The Wigmaker, “Cottonpolis” and the first factory

Richard Arkwright started his young working life as a barber and wig-maker, opening his first shop in Bolton, Lancashire in the early 1750s. He was the youngest of thirteen children, and despite being poor his parents ensured he was able to read and write.

Arkwright obviously had a flair for learning and invention, as it was while he was working as a barber he invented a waterproof dye for use on the fashionable ‘periwigs’ (wigs) of the time, the income from which later facilitated the financing of prototype cotton machinery.

Wigs in the 17th century

Cotton had been spun, woven and dyed since prehistoric times. It had clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt and China before its use spread to the Mediterranean traders by the Arabs in the first century AD. The Moors introduced the cultivation of cotton into Spain in the 9th century, before it spread into Europe; little cotton was imported to England before the 15th century, when it was known as an imported fibre.

The indigenous species of cotton from Mexico, which has been cultivated for at least 8,000 years, now accounts for about 90% of the cotton production worldwide.

Marie Antoinette, in 1783, in her famous "muslin" portrait. (Muslin in England is a name given to sheer cotton fabrics, while in the States muslin is a firmer fabric, we know as calico).

Arkwright (1733 – 1792) is credited as the creator of the modern factory system. Arkwright’s achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and a “new” raw material (cotton) to create, more than a century before Henry Ford, mass production. His mechanical abilities, his genius for organisation made him the person who pieced together the origin of the modern factory system.

Arkwright, together with his partner, a clockmaker, moved south to the textile heartland of 18th century England – Nottingham and Derby. His cotton mill at Cromford, Derbyshire was built specifically to house machinery rather than just bringing workers together and was one of the first instances of the working day being determined by the clock instead of daylight hours, and of people being employed rather than just contracted.

Gateway to Arkwright’s Mill

As well as being the ‘father of the factory system’ he is considered an innovator as he combined water power, the water frame and continuous production with modern employment practices. Entrepreneurs in the 18th and 19th centuries abounded with many inventions being borrowed, stolen, amended, melded out of other practical ideas; they struggled for money, for recognition of their achievements – if you were unable to raise sufficient funds to cover obtaining your patent, the likelihood was another entrepreneur would copy the process or specification.

Arkwright tried to obtain a grand patent covering many processes that he hoped would give him monopoly power over the fast-growing industry – but this was not to be: there was hostility to the granting of exclusive patents. Aggressive and self-sufficient, Arkwright proved a difficult man to work with, so he was able to buy out his partners and built more factories across England and Scotland.

Arkwright in 1790

Cromford Mill was the first water-powered cotton spinning mill in Derbyshire, which laid the foundation for Arkwright’s fortune and was quickly copied by other mills in Britain, Germany and the United States. Cromford was built in 1771 as a five storey mill and from 1772 it was run day and night with two 12 hours shifts. He started with 200 workers, but within two years employed 600 people; he built housing for them nearby, one of the first manufacturers to do so, as the locality could not supply sufficient workers.

He chose the site at Cromford, on a subsidiary of the River Derwent, because it had a year-round supply of warm water being drained from the local lead mine – ensuring that the water wheel had a constant supply of water at times of drought, and that would not freeze in winter, and lastly that would not be damaged through river flooding. The river water flowing through the Peak uplands was soft, which softened the cotton during the washing process.

Cromford Mill developed by Arkwright in 1771, now the centre piece of the Derwent Valley Mills, a World Heritage Site.

Future developments arising from the Industrial Revolution, notably the introduction of canals into Britain in 1757, and then the invention of the steam railway in 1794 completely revolutionised freight transport, particularly the transportation of cotton to the various textile centres, ensuring the England became criss-crossed by numerous interlinking transport exchanges. This was when the “cottonpolis” developed – the large mills powered by water turning machinery sprang up in and around Manchester, backed up the Industrial Revolution of reliable transport and the large port of Liverpool.

Arkwright will be remembered by most for his reformation of the way that people work. No one has had greater influence and indeed revolutionised industry than Sir Richard Arkwright. At 60 years of age, Arkwright died one of the richest men in England. It is estimated that his fortune amounted to something in the region of £500,000.

The fourth mill to be built in 1784 near to Cromford lives on over 200 years later, being run by the same family, the Smedley family, after Arkwright moved north to take advantage of 'cottonpolis’. The factory has been renovated and still operates as it did all those years ago, while having continued to invest in the latest technology for the new factory block, which now manufactures seamless long johns.

A wig-making entrepreneur brought the component parts of a factory under one roof for the first time – a long john cotton manufacturer continues a similar factory and its concept today – with (just) the Industrial Revolution in between!

Dear Mr Postman – arctic winds arrive again, and the possibility of snow, which should it arrive I may need my long johns! though if we’re lucky not down here; but it is noticeably lighter in the evenings. My mother finally seems to be improving and was awake for a little today, so that is good news.

Hilary Melton-Butcher
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