Listed Building: 3-5 (CONSEC) ABBEY YARD (1067825)

Terrace of three staff houses for Samuel Evans of Darley Abbey constructed in the late 1830s and altered in the 1960s and in 2006. MATERIALS: Red brick laid in mixed stretcher and Flemish bond under a gabled roof covered with blue Staffordshire tiles. PLAN: The range is a short terrace of three houses with rear service extensions and detached outbuildings. EXTERIOR: The two-storey façade faces south and has four first-floor windows, that to the extreme west end lighting a room over a passage to the rear which is contained in a spur extension with a low plain parapet. The three ground-floor two-light casements date to 2006, and are under segmental heads, but the four similar first-floor casements have flat heads impinging into the dentil eaves cornice. Three plank doors under segmental heads have small viewing panes and lead into the three houses, two left of centre and one at the extreme east end. The plank passage door to the left is set within a semi-circular headed recess. There is an internal gable-end stack to the west serving No.3, and a wider ridge stack right of centre serving Nos. 4 and 5. The rear elevation has two lean-to two-storey extensions, that to No.5 rebuilt and enlarged in 2006 and lit from the east through two, two-light timber casements. The west rear extension has early C21 fenestration and an external door. INTERIOR: Nos. 4 and 5 were converted to a single house in the late 1960s and the interiors of both houses were extensively modernised in 2006. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: To the rear are three, free-standing, single-storey, brick outbuildings under gabled roofs, clad with blue Staffordshire tiles, and entered through plank doors in the south side. To the west of each door is a two-light timber casement. Nos. 3, 4 and 5 Abbey Yard forms a group with Nos. 1 and 2 Abbey Yard and the former stables to Darley Abbey, all listed at Grade II. HISTORY: The construction of cotton mills in 1783 by Thomas Evans, in partnership with Richard Arkwright and Jedediah Strutt, changed the hamlet of Darley Abbey from a monastic precinct to an industrial village. Some 500 model workers' houses were built in Brick Row, Darley Street, West Row and at Nos. 3-9 New Row. Samuel Evans purchased Darley Hall in 1835, renamed it Darley Abbey, enlarged it, and laid out the extensive park to the south, but the hall was demolished in 1962, leaving the C18 stable block. Probably in the late 1830s, Evans also constructed a further five houses in two blocks for the use of his immediate Darley Abbey staff; Nos. 1 and 2, and Nos. 3, 4 and 5 Abbey Yard. The former were added directly onto the north gable of the stable block and the latter were set 18 metres to the north-west. Both are currently listed at Grade II and both are indicated on the 1852 estate map and the 1882 Ordnance Survey map. SOURCES Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, London, (1891), 107 Maxwell Craven, An Illustrated History of Derby, Derby (2007). Maxwell Craven, Derby Street by Street, Derby (2005) Elizabeth Williamson and Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England, Derbyshire (1978), 193. http://www.derbyshireuk.net/darley.org.uk, accessed on 3 February 2010. http://www.derby.gov. Uk/Environment/Planning/builtheritage/The+DerwentValleyMillsWorldHeritageSite.htm. Accessed on 3 February 2010 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION 3-5 Abbey Yard, Darley Abbey, Derby are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: • Architectural Interest: As a pre-1840 terrace built by an influential industrialist for domestic staff • Group Value: There is strong group value with other Grade II listed buildings arranged round the former Darley Abbey yard • Historic: The range is one of the last of a series of workers' houses, schools, and a church constructed for the Evans family in the C18 and C19 as part of the planned development of an industrial village