Haarlem Mill

Haarlem Mill is a cotton spinning mill built between 1777 and 1780 by the industrialist Richard Arkwright. It represents a pivotal moment in industrial history as one of the earliest factories designed to incorporate steam power alongside water power for cotton spinning.

Construction and Materials

The mill is constructed of ashlar and coursed rubble stonework up to first-floor sill level, with red brick above and a slate-covered roof. The building is rectangular in plan, measuring seven window bays in length and three bays wide, standing four storeys high with a gabled roof.

Exterior

The ground and first-floor sills are continuous, forming a string course. Window openings have flat stone heads at ground-floor level, with brick heads of similar form above. Windows at the upper floor have raised sill levels. Above second-floor window head level, the brickwork changes in part to English bond. On the east elevation, 20th-century stone lintels have been inserted into the brickwork above ground-floor level. The main entrance is positioned in the central bay of the east elevation within the stonework. Above, at upper floor level, a blocked taking-in door bears the word "HAARLEM" painted on the brickwork beneath.

A projecting closet or upright shaft block occupies the first bay on the left of the south elevation, with a mid-20th-century metal fire escape stair adjacent to it; the doorways for the stair were created by enlarging window openings. A short, square brick chimney rises above the eaves in the fourth bay from the left, supported by 20th-century metal strapwork. This bay is wider than the others, with correspondingly wider window openings on both south and north elevations in both brick and stone walling.

At the base of the chimney and adjoining the left end of the south elevation is a single-storey rectangular block of modern blockwork, erected partly upon surviving lower courses of the early engine house. At the west end, ashlar masonry marks the location of the former water-wheel and wheel pit, both now lost. At the right corner of the west elevation, a metal bearing housing sits within a larger, earlier opening, relating to the former upright drive shaft within the mill at this corner.

Interior

The mill has open floors: stone-flagged at ground floor and timber above, carried by substantial timber bridging beams, some strengthened by tension rods. At the east end, an 18th-century timber staircase, with some repairs, provides access through the floors. At second-floor level, an 18th-century two-panel door survives off the landing. Evidence of early offices exists adjacent to the east end entrance door.

At the south-west corner, door openings provide access to an attached closet or vertical shaft block, now lacking any joinery; access at upper floor level is blocked. In the same corner, bearing housings and, at the lowest level, pad stones provide evidence for the location of the upright drive shaft. On the second floor, the bridging beams have empty mortices on the underside where posts formerly engaged close to the walls, with additional evidence on their faces of support for line shafting. At first-floor level there is evidence of fire damage at the south-west corner. The chimney stack is expressed internally on the south side at all floors.

The roof is supported by an 18th-century pegged king-post roof with princess posts of light scantling, carrying two ranks of purlins. The posts are through-bolted to the ties. Arabic numeral marks are apparent on one truss.

Setting

On the north side, where the mill pond existed until the mid-20th century, there is now a large car park and a modern industrial building attached to the north side of the mill by a narrow modern link. Neither the link nor the modern building are of special interest.

East of the mill is a stone bridge and paved spillway which carries the course of the River Ecclesbourne.

Historical Context

During the 18th century, the establishment of newly powered textile industry in the Midlands caused a dramatic reversal of the region's economy, from marginal agricultural subsistence to industrial prosperity. In 1769, Richard Arkwright patented a cotton spinning frame which combined for the first time the stages of spinning and winding-on into one mechanical process. That same year he erected a horse-powered mill in Nottingham, and two years later a water-powered mill at Cromford in Derbyshire. Arkwright's patent on the water frame lapsed in 1785, prompting many entrepreneurs to invest in cotton factories in substantial numbers.

Early steam engines were used to supplement existing power arrangements. At sites where water supply was amply available, steam remained a secondary system. Nevertheless, this arrangement was the precursor of driving machinery directly by steam power, a development which precipitated the enormous expansion in Britain's industrial economy.

Haarlem Mill stands on the modest River Ecclesbourne and measures only 17 metres by 8 metres, typical of early factories. Richard Arkwright leased the site in 1777 with the intention of building a water-powered mill, and in the same month enquired about a Boulton and Watt steam engine. The mill was built by 1780 when he opted to install an engine said to have been made locally by Joseph Thompson. As the first use of steam power to directly drive machinery was not until 1786, the engine was likely a water-pumping engine, not unusual in 18th-century mines. While it has been suggested that the stone-built lower floor is a survivor from an earlier mill, there is no firm evidence for this. The incorporation of the chimney as an original feature of the mill's design implies that the steam engine was not an afterthought but was a planned part of the mill's power system, designed to maintain supply to the water wheel by returning spent water from the tailrace up to the mill reservoir. Although water power supported by a steam pump is documented in early textile factories from the 1780s onwards, notably in the silk and cotton districts of Cheshire, the installation at Haarlem Mill is a very early application, if not the earliest.

Haarlem Mill was sold in 1792 and the Thompson engine was replaced in 1814, when it was advertised as being 'in excellent repair'. The conversion for tape weaving in 1815 is said to have been by Maddley Hackett and Riley, smallware manufacturers of Derby, and the name Haarlem Mill was acquired after a works in Derby of a similar name. Silk weaving was carried on in part of the site in the 1820s and it subsequently passed through several hands until it was purchased by the Wheatcroft family, local tape manufacturers, in 1858.

Around this time the mill manager was Samuel Evans, uncle of the novelist George Eliot (1819-1880), who is said to have based the characters Adam Bede and Dinah Morris in her novel 'Adam Bede' (1859) on her uncle and aunt, and used Haarlem Mill as the inspiration for the mill in 'The Mill on the Floss' (1860).

The Wheatcrofts were still the owners in 1906, when a Crossley gas engine was planned to be installed. Drawings for the new engine show that a water wheel still existed at that time, as did a beam engine located in the old steam engine house. The new gas engine resulted in the removal of both, and the infilling of the wheel pit.

Alterations

In the 19th century, tension rods were introduced to bolster the structure, supplemented in the 20th century with metal strapwork. In the early 20th century, the window heads in the brickwork of the east elevation were replaced with the current stone lintels, and small-pane windows were replaced with the current two-over-two frames. The mill pond, which formerly extended close to the north side of the mill, was pushed much further northwards to accommodate the mid-20th-century building linked to the north-west corner of the mill and the car park.