28-36, Market Place

A terrace of five houses built in the late 18th century, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries. The houses are constructed of regularly-coursed gritstone, with a hipped roof covered in Welsh slate, laid in diminishing courses at the rear, and partially replaced with concrete tiles at the north end. There are three red brick chimney stacks, with blue brick detailing, two at the ridge and one at the north end. The front (east) elevation has three storeys and five windows. Most windows have been replaced with 20th-century casement frames, although the first floor of number 36 retains a margin-glazed sash window above a late 19th-century shop front and entrance door. Number 34 has a canted bay window with a pitched roof and sash window frames. Number 30 has a flat-roofed bay window subdivided by glazing bars. The rear (west) elevation has window openings with flush stone surrounds; some were originally two-light openings with flush mullions, as seen in the remaining examples at number 34. Other openings now have late 20th-century frames. The interiors were not inspected. These buildings were part of the late 18th-century development of the Market Place, initiated by Sir Richard Arkwright in the expanding industrial settlement of Cromford. They are situated next to The Greyhound Hotel, which they form an important group with, and represent the ongoing development of purpose-built housing to serve the population of what was the world’s first textile mill community.