<P> Arkwright encouraged weavers with large families to move to Cromford . Whole families were employed, with large numbers of children from the age of seven, although this was increased to ten by the time Richard handed the business over to his son; However, towards the end of his tenure, nearly two - thirds of Arkwright's 1,150 employees were children . He allowed employees a week's holiday a year, but on condition that they could not leave the village . </P> <P> He returned to his home county and took up the lease of the Birkacre mill at Chorley, a catalyst for the town's growth into one of the most important industrialised towns of the Industrial Revolution . </P> <P> In 1777 he leased the Haarlem Mill in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, where he installed the first steam engine to be used in a cotton mill, though this was used to replenish the millpond that drove the mill's waterwheel rather than to drive the machinery directly . </P> <P> Arkwright also created another factory, Masson Mill . It was made from red brick, which was expensive at the time . In the mid-1780s, Arkwright lost many of his patents when courts ruled them to be essentially copies of earlier work . Despite this, he was knighted in 1786 and was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1787 . </P>

Who used materials of the industrial age after having built green houses earlier in his career