Arkwright's Cromford Mills

From Cromford there developed a pattern of factory building which spread not only through many parts of Britain but across the world.

Today the mill buildings house a number of thriving businesses including a wholefood restaurant serving delicious lunches, teas and homemade cakes. A selection of shops provide a variety of interesting goods from gifts and cards to fashion and books. Perfect for the collector, Arkwright’s Attic raises funds for six projects supported by the Arkwright Society by selling all sorts of fascinating second hand books and bric a brac.

For visitors to the mill, tour guides provide informative tours of both the site and village including Arkwright’s first mill built in 1771, an exhibition and the village of Cromford, built by Arkwright for his workers. The gritstone houses for workers were considered at the time to be superior to other rural housing in Derbyshire and became models which others copied.

This surviving example of village life at the dawn of the industrial revolution still thrives as a community, indeed the school built for the young mill workers to attend on a half day basis in conjunction with their mill duties still educates local children today. The village also contains the watercourses and ponds which provided water for the mills, a market place presided over by the Greyhound Hotel, and the village lockup built in 1790. 

At the mill complex itself, visitors can witness renovation work being carried out to Arkwright’s first mill, built in 1771, and the excavation and consolidation of the second much larger mill, built in 1776, with its massive wheelpit. Sir Richard and his family left few records and, despite extensive research it has not proved possible to identify the precise date at which each individual component part of the mill site was constructed, though it is known that by 1790 all the principal buildings on the site had been erected.

With the exception of the second mill and the “bow fronted” building, all of them have survived despite the use of the site as a colour works for half a century.

During this period the historic buildings were surrounded by modern production sheds, the watercourse covered over by concrete slabs and much of the site became heavily contaminated with lead chromate.

Production continued until 1979 when the derelict site was purchased by its present owners, The Arkwright Society who, over the years, have restored many of the mill buildings at a cost of approximately £5m.

The Mill Site is open between 9am and 5pm every day of the year except Christmas Day and is easily accessible from all over the Midlands by bus and train. Parking and admission to the site is free.