Cromford

• 1. Introduction

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  Cromford is a Derbyshire village that had 1,433 residents at the 2011 Census. Historic England has described its mill complex as "one of the country's 100 irreplaceable sites".

  That is a heavy label for a place so small. It sits in a narrow valley, far from any great city, and for most of its history it was an unremarkable outpost.

  So why did this valley become the setting for a new kind of working life? What did it mean to build an entire community around one owner's machinery? And what can a visitor still find standing, walk along, or even recognise from a record sleeve and a film set?

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• 2. Valley of Limestone

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  The River Derwent begins on Bleaklow in the Dark Peak and flows south toward Derby, where it eventually joins the River Trent. Around Cromford the rock is limestone, and the fast current has cut a deep valley through it. The village lies in that valley between Wirksworth and Matlock, 17 miles north of Derby.

  At Cromford the Via Gellia valley joins the Derwent, and its name hides a small puzzle. The stream there is really the Ivonbrook, and the valley was once called the Ivonbrook Valley. Via Gellia is simply the name of the road beside it, honouring the Gell family, who owned many mines in the district. The Gells were landowners from Hopton with deep ties to the lead mining around Wirksworth. They had the road built in the late 18th century to connect Cromford with Grangemill.

  The limestone still shapes the landscape in another way. Dene quarry lies to the south west of the village, and diggers began excavating it in 1942. Tarmac Ltd now operates it, producing aggregates and roadstone.

  The 11th-century Domesday Book records the place as Crumforde. It was a berewick, a supporting farm, belonging to Wirksworth, and it remained so through the Middle Ages. Cromford fell within the Wirksworth Wapentake, or Hundred, also known as the Soke of Wirksworth, meaning the small county of Wirksworth. That area later became West Derbyshire Council and is today the Derbyshire Dales District Council, while the Cromford Parish Council handles local affairs.

  In 1771 this modest supporting farm gained a very different neighbour, just outside the village.

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• 3. The Water Frame Mill

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  Richard Arkwright built his cotton mill outside Cromford in 1771, choosing the site so that his water frame could run on the river's power. Peak District Online calls it the world's first water-powered cotton mill. The same source describes Arkwright, who lived from 1732 to 1792, as perhaps Britain's first "industrial tycoon" and as "The Father of the Factory System".

  That achievement explains the nicknames the village carries. It is called the "cradle" or "birthplace" of the Industrial Revolution, and it counts among the most significant sites of that upheaval.

  Masson Mill followed in 1783, on the northern fringe of the village. In 2006 Peak District Online judged it perhaps the most prominent of Arkwright's constructions. It still serves today as a heritage museum and retailer outlet.

  The original Cromford complex has its own caretaker. The Arkwright Society owns it and is restoring it.

  A factory of this size drew in workers from beyond the valley, and Arkwright had to find somewhere for them to live.

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• 4. Housing the Workforce

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  North Street, built by Arkwright, is regarded as very early purpose-built housing for industrial workers. Cottages and farm buildings stood in Cromford before his arrival, but a large part of the village was added to accommodate mill employees. One source calls it the first factory housing development in the world.

  The provision went beyond bedrooms. Employees were given shops, pubs, chapels and a school.

  By the 1970s North Street had fallen into dereliction. The Ancient Monument Society rescued it and has since sold off the houses. One of them is now a Landmark Trust holiday cottage.

  St Mary's Church was built by Arkwright between 1792 and 1797, adding a place of worship of his own to the settlement.

  In the early 1800s, workers blasted Scarthin Nick with dynamite to carry through the route that later became the A6. The new road split the place in two. The mill complex lay on the east side of the main Derby road, while the Market Place and village sat at the bottom of the hill that climbs steeply west toward Wirksworth.

  The 20th century brought council and private housing to the village.

  High on the opposite bank of the river, Arkwright was raising something far grander than any cottage.

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• 5. Willersley Castle

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  Willersley Castle, now a Grade II* listed building, dominates the hill on the east side of the river. From there it commands views of Masson Mill, the village, and the road coming in from Derby. Arkwright commissioned it, and building work began in 1790.

  A fire interrupted construction, and Arkwright died in 1792 without living in the house. His son, Richard Arkwright junior, occupied it from 1796. Born in 1755, he lived until 1843 and followed the family business a long way, turning from mill owner into banker, investor and financier.

  The Arkwright family moved out in 1922. Some Methodist businessmen then bought the building, and in 1928 it opened to guests as a Methodist Guild hotel.

  The Second World War gave the castle another role. The Salvation Army, evacuated from its hospital in the East End of London, used the building as a maternity hospital.

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• 6. Water, Road and Rail

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  The Cromford Canal was built to serve the mills, and it is now disused. It has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Walkers can follow its tow-path from Cromford Wharf to High Peak Junction, and on through Whatstandwell to Ambergate.

  The Cromford and High Peak Railway was completed in 1831. It ran from High Peak Junction to the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge. Its old trackbed now forms the High Peak Trail, a walking and cycling route that the Tissington Trail joins at Parsley Hay.

  The A6 once served as the main road between London and Manchester, and it follows the river valley. Today it links Carlisle with Luton and passes just north of the village. From there it gives easy access to Manchester, Stockport, Bakewell, Matlock and Derby.

  The Derwent Valley Line carries passengers between Derby and Matlock, with Cromford railway station on the route. East Midlands Railway operates it, and trains generally stop hourly in both directions. The same station appears on the cover of the 1995 Oasis single "Some Might Say".

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• 7. An Idea Exported

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  In 1783, in the German town of Ratingen, Johann Gottfried Brügelmann erected the first factory outside England. He used Arkwright's factory as his model. The industrial site there is still called Textilfabrik Cromford, and it now forms part of the Rheinisches Industriemuseum.

  Back home, recognition came in December 2001. A 15-mile corridor running from Masson Mill in Matlock Bath to the Silk Mill in Derby was declared the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. It takes in the mills at Cromford, Milford, Belper and Darley Abbey, and the Cromford complex is its centrepiece.

  The work of keeping the place alive has drawn praise too. In 2018 the Cromford Mills Creative Cluster and World Heritage Site Gateway Project became a finalist in the Historic England Angel Awards. It was shortlisted for Best Major Regeneration of a Historic Building or Place.

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• 8. Residents and Screen Appearances

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  Francis Hurt, who lived from 1803 to 1861, came from Alderwasley Hall and served as MP for South Derbyshire from 1837 to 1841. Charles Brown, who lived from 1884 to 1940, sat as MP for Mansfield from 1929 until his death. George Turner, from 1841 to 1910, worked as a landscape artist and farmer.

  Two footballers left their mark on Derby County. Jack Fryer, who lived from 1877 to 1933, played 315 games, including 173 for the club. Ian Ray Buxton, who lived from 1938 to 2010, played 216 games, 145 of them for Derby County, and also played cricket.

  Alison Uttley, who lived from 1884 to 1976, wrote about Little Grey Rabbit. She was born nearby at Castle Top Farm.

  The 1931 novel Saturday Night at the Greyhound, by John Hampson, takes place over a single evening in the bar of the Greyhound Hotel, Cromford.

  In late 2006 Anand Tucker filmed parts of the village, including its historic bookshop, for And When Did You Last See Your Father? The film draws on the autobiographical memoir by the poet Blake Morrison. Colin Firth plays the adult Blake, and Jim Broadbent plays his dying father.

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