page_title: Richard Arkwright
section_title: Memorials
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Arkwright / Memorials
caption_attribution_description: English: Blue plaque marking the occupancy by Arkwright in Adam Street, London
context_page_description: Sir Richard Arkwright 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 the water frame after it was adapted to use water power; and he patented a rotary carding engine to convert raw cotton to "cotton lap" prior to spinning. He was the first to develop factories housing both mechanised carding and spinning operations.
  Arkwright's achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. His organizational skills earned him the accolade "father of the modern industrial factory system," notably through the methods developed in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire.
context_section_description: Richard Arkwright's barber shop in Churchgate, Bolton was demolished early in the 20th century. There is a small plaque above the door of the building that replaced it, recording Arkwright's occupancy.
  A Greater London Council blue plaque unveiled in 1984 commemorates Arkwright at 8 Adam Street in Charing Cross, London.
  Arkwright lived at Rock House in Cromford, opposite his original mill. In 1788 he purchased an estate from Florence Nightingale's father, William, for £20,000 and set about building Willersley Castle for himself and his family. However just as the building was completed it was destroyed by fire, and Arkwright was forced to wait a further two years whilst it was rebuilt. He died aged 59 in 1792, never having lived in the castle, which was completed only after his death. Willersley Castle is now a hotel owned by the Christian Guild company.
  The Arkwright Society, set up after the bicentenary of Cromford Mill, now owns the site and works to preserve the industrial heritage of the area.
  The Arkwright Scholarships Trust was set up in the UK in 1991 in Arkwright's memory to give scholarships to aspiring future leaders in engineering and technical design. By 2014, the Trust was awarding approximately 400 scholarships annually to support students through their 'A' levels and Scottish Highers, and to assist young people undertaking higher-level apprenticeships and university engineering studies.
caption: Blue plaque marking the occupancy by Arkwright in Adam Street, London
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:05 20:58:57", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9707", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "483", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "500"}