History Around Us

History Around Us

The Impact of the Arkwright Family on the Village and People of

Cromford

(GCSE Coursework)

Does Arkwright deserve the title “Father of the Factory System”?

• Who was Richard Arkwright and where did he come from?

• Did he build the very first factory?

Does Richard Arkwright deserve the title of “Father of the Factory System”?

World’s first factory credited to Cotchett & Sorocold who built the Silk Mill in Derby in 1702

•Born 1792, Preston, son of a tailor

•Was apprenticed to a barber & wigmaker

•1768 worked with John Kay on a spinning machine

•1769 Took out patent on new invention

•1771 Built first mill at Cromford


• Why was there more demand for cotton?

• How were textiles produced before Arkwright built his factory?

• What was the factory system?


• Wool & cotton thread traditionally produced by spinning wheel – cottage system – output was slow

• Demand for cotton clothes increased

• Change that Arkwright made was to bring people to the work

• Arkwright put many machines under one roof

• Workers worked 12 hour shifts 6 days a week

• Workers subject to strict rules

• Arkwright provided community for his workers

• Provided work for families


Arkwright’s success can be measured by comparing import and export figures for cotton

Also by the number of factories that he built or was connected with


• Described by Karen Fiske as ‘an inspirational figure’

• Protected his inventions with patents

• Fiske says he ‘can perhaps be regarded as the first industrial tycoon in Britain’

• By 1782 employed over 5,000 workers

• “His factories became the model for factories all over the country and all over the world. This was the way to build a factory. And he himself usually followed the same pattern---stone buildings 30 feet wide, 100 feet long, or longer if there was room, and five, six, or seven floors high.”

(Adam Hart-Davis)

Cromford Mill

Masson Mills

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History Around Us