Cromford owes its birth to Richard Arkwright, founder of the water-driven cotton spinning frame, one of the leading inventions of the Industrial Revolution.  Harassed by home-based cotton spinners and weavers in his native Lancashire, in 1771 he opened his first mill, using the convenient power of the nearby River Derwent, close to the Crom Ford, a name that was taken by the factory village he built to accommodate his operatives. Later on he was awarded a knighthood and died an extremely wealthy man – a man who once offered to pay-off Britain’s national debt from what he claimed was ’petty cash’. Developed as aself-contained village, Cromford provided all the amenities necessary for life in what was then a remote corner of Derbyshire. It had every available kind of shop, ranging from the proverbial butcher and baker, to haberdashery and even traditional blacksmiths and leather workers to cater for the day to day needs of the village and surrounding farms.  Health problems were also catered for by an early version of the chemist’s dispensary.   In order to protect it from unwelcome disturbance, the mill became more like a fortress when viewed from outside; guarded by narrow windows rather like gun-slits, and certainly no windows or unlocked doors were accessible from street level. A reasonably benevolent employer, at least by the standards of the time, Sir Richard as he became, and his later sons, gave Cromford its church and founded a school teaching the basic three r’s.  North Street, part way up the hill towards Wirksworth was built to both accommodate textile workers, but also provide space for traditional stocking-frame knitters of the fashionably Derby-ribbed stockings.  Stocking frame knitters traditionally required the best possible light for their work.  To suit all needs, the knitters worked in specially adapted upper rooms, each...