Cromford is home to a World Heritage Site: Derwent Valley Mills

Building 18 at Cromford MillGrade I listedGreyhound HotelGrade II* listedThe Arkwright HousesGrade II* listedThe Arkwright Houses and Unnumbered House to Left of Number 1Grade II* listed+1See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings.

Of the 83 entries, 31 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 5 entries were listed in 1950, 2 of the 10 Grade I buildings among them. 34 came in 1990, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 10 have been added in the last 15 years.

World Heritage

2 scheduled monuments

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.

1 registered park or garden

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

40% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1945–54, which added 11% of today’s homes.

Valuation Office Agency, council tax stock of properties by build period, 31 March 2025, for the neighbourhoods (LSOAs) that make up the town, split by where their residents live. Homes with no recorded build period (10 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

George Turner

Jack Fryer

Alison Uttley

Charles Brown

1800182518501875190019251950

George Turner1841–1910 · British artist (1841-1910)

AU

Alison Uttley1884–1976 · English writer (1884-1976)

JF

Jack Fryer1877–1933 · British association football player (1877-1933)

CB

Charles Brown1884–1940 · British Labour Party politician, born 1884

Everyone born in Cromford → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

Cromford holds part of a World Heritage Site, Derwent Valley Mills. All told, the list holds 83 listed buildings, 10 of them Grade I. For its size, it has more listed heritage than 93% of UK towns. Its housing is old: 40% of homes date from before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.

Its Grade I buildings cluster together: 10 of them stand within 400 m of Bridge at Cromford Mill. Only 3 of the 1,836 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Cromford Hill alone has 20 listed buildings. Beyond that, it also has 2 scheduled monuments.