Summary
Late C18 residential building, then extended in the later C18, restored in the late C20.
Reasons for Designation
Building 19 at Cromford Mill, constructed in the late C18 and altered in the late C20, is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* the mill was constructed in the C18 by the entrepreneur Sir Richard Arkwright who was pioneering in his use of water power to mass-produce cotton thread, which came to be of outstanding importance in the development of textile mills;
* for its technological interest as an exceptionally early survival from the first generation of water-powered textile mills which illustrates the wider trends in the history of this industry;
* dubbed the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, the mill complex became the blueprint for factory production, with Arkwright’s factory system replicated internationally.
Architectural interest:
* the building is a good example of late-C18 domestic accommodation situated within this early textile mill complex.
Group value:
* the late-C18 buildings survive remarkably well as a group and help to demonstrate the functioning of this early textile mill complex.
History
The development of the cotton industry in the Derwent Valley in the late C18 has been determined as a key precursor to the Industrial Revolution in Britain. This development initially began with the construction of the Silk Mill in Derby in 1721 for the brothers John and Thomas Lombe, which housed machinery for throwing silk, based on an Italian design. However, it was not until Richard Arkwright constructed a water-powered spinning mill at Cromford in 1771, and a second, larger mill in 1776-1777 powered by the Bonsall Brook and the Cromford Sough, that the ‘Arkwright System’ was truly established. This system was a true blueprint for factory production and was soon replicated elsewhere in Britain, and later in other parts of the world. Along the valley, industrial development followed soon after in Belper (1776-1777), Milford (1781) and Darley Abbey (1782), with these four principal industrial settlements articulated by the river Derwent. Into the C19, the mills along the Derwent Valley were limited in their possibility for growth due to topographical constraints and distance from ports through which cotton was imported. This limitation has to an extent ensured their survival. Overall, the landscape created by Arkwright’s factory system remains largely intact.
The construction of the first mill (now known as the Upper Mill or Building 18) at Cromford commenced in 1771. In its original form the building contained 11 bays and was five storeys in height. It was originally powered by an overshot wheel with water brought to it by an aqueduct. The aqueduct would have passed narrowly above the entrance to the building on the east elevation, which is framed by a classical, Gibbs surround. In the 1780s, the mill was extended by 10m adding four additional bays at the north end, with a water wheel added to the north gable. The site expanded in this period with the majority of buildings constructed to the east of the first mill.
Building 19 was constructed around 1780 and may have been used to provide residential accommodation for workers at the mill whose roles required a constant presence on site, such as gate-keepers or watchmen. It is a brick-built double-pile structure standing in front of the loom shop (Building 23) and the first mill (Building 18). Prior to the addition of the second pile, it matched the building to the south, adjacent to the road, ‘Grace Cottage’ or Building 26. As originally constructed this view was the main ‘public face’ of the mill as seen from the road descending into the valley from Wirksworth. From about the 1830s a narrow building running across the west yard from Building 19 to Building 26 (later reduced to a dividing wall) separated access to the east and west end of Building 19 on the south side.
From around 1840 the production of cotton at Cromford ceased due to the lack of an adequate water supply which severely limited production. By the 1860s residential use of the building was associated with the use of the ‘loom shop’ (Building 23) as a laundry and by the early 1920s two of its rooms were used as an ironing room and a clubhouse. Building 19 was purchased by the Arkwright Society in 1972 by which time it was in a poor state of repair and subsequently much restored in 1985, now (2023) known as the ‘Counting House’.
Details
Late C18 residential building, then extended in the later C18, restored in the late C20.
MATERIALS: red brick with a slate twin-gable roof. Stone cills, headers and corbels.
PLAN: building 19 is a rectangular double piled house of two blocks and roughly oriented west to east.
EXTERIOR: the building is two storey with regular window openings and is oriented west to east. To the main frontage (south elevation), there are 10, eight-over-eight single glazed, sliding sash windows with stone cills and voussoirs above forming a flat arch. In the brickwork there is evidence of the substantial rebuilding in the 1980s with the building seemingly re-fronted. The west elevation has a projecting range at the north end and visible Queen Closer bricks; there are two windows with casements in a sash style. To the rear elevation (north), are two pedestrian doorways to the ground floor together with three windows at ground floor level and two at first floor level, of varying size but all with stone, voussoirs including to the doorways. The east side elevation has two windows to the ground floor matching those to the south and west elevations, with simple headers rather than fanned. There is a central brick chimney stack.
INTERIOR: the interior has been entirely restored. There are three rooms to both the ground and first floors. Replacement C19 fireplaces are in situ on the ground and first floors. There is a plaque affixed to an exposed beam within the first-floor main room commemorating the restoration of the building, dated November 4 1985.