North Street’s three floor weavers’ cottages were homes and places of work!
So called because dad would be weaving on the top floor whilst the women and children went to work for Arkwright in his mill over the way. The family would live on the bottom two floors and the top floor with its large windows gave a space for dad to work.
The family were heavily reliant on Arkwright but dad wasn’t working for him, dad bought cotton from Arkwright and paid rent for his house and workshop to Arkwright! Does that sound fair? Those fortunate enough to live in these cottages certainly felt pretty lucky as Arkwright was the first industrialist to build homes for his workers and whilst we might be surprised at some of the ways he treated them he was actually pretty good for the time!
Can you see the girl in the cart with flowers on it? Moving here to be part of the new community meant lots of opportunities to celebrate together such as the procession showed here.