Listed Building record MDR3543 - Old House Museum, Cunningham Lane, Bakewell

On the west side of Church Lane is a parsonage house of 1543. It was extended c.1620 and converted into tenements by Sir Richard Arkwright circa 1790. Inside it has a full-height wattle and daub screen, a garderobe, open fireplace etc. The house was restored in 1959 by the Bakewell Historical Society and is now their Old House Museum. (1) Old House Museum is a Grade II* listed building (the listing includes the mounting block outside), extended and altered to form various dwellings, and now in use as a local history museum. It is 16th and 17th in date, possibly of earlier origin and with later additions and alterations. It is constructed of rubble limestone with sandstone dressings, and has a stone slate roof. It is a complex house, thought to have evolved from a medieval hall and cross wing, the latter possibly underbuilt c.1535 to provide a "competant dwelling house" as detailed in a 1534 lease from The Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral to Ralf Gell of Hopton. The lease refers to 'houses, cottages and barns thereon set and builded, viz the wool house and a barn standing nigh the same'. In 1777 Sir Richard Arkwright leased the house from Philip Gell and converted it into six dwellings for mill employees; one of the cottages was demolished in the mid 20th century, the remnants are attached to the left cross wing. (4, 5)