132-136, CROMFORD HILL

The buildings at 132-136 Cromford Hill are a group of three houses built in the 1780s for Richard Arkwright to accommodate workers for his textile mills. They are constructed of coursed rubble with tiled roofs, featuring two ridge stacks; one original with red and black brick, and one renewed in brick. The layout is typical of Arkwright's Phase I housing, with three storeys and a single unit with service areas to the rear, accessible via a low outshut. Side stairs are located against the party or end walls, behind and to one side of the front entrances. The front elevations are two bays wide; the entrance bay has no windows above the ground floor, while the other bay has two-light stone-mullioned windows on each floor. The doorways have large rectangular lintels with crudely tooled capitals and bases to the imposts. Most windows are intact except on the ground floor of number 136, which has been enlarged. All original doorways remain intact, though the windows and doors have been replaced with twentieth-century casements and doors. A small twentieth-century window has been inserted into the first floor of number 132. The rear of the buildings retains its original first-floor windows, with small twentieth-century brick and reconstituted stone extensions.

Numbers 132 and 134 were individually listed in 1986, but are now considered together as a group with the serial number 1/130.

Number 132 is a late 18th-century terrace cottage constructed from gritstone with gritstone dressings, and featuring a plain tile roof and a single shared red and blue brick gable stack. It is a single bay, three-storey structure, with a doorway featuring flush dressed jambs and lintel, and a twentieth-century glazed door. It has a single two-light flush mullion window to each floor, with twentieth-century casements. It was built as part of the millworkers’ cottages for Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mill.

Number 134 is similar in design to number 132, also a late 18th-century terrace cottage of gritstone construction with gritstone dressings, a plain tile roof, and a single shared red and blue brick gable stack. It is a single bay, three-storey structure, with a doorway featuring flush dressed jambs and lintel, and a twentieth-century half-glazed door. It also has a single two-light flush mullion window to each floor, with twentieth-century casements, and was built as part of the millworkers’ cottages for Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mill.