Piccadilly Mill, also known as Bank Top Mill or Drinkwater's Mill, owned by Peter Drinkwater, was the first

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven b ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, to be directly powered by a steam engine, and the 10th such mill in the world. Construction of the four-storey mill on Auburn Street started in 1789 and its 8 hp

Boulton and Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Eng ...

engine was installed and working by 1 May 1790. Initially the engine drove only the preparatory equipment and spinning was done manually. The mill-wright was

Thomas Lowe Thomas or Tom Lowe may refer to: *Thomas Lowe (tenor) (1719–1783), English opera singer and actor *Thomas Lowe (priest) (1781–1861), Anglican Dean of Exeter *Thomas Lowe (politician) (1812–1875), mayor of Atlanta, 1861 *Thomas Hunter Lowe (19 ...

, who had worked for

William Fairbairn Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick (19 February 1789 – 18 August 1874) was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. In 1854 he succeeded George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson to become the third pre ...

and helped with the planning two of Arkwright's earliest factories. During the early 1790s the mill employed around 500 workers. Robert Owen was employed as the manager in 1792.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Coord, 53.4787, -2.2333, display=title Textile mills in Manchester Cotton mills Cotton industry in England Former textile mills in the United Kingdom 1790 establishments in England