Slinter Cottage details

Open all year round Slinter Cottage offers a retreat from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Set in the heart of Derbyshire's picturesque countryside, it is the perfect base from which to discover some of the county's wonderful walks and heritage.

Located just on the edge of the historic village of Cromford, the Arkwright Society has created a comfortable and well appointed cottage from a former water mill. The mill retains its wheel which has been restored to working condition.

The cottage offers a two bedroom, two bathroom luxury self catering apartment on the first floor for four to six people. A modern extension to the building provides a delightful sun room giving stunning views across the adjacent SSSI woodlands and Dunsley Meadows – the Local Nature Reserve.

Below, the undercroft houses an exhibition which tells the story of the local dams, ponds and waterways and their significance to the industrial history of the area including their links to the Arkwrights and the Cromford cotton mills.

The Society's own guide team can provide guests with a range of talks and tours of the area, which include both Derbyshire's historic and natural landscapes.

If you would like to get away from it all and discover the stunning walks and heritage that Derbyshire has to offer – this is for you: click here for further details, including fees.

History of Slinter Mill

The mill was built in the early years of the nineteenth century. It is thought to have been built by George Evans who developed several water powered sites on the Bonsall Brook.

Its earliest known industrial use was lead slag smelting, the “unwholesome business” of recovering more lead from the waste product produced by the lead smelting cupola located where the Via Gellia Mill stands today. The water power was used to drive the bellows to provide draught for the smelting hearth. The surviving evidence of this use is the industrial chimney and the quantity of lead slag waste which lies under the garden.

Later in the century it became part of the Arkwright estate and by the 1840s was in use as a wood turning shop run by William Crossley. He is believed to have used timber from Slinter Wood to make bobbins.

In its last industrial phase it was a saw mill but as late as 1920 when the building was derelict it was still known locally as the Bobbin Mill. Richard Alleyne Arkwright sold the mill and the woodland for £365 in 1928.

In 1940 Sybil Young (1901-1992) converted the upper floor for domestic use. Thanks to her the waterwheel and many early features have survived.

The Arkwright Society have since spent £250,000 converting and restoring the mill building, ensuring the working order of the waterwheel and that the pond and watercourses are again in water.