Communities
Richard Arkwright’s Factory Village
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
c.1790
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.
The Greyhound Hotel, Market Place
1778 - Listed Grade II*
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.
The Arkwright Stores, 39 The Market Place
1780s - Listed Grade II
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.
The Market Place, nos. 28-36
c.1790 - Listed Grade II
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.
The Market Place, nos. 20-26
c.1790 - Listed Grade II
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.
Willersley Castle, Willersley Lane
c.1790 - Listed Grade II*
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.
Lodge to Willersley Castle, Willersley Lane
c.1792 - Listed Grade II
Thomas Gardner of Uttoxeter
A picturesque lodge to Willersley Castle. It has an ashlar facade; the remainder is coursed rubble.
The Fishing Lodge, Mill Road
c.1796 - Listed Grade II
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.
Rock House, Mill Road
1776 Listed Grade II
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.
North Street 1776
Listed Grade II*
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.
Cromford Hill 104, The Hill
c. 1780 - Listed Grade II
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.
Cromford Hill 122, The Hill
c.1810 - Listed Grade II
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.
Cromford Hill, nos. 37 and 39, Victoria Row, The Hill
1839 - Listed Grade II
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.
Staffordshire Row, nos. 30-46 Water Lane
Early 19th century - Listed Grade II
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.
Arkwright’s Houses on Water Lane
Early 19th century - Unlisted
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.
St Mary’s Church, Mill Lane
1797 and 1858 - Listed Grade B
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.
School and School House, North Street
1832 and later - Listed Grade II
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.
The Village Lock-up, Swift’s Hollow
1790 - Listed Grade II
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.
Privies to the rear of 56-76 Cromford Hill
Listed Grade II
Sandstone
privies built in pairs and roofed with monumental gritstone slabs.
Pigcotes, Swift’s Hollow
Late 18th to early 19th century - Listed Grade II
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’
1785 - Listed Grade II
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 Greyhound Pond
c. 1785
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.
Former Corn Mill, Water Lane
1780 - Listed Grade II
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.
Slinter Cottage, Via Gellia
c.1800 - Listed Grade II
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.
Cromford Station buildings and footbridge
c.1855, 1860, 1874 and 1885 - Listed Grade II
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 now
leased as a Venture Scouts Activity Centre. The Butterley Company erected
the ornate footbridge in 1885.
Cromford Bridge Hall (formerly House), Lea Road
17th century with later additions - Listed Grade II
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.
Woodend, Lea Road
1796 - Unlisted
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.