‘Cottoning On’ to workers’ housing: A historical archaeology of industrial accommodation in the Derwent Valley

This PhD investigates cotton workers’ housing at four industrial settlements within the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire. These sites at Cromford, Belper, Milford and Darley Abbey are recognised as key communities within the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Derwent Valley Mills. Whilst large amounts of scholarly effort has been dedicated to the study of these sites the primary focus has been on the mill complexes and their industrialist owners, Arkwright, Strutt and the Evans. This study uses a buildings-led approach to examine three major themes. Firstly, the design and construction of workers housing, particularly in light of the interaction between occupant and patron agendas. Secondly, the study offers a revaluation of the typological approach taken to workers’ housing, linking exterior elevation with interior plan form. Thirdly, this thesis considers the living standards of occupants, particularly how the experience of domestic space changed in the later decades of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Overall this approach has allowed a reconsideration of workers’ housing in this unique and highly diverse industrial landscape.