The Arkwright Houses

The Arkwright Houses, numbers 14-29 North Street, Cromford, form a row of 16 houses built between 1776 and 1777 by Richard Arkwright. They were designed to provide accommodation for textile workers and included workshop space. The houses are constructed of coursed rubble with tiled roofs, and have brick ridge stacks. These are the first workers’ houses built by Arkwright, representing a significant stage in the development of textile industry housing, offering both living space and workshops for mill workers. An unnumbered house within the row, double-fronted and without a workshop, was likely the manager’s residence.

Originally, each house comprised a single unit with service wings to the rear, evidenced by gable scars. The houses are three storeys high, with the top floor dedicated to workshops, which originally extended uninterrupted along the entire row. Side stairs were positioned against end and party walls behind and to one side of the front entrances. Each front elevation has two bays; the entrance bay has no windows above the ground floor, while the other bay has two-light stone mullioned windows to the ground and first floors, and four-light windows above to the second (workshop) floor. The doorways feature substantial rectangular lintels with crudely tooled capitals and bases to the imposts. The windows initially featured a fixed leaded casement paired with a sliding sash. A moulded stone eaves cornice runs the full length of the row. The original four-light workshop windows remain intact on numbers 15, 16, 19, 24, 25, and 26; the others have two lights blocked. The second-floor windows retain casements, with complete sets of leaded lights. Ground and first-floor windows are either casements or have been renewed to match the original design of a fixed casement and sash. The rear of numbers 22-27 have later two-storey outshuts with two-light windows, mostly with 20th-century casements, and two large brick stacks projecting through a lean-to roof. These outshuts were built after the 1841 Tithe Map.