Listed Building: THE ARKWRIGHT HOUSES AND UNNUMBERED HOUSE TO LEFT OF NUMBER 1 (1263811)

'This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 03/10/2012 SK 2956 1/16A 1390 21.1.64 NORTH STREET CROMFORD The Arkwright Houses Unnumbered house to the left of no 1 and nos 1 to 11 (inclusive) (Formerly listed as The Arkwright Houses Nos 1-11 (consec)) II* Row of eleven houses. Built 1776-7 by Richard Arkwright to accommodate textile workers. Coursed rubble; tiled roofs. Brick ridge stacks. This and the row opposite (nos 14-29) are the first of the workers' houses erected by Arkwright and mark an important stage in the development of the textile industry and workers' housing in that they provided both accommodation for the workers at his new Cromford Mill and workshop space on the second floor. The un-numbered house, although part of the row, is double fronted and had no workshop and was probably the manager's house. Originally single unit with services to rear (the earliest services appear to have been small gabled wings to the rear: see gable scars). 3 storeys, two domestic and the top floor for workshops which it is understood extended uninterrupted along the entire floor of the row. Side stairs against end and party walls behind and to one side of the front entrance; 2-bay front elevations, the entrance bay with no windows above to 1st floor; the other with 2-light stone mullioned windows to ground and 1st floor and 4-light windows to 2nd (workshop) floor. Doorways with substantial rectangular lintels and crude capitals and bases to imposts, all tooled. The windows originally had one fixed and leaded casement and one sliding sash. Moulded stone eaves cornice extends along entire length of row. The doorways and windows survive intact with the exception to no. where 2 lights of the workshop windows have been blocked. The un-numbered house differs it that it has 2-light mullioned windows to all floors. The original scheme of fixed casement/sash has been reinstated to all houses except nos 1, 3, 10 and 11 which have conventional casements. Rear: Blocked 4-light workshop windows to 2nd floor. Single-storey rubble outshuts have replaced original rear service wings except a storeyed version to the un-numbered (former manager's) house where it survives intact. Rear wing to no 11 with 2 blocked 2-light windows to ground, and 2 2-light mullioned casements to 1st floors. Later openings to end wall. Slate-roofed rubble pig-sty or privy to rear of no 9 is included in this listing. Interiors. (Nos 1 and 10 only inspected): ground-floor room with chamfered and stopped ceiling beam and is protected from drafts by a tongue-and-groove wide-planked baffle. lst-floor room formerly sub-divided (see ceiling beam with chamfer to one side only). No 10 has a stone corbelled fireplace (corbels renewed). Roof (of no 1): principals with high-set collars, single purlins, all roughly squared. Listing NGR: SK2946656749.'