Building 18 at Cromford Mill

Building 18 at Cromford Mill

This is a late 18th-century cotton-spinning mill built by Sir Richard Arkwright. The building was extended in the later 18th century and altered during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The mill is constructed of coursed millstone grit, lined internally with brick and limestone. It has timber sash windows and a roof covered in asbestos sheeting. The building is linear in plan, oriented roughly north-east to south-west, measuring 28.3 metres long and 8 metres wide.

The principal facade faces roughly east into the mill complex yard. It contains 13 visible bays, with two further bays concealed by Building 17 to the east. On the upper two floors, windows are set under flat arches with stone voussoirs. The upper floor windows contain 16 panes, some with eight-over-eight sashes and others replaced with fixed frames within the sash boxes. The ground floor contains windows in the eight northern bays, each with 20 panes of glass, also with stone voussoirs and flat arches matching those above. Two bays to the south contain larger stone ashlar blocks indicating rebuilding, with one opening accommodating a water wheel. A large inserted opening at ground floor (boarded up as of 2023) sits under a steel joist. The final visible southern bay contains a window opening infilled with brick. A door with a classical Gibbs surround, concealed by a brick wall connecting to Building 17, leads to the mill interior. Above the door, a surviving section of cast-iron aqueduct (which replaced an earlier timber one) is visible in the walling; this would have extended northward to power an overshot wheel. The south elevation facing the road shows a blocked workers' entrance door and blocked taking-in doors at first floor level.

The west elevation, designed as the principal facade, faces the upper yard. At the south end, the building is partially obscured by a later two-storey linear range (Buildings 21 and 26) and a separate single-storey gable building (Building 20) to the north. The fenestration on the original 1771 mill matches the east elevation, with flat arches and eight-over-eight sashes. A double timber door under a stone lintel has been inserted at ground floor at the north end of the original building. The four northern bays, added in the 1780s, are of random rubble construction on the two lower floors, incorporating part of a previous building on this site. The second floor contains windows with 16 panes under crude stone flat arches. The first floor contains two matching windows with 16 panes between slim openings containing eight panes each. The ground floor contains two larger openings with 20 panes—the northern window under a flat arch, the southern under a segmental arch. A very small opening to the north has been infilled.

The interior consists of a double-height open space currently housing a digital display as part of the mill's visitor experience. The third floor is empty and not in use. A small section of modern timber walkway is situated at the south end. Considerable evidence of original features survives, including floor levels, surviving flooring, power transmission systems, the position of the staircase, and heating and sanitary arrangements. Some former partitions remain visible, with low sections of brick walling evident.