Arkwright House is in Stoneygate, Preston,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. The house was built in 1728, and was later expanded and restored. It is notable as the place in which

Richard Arkwright Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...

and colleagues worked in 1768 to develop the

water frame The water frame is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel. History Richard Arkwright, who patented the technology in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread, which was first used in 1765. The Arkwright water f ...

, a machine for spinning yarn. The house is an example of

Georgian architecture Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchs of the House of Han ...

, and is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The house was built in 1728. It was the home of Revd Ellis Henry, who was the headmaster of the Free Grammar School in Stoneygate, and in 1768 Richard Arkwright was a lodger in the house. Arkwright was obsessed with the idea of creating a machine to spin yarn mechanically. During the time he was living in the house he worked with

Thomas Highs Thomas Highs (1718–1803), of Leigh, Lancashire, was a reed-maker and manufacturer of cotton carding and spinning engines in the 1780s, during the Industrial Revolution. He is known for claiming patents on a spinning jenny (invented by James ...

and John Kay to develop a machine to do this. Their work was carried out in secrecy, the landlord thinking that they were working on a machine to measure the

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

. However it resulted in a machine known as the water frame, and this was patented in 1769. The historian David Hunt argues that this makes Arkwright House one of the birthplaces of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

. The house was extended in the 19th century. A photograph taken in 1946 shows it with an inscription reading "ARKWRIGHT ARMS HOSTEL". The house was altered and renovated in about 1979, in conjunction with a government back to work initiative, to assist with Unemployment at the time. The Project Manager was Barrie James. The current owners are Age Concern Central Lancashire who support and deliver services to older people in and around Lancashire.

Architecture

Arkwright House is built in brick, and has a partly

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ed façade and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. It is in early Georgian style, and has an L-shaped plan consisting of a front range, a rear wing, and the 19th-century extension to the right. The house is in three storeys with an attic and cellar, and has a symmetrical five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

front, plus a two-bay extension. The doorway has a wooden

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

with a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

and a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

. The extension contains a shop window in the ground floor; the other windows are

sashes A sash is a large and usually colorful ribbon or band of material worn around the human body, either draping from one shoulder to the opposing hip and back up, or else encircling the waist. The sash around the waist may be worn in daily attire, ...

Appraisal

Arkwright House was designated as a Grade II* listed historic building on 12 June 1950. Grade II* is the middle of the three grades of listing and is applied to "particularly important buildings of more than special interest". Hartwell and Pevsner in the ''

Buildings of England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...

'' series comment that the house has been "over-restored".

References

Citations Sources * * {{City of Preston buildings Grade II* listed buildings in Lancashire Houses in Lancashire History of Preston Houses completed in 1728 Georgian architecture in England 1728 establishments in England Buildings and structures in Preston

History

Architecture

Appraisal

See also

References