Cressbrook was once a mill village, though a few of the houses in and around the village are lead miners' cottages, testifying to a history predating the mill, and there are a few farms and cottages built for agricultural labourers.
The mill is still the major building in the village, even though it is now almost in ruins. The original mill here was constructed by Sir Richard Arkwright in 1785, and still stands as the part of the mill closest to the river, but the magnificent main building was erected in 1815 by Arkwright's agent, William Newton, a local character whom Anna Seward dubbed 'The Minstrel of the Peak'. The mill brought work and prosperity to the area and the mill owners were responsible for the construction of most of the village, starting with the apprentices' cottages just behind the mill building, which predate the main building by several years. These were built to house orphans brought as child apprentices from London to work in the mill. Next to be built were the tiny cottages in Ravensdale (known locally as 'The Wick'), followed at the end of the 19th century by the model village of pretty cottages at the top of the hill. The Cressbrook mill owners were generally philanthropic and as well as fine housing they provided piped water pumped up the hill from a spring near the river and they funded the village silver band, which still survives.
Up the hill the mill owners built themselves a magnificent house, Cressbrook Hall, which stands on a bluff overlooking the river. The hall is a fanciful piece of Gothic architecture in a superb situation, with magnificent views over Water-cum-Jolly and down river towards Monsal Dale. It is now a holiday centre which offers bed-and-breakfast in the splendid surroundings of the mill owners' house, and many of the outbuildings are holiday flats.
The heyday of the mill was the 19th century and after World War I all the local mills struggled to make a profit. Cotton spinning ceased here in 1965 and the mill finally closed in 1971 and has been allowed to decay (even though it is a grade II listed building), though work is now in hand to convert it into expensive flats.
The demise of the cotton industry has brought great changes to the village. As there is now almost no employment within the village the population has declined, and faster transport links have meant that house prices have risen to the point where local young people cannot afford to buy them, so they have been replaced by an influx of older professional people who work within a wide radius of the village. This has meant that the population has aged - to the extent that the local school is closing this August (1997), due to a chronic lack of pupils. Finally, many of the cottages have become second homes or holiday homes, and both the natives and the incomers bemoan the fact that many of these are empty for much of the year.
Despite this, Cressbrook has a lively social life which centres around the Social Club and the village Band, which has been in operation since 1881. The village has a fete and well dressing each year in early June.
The scenery around is magnificent. Along the River Wye,
just
upstream of Cressbrook Mill, lies Water-cum-Jolly
, a magnificent river gorge with fine limestone cliffs which attract many
rock-climbers,
bird-watchers, walkers and fishermen. North of the mill lies Cressbrook
Dale, or Ravensdale, a fine gorge-like limestone
dale with numerous crags and the remains of several lead mines. Most of
this dale is a National
Nature Reserve renowned for its range of rare flowers.
