Cromford Mill

Cromford Mill stands beside the Bonsall Brook in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire. Built in 1771 by Richard Arkwright, it was the world’s first successful water-powered cotton spinning factory. The five-storey stone building still dominates the village he created for his workers. Jedediah Strutt, Samuel Need and John Smalley joined Arkwright to finance and run the mill. From 1772 the mill operated day and night in two twelve-hour shifts. More than two hundred workers, many of them women and children as young as seven, kept the machines turning. The mill’s water frame patented in 1769 turned Cromford into a model for factories across Britain, Europe and America. Samuel Slater carried its secrets to Rhode Island and founded the US cotton industry. By 1792 Arkwright was the wealthiest untitled man in Britain. The site now belongs to the Arkwright Society, which has spent £48 million restoring the complex. In 2019 the society employed a hundred people to bring the mill back to life. Visitors walk through the restored five-storey mill and see a replica water frame installed in 2013. Shops, galleries, restaurants and cafes occupy the surrounding buildings. A visitors’ centre explains how the Cromford Sough and Bonsall Brook once powered the wheels. The nearby Cromford Canal towpath leads towards High Peak Junction and Ambergate. The canal and the mill manager’s house remain as reminders of the community Arkwright organised.