Arkwright's Cafe

This is the world's first water powered cotton spinning mill developed by Richard Arkwright in 1771. Its an incredible place and has an important place in the history of industrialisation. Very friendly guides and staff. Choice of a guided tour or an audio tour which takes you into the village which was developed for the mill workers, to St Mary's Church and to the canal warehouse. There are several interesting shops, a visitor centre and a cafe. Parking is reasonably priced at £3-50 for up to 4hrs and £5 for up to 8hrs.

1. Pay to park all day, you’ll be there longer than you think! 2. Dogs are welcome everywhere on site. 3. Use the audio guides, absolute mine of information on both the mill, church and the town. We had a cup of tea at 10am, did the audio guide, stopped in the town for lunch before the guide walked us back. More tea, mooch around the craft shops in the mill before finally leaving at 4pm! Highly recommend, give a big donation!

A few shops - the cheese shop is recommended - plus guided tours of the mill buildings. Entry is free, though tours and parking are charged for. There’s construction work going on at the moment to bring water-power back to the mills. Gift shop, cafe plus antique and bric-à-brac. Don’t miss out the Wharf - the cafe there is excellent with outdoor seating next to the canal.

I've wanted to go and explore here for a while and I'm glad I've finally got there. Great work done by the preservation team for the existing building and the plans for the future. Lots of engineering history and fascinating to see the progress through history for this area, how Arkwright changed the way of production and how it affected his industry around the country. Heartily recommend the guided tour and our guide was fantastically knowledgeable about everything we asked her about.

We took the guided tour, which gave a good overview of Arkwright, his inventions and factories, the water mill,how cotton was spun, and the impact of these on the UK and world. There were good visuals - such as a video of an actor playing Arkwright, seeing the real waterwheel photo next to the location as it stands today, and how cotton is made/spun. We did prebook the tour, but not sure that's needed. You can also do the additional audio tour after the guided tour, though we had limited time so skipped this part. On site is also a cafe and some shops, with the town nearby.

Fabulous day spent learning a great deal about the history of the area and town. Our tour guide Martin was very knowledgeable and made the experience even more enjoyable and the audio tour continued the tour around the town taking you to locations that would never have been seen or understood with out it. All in all a very enjoyable day and great value.