Piccadilly Mill, also known as Bank Top Mill^[1] or Drinkwater's Mill, owned by Peter Drinkwater, was the first cotton mill in Manchester, England,^[2] to be directly powered by a steam engine,^[3] and the 10th such mill in the world.^[1] Construction of the four-storey mill on Auburn Street started in 1789^[3] and its 8 hp Boulton and Watt engine was installed and working by 1 May 1790.^[4] Initially the engine drove only the preparatory equipment and spinning was done manually.^[5] The mill-wright was Thomas Lowe, who had worked for William Fairbairn and helped with the planning two of Arkwright's earliest factories.^[6]

During the early 1790s the mill employed around 500 workers.^[4] Robert Owen was employed as the manager in 1792.^[5]

References

Bibliography

• Kidd, Alan J. (2013), "Drinkwater, Peter (1750–1801), cotton manufacturer", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, retrieved 23 December 2013
• Miller, Ian; Wild, Chris (2007), A & G Murray and the Cotton Mills of Ancoats, Lancaster Imprints, ISBN 978-0-904220-46-9
• Nevell, Michael (2007), "The Social Archaeology of Industrialisation: the example of Manchester during the 17th and 18th centuries", in Casella, Eleanor Conlin; Symonds, James (eds.), Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions, Springer, pp. 177–204, ISBN 978-0-387-22831-0, retrieved 23 December 2013

53°28′43″N 2°14′00″W / 53.4787°N 2.2333°W / 53.4787; -2.2333