Bell Inn, Cromford

A three storey brick built pub of c.1800 at the end of the terrace of houses built 1776-7 by Richard Arkwright to accommodate textile workers. These were the first of the workers' houses erected by Arkwright and mark an important stage in the development of the textile industry and workers' housing in that they provided both accommodation on the ground and first floors for the workers at his new Cromford Mill and workshop space on the second floor which ran from one end of the street to the other. The Bell retains three rooms and is little altered in 50 years. The tiny snug accessed from Cromford Hill has a quarry tiled floor, old fixed seating with a more modern backing and is served from a hatch. Up to 2009 there was also an off sales hatch in this area. The public bar retains old fitted benches still with the makers labels ‘T. Greaves & Co., House Furnishers & Upholsterers, Alfreton’ but the bar counter is modern. On the left with its own entrance from North Street is the lounge, which was created out of a private sitting room in the late 1950s. It still retains a distinct 1950s bar counter front and Formica top, fixed seating from the 1950s, an old stone fireplace and piano, but the bar back-fitting is modern.