Bakewell Book and a motte and bailey castle was constructed in the 12th century. A market was established in 1254, and Bakewell developed as a trading centre. The Grade I listed five-arched bridge over the River Wye was constructed in the 13th century, and is one of the few surviving remnants of this earlier period. A chalybeate spring was discovered, and a bath house built in 1697. This led to an 18th-century bid to develop Bakewell as a spa town, in the manner of Buxton. The construction of the Lumford Mill by Richard Arkwright in 1777 was followed by the rebuilding
Robert Bakewell (agriculturalist) into the men who developed these techniques. Bakewell's pioneering and extremely aggressive use of breeding in-and-in may have contributed to the spread of prionic diseases, such as scrapie, among livestock of the region. Robert Bakewell (agriculturalist) Robert Bakewell (23 May 1725 – 1 October 1795) was a British agriculturalist, now recognized as one of the most important figures in the British Agricultural Revolution. In addition to work in agronomy, Bakewell is particularly notable as the first to implement systematic selective breeding of livestock. His advancements not only led to specific improvements in sheep, cattle and horses, but contributed to general