Cromford Mill

Earlier this month, I spent a few days in the picturesque village of Winster in the Derbyshire Peak District, having rented handsome Winster Hall with a group of friends. The weather was bleak and grey and exceedingly wet. We were lucky to be staying up high in our cosy house, only needing to trip out when the skies brightened and we were well togged up.  Not so fortunate were the people in Matlock and surrounds who suffered torrential rains with flooded streets and properties and water-logged farms and fields. They will still be clearing up now and will need to cope with the damage all this winter. We chose the worst of our rainy days to visit Cromford Mill and if anything, the grim weather made the experience even more chilling. Thanks to the marvellous restoration work over the past 40 years, you really do see and feel what it must have been like to work there in the 18th century. The entrepreneurial imagination and engineering skills that conceived of and built the mills, their water wheels and spinning machinery, are totally breath taking. What wasn’t so convincing was our tour guide’s explanation of the ‘generosity’ of Sir Richard Arkwright regarding his workers. By the 1790s, there were 800 ‘operatives’ working at Cromford Mill, mostly women and children. Shifts worked around the clock and accidents were frequent in the dusty, dirty, noisy and freezing cold, or boiling hot, mill buildings. From 1802, legislation introduced by Sir Robert Peel restricted working hours, raised the age of working children (to 10 years!) and generally improved welfare and education. Sir Richard did build barracks and mill houses where his operatives and their families could live, and work, nearby. We were assured that those lucky enough to work at Cromford Mill were healthier, better paid and better educated that other poor workers toiling down the mines or out in the fields. On that bitter cold and wet day, we didn’t feel there was anything more favourable about it.