Cressbrook

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Cressbrook is a village in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire. Prior to the Enclosure Acts of 1762 Cressbrook did not exist but later grew up around a textile mill complex built here on the River Wye, first by Richard Arkwright and then later by his son Richard, JL Philips and Brother Cotton Spinners and McConnel and Company.

Prior to the McConnel's period of ownership the village did not really exist at all beyond a collection of buildings in the immediate vicinity of the mill. When McConnel's professional workforce objected to the quality of the housing available he took it upon himself to build the model village that has now become Cressbrook. Building commenced in the late 1830's and was later extended by Henry McConnel's daughter, Mary Worthington in 1902 but the village has changed little since this time. Cressbrook Mill went bust in 1965, after which time it changed from being a private mill estate to the public village that it now is.

[edit] Publications

The history of Cressbrook was recently captured in the publication Behind The View — Life and times in Cressbrook, a Derbyshire Mill village. The book was written by and published by the Cressbrook Community association with the help of a grant from the Local Heritage Initiative, a Countryside Agency project.