Haarlem House At The South Side Of Haarlem Mill

This is a house, built circa 1858, situated at the south side of Haarlem Mill. It is constructed of coursed, tooled stonework with a Welsh slate roof, and has brick chimneys topped with terracotta pots.

The house is rectangular and two storeys high, with a gabled roof. The main, south-facing elevation has three bays, featuring a central doorway topped by a small hood supported by console brackets, and a six-panel door. The window openings have stone sills and flat-headed stone lintels, and contain eight-over-eight hornless sash windows. Rear windows are six-pane casements.

Inside, a central hallway has stairs leading to a rear door, with rooms on either side. The staircase features stick balusters, a turned newel, side panelling, and an under-stair cupboard with a four-panel door, rising to a full central landing and balustrade on the first floor. Ground-floor rooms have shutters to the front windows and six-panel doors, while first-floor doors are four-panelled. The joinery appears to have been stripped of paint or may not have been originally painted. Fireplaces have been removed, and a rear room has been converted into a modern kitchen with a sliding door.

Haarlem Mill itself stands on the River Ecclesbourne and was originally leased by Richard Arkwright in 1777, with the mill building constructed by 1780. It was later converted for tape weaving in 1815 and renamed after a similar works in Derby in 1806. The site was later occupied by silk weavers and subsequently acquired by the Wheatcroft family, tape manufacturers, in 1858. Samuel Evans, uncle of the novelist George Eliot, was mill manager at this time, and Haarlem Mill is believed to have inspired settings in Eliot’s novels. Haarlem House was likely built around 1858 when the mill passed to the Wheatcroft family.

The house is a Grade II listed building because it is a well-preserved mill house with original features including a stick baluster stair, six and four panel doors, and window shutters.