Stone Fruit

It is a stone fruit. Each one yields me a thought. I come nearer to the maker of it than if I found his bones.
The metaphor was Thoreau's, writing in his journal about the Indian arrowheads he would find in the freshly cultivated fields around Concord, Massachusetts. However, he was making a broader point about the importance of being aware of the historical evidence that surrounds us.

It is too easy to overlook Cromford in Derbyshire as you speed along the busy A6 towards the more obvious charms of Matlock and Matlock Bath. This busy arterial road, once one of the nation's most important highways, bisects the community, leaving the village on one side of the road and the remnants of its industry on the other. Both are largely hidden by the rocky and wooded landscape on either side of the road.

While the village is well worth exploring, it is the Mill buildings that mark a key stage in the early development of the factory system of production.

The first mill on this site was built in 1771 by Richard Arkwright to mass-produce cotton yarns for weaving. The mill was powered by water from a lead mine drain and a warm thermal spring, giving a reliable year-round source of power. Arkwright's spinning machines were known as 'water frames', after their source of power. The weaving industry for which these yarns were produced was still a cottage industry and the surplus of yarns that Arkwright was able to produce provided a spur for innovations in weaving and the supply of constant and reliable power by water and steam.

The Mill is maintained by the Arkwright Society. It's a great place to visit and spend half a day at least. A nice tearoom, bookshops, walking or just chill out by the banks of the old canal. I've posted pics of it on my Flickr stream (it was an unseasonably gloomy day in June).