Cressbrook is a village in the
Peak District National Park in
Derbyshire, England. It lies in Water-cum-Jolly Dale at the foot of
Cressbrook Dale. Population details at the 2011 Census are included in the civil parish of
Litton. Before the
Litton Inclosure Act 1763
(
3 Geo. 3. c. ''31'' ) Cressbrook did not exist. It later grew up around a
textile mill complex built alongside the
River Wye
The River Wye (; ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn Estuary. The lower reaches of the river forms part of Wales-England bor ...
, first by
Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...
and then later by his son Richard, JL Philips and Brother Cotton Spinners and McConnel and Company.
Until McConnel's period of ownership the village did not exist beyond a collection of buildings in the immediate vicinity of the mill. When McConnel's workforce objected to the quality of the housing available he took it upon himself to build the
model village that became Cressbrook. Building started in the late 1830s and was later extended by Henry McConnel's daughter, Mary Worthington, in 1902 to include a village club, modelled on a
working men's club. Cressbrook Mill went bankrupt in 1965, after which time it changed from being a private mill estate to the public village that it now is.
The
Monsal Trail passes Cressbrook Mill. This walk and cycleway mostly follows the old trackbed of the
Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway where, from 1866 to 1959, the village of Cressbrook was served by
Monsal Dale railway station. Until May 2011 the
Cressbrook Tunnel (and others) were closed to walkers and cyclists
for safety reasons and the trail diverted across the
River Wye
The River Wye (; ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn Estuary. The lower reaches of the river forms part of Wales-England bor ...
next to the mill.
emigrated to
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, Australia in 1840. In 1841, he established the
Cressbrook Homestead named after their home town. The homestead in turn gives its name to the modern-day
localities of
Cressbrook, Queensland and
Lower Cressbrook, Queensland.
Publications
The history of Cressbrook was recently captured in the book ''Behind The View — Life and times in Cressbrook, a Derbyshire Mill village''. This was written by and published by the Cressbrook Community association with the help of a grant from the Local Heritage Initiative, a
Countryside Agency
The Countryside Agency was a statutory body set up in England in 1999 with the task of improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those living in it. The agency was dissolved in 2006 and its functions dispersed among other bo ...
project.
Bill Bryson writes warmly about Cressbrook Mill in his 2015 travel memoir ''
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island''.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Litton, Derbyshire
References
External links
Cressbrook Mill, Peak District Information
Towns and villages of the Peak District
Villages in Derbyshire
Derbyshire Dales
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