54-76, CROMFORD HILL

Row of eleven houses at 54-76 Cromford Hill, built in the 1780s in a single phase by Richard Arkwright to house workers for his textile mills.

The buildings are constructed of coursed rubble with tiled roofs, rising up Cromford Hill under five separate roof lines. They follow Arkwright's phase one plan throughout, originally designed as single units with rear services contained under catslide roofs. All are three storeys tall with two-bay front elevations. The entrance bays contain no windows above the doorway; the other bays have two-light stone-mullioned windows on all floors.

The doorways are substantial features with rectangular lintels and crude capitals and bases to the imposts, all tooled. Ridge stacks are present, originally stone but now mostly replaced with red and black brick.

Most original doorways survive intact, with the exception of number 62, where the lintel has been cut. Numbers 56 and 76 have undergone minor alterations. Window surrounds and mullions remain intact on most properties except numbers 62, 74 and 76, where the mullions have been lost though the surrounds survive. Twentieth-century windows are fitted throughout—casements in all properties except number 62, with modern glazed or half-glazed doors predominating. The rear elevations contain some later lean-to additions, but retain several original window surrounds.

The individual cottages that form part of this row (numbers 58, 60, 64, 66, 68, 70, and 72) are each of late eighteenth-century date, constructed of gritstone with gritstone dressings and plain tile roofs with shared red and blue brick gable stacks. Each is a single-bay, three-storey terrace cottage with a doorway featuring flush dressed jambs and lintel, and a single two-light flush mullion window to each floor. Number 72 retains an original eighteenth-century eight-panel door. The remainder have twentieth-century doors, mostly half-glazed or fully glazed. All windows have been fitted with twentieth-century casements, except number 64, which retains nineteenth-century casements. These cottages were built as part of the workforce housing scheme for Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mill.