century hall
and crosswing house with dormer gables - perhaps
containing the remains of an earlier building.
It is built of coursed gritstone. Some 17th century
mullioned windows with transoms survive. In the
18th century wings were added at
both ends. The addition at the east end was built
in a similar design to the adjacent 17th century
crosswing so as to give
the overall impression of a symmetrical main front.
The main entrance was placed in the middle of this
enlarged facade. Most of the windows are sashed and
it has a recently
repaired stone slate roof. Most of the building is
three storeys high. The house was acquired by George
Evans, brother and
business partner of Thomas Evans, founder of the
Darley Abbey cotton spinning mill, in c.1760. It
was lived in by his
descendants including his daughter Elizabeth Evans,
a local amateur artist and great-aunt of the famous
Florence
Nightingale.
Built by Peter Nightingale, founder of the Lea
Cotton Mill as
a replacement for Lea Hall, which he found too
cold in the
winter months. The house, which is three bays in
width and
three storeys in height, is built of ashlar gritstone
with
corner and front door quoins. It has sashed windows
with
stepped lintels. There are 19th century additions;
also a
separate coach-house with stabling, which has undergone
recent alterations. After Nightingale’s death
it was occupied
for a time in the 19th century by the Smedley family
who
took over Lea Mills.
