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CROMFORD, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]
"CROMFORD, a chapelry and market town in the parish of Wirksworth, in the county of Derby, 2 miles N. of Wirksworth. It is situated on the canal and the river Derwent, and is a station on the Buxton branch of the Midland railway. It was a crown manor at the time of the Conquest, and is called Crunford in Domesday Survey. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in the cotton-mills, which are worked by a sough nearly 2 miles long, and in the lead-mines and colour works.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, value £180, in the patronage of P. Arkwright, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a small neat structure, erected and endowed by the late Sir Richard Arkwright. The schools, erected for the instruction of the children employed in the cotton factories, are mainly supported by Peter Arkwright, Esq. In 1654 Mrs. Mary Talbot founded almshouses for six poor widows. In the vicinity is Rock House, the seat of the Arkwrights, containing a portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright, who erected the first cotton-mill here in 1775.

Roman coins of the Lower Empire have been found at Scarthinnick, and a valuable muriate of lead is deposited in the sough or adit leading from the zinc and lead mines. The Cromford canal crosses the rivers Derwent and Amber by two aqueducts each 200 yards long, and passes under the High Peak railway, at Butterley, by a tunnel of 2,100 yards. The High Peak railway, with stationary engines for the conveyance of minerals, was constructed in 1830 at the cost of £200,000. The market is held on Saturday."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin HINSON ©2003]