
Marvel's Mill (or Marvell's Mill) on the
River Nene
The River Nene ( or ) flows through the counties of Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk in Eastern England from its sources in Arbury Hill in Northamptonshire. Flowing Northeast through East England to its mouth at Lutt ...
in
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, was the world's second
factory for spinning cotton, the first to be operated as a
water mill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...
, and the first to be driven by an inanimate power-source. Opened by
Edward Cave
Edward Cave (27 February 1691 – 10 January 1754) was an English printer, editor and publisher. He coined the term "magazine" for a periodical, founding ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' in 1731, and was the first publisher to successfully fashi ...
in 1742, it was one of the
Paul-Wyatt cotton mills that used the
roller spinning
Cotton-spinning machinery is machines which process (or spin) prepared cotton roving into workable yarn or thread. Such machinery can be dated back centuries. During the 18th and 19th centuries, as part of the Industrial Revolution cotton-spinni ...
machinery invented by
Lewis Paul
Lewis Paul (died 1759) was the original inventor of roller spinning, the basis of the water frame for spinning cotton in a cotton mill.
Life and work
Lewis Paul was of Huguenot descent. His father was physician to Lord Shaftesbury. He may have ...
and
John Wyatt, which had first been used in their
Upper Priory Cotton Mill
The Upper Priory Cotton Mill, opened in Birmingham, England in the summer of 1741, was the world's first mechanised cotton-spinning factory or cotton mill. Established by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt in a former warehouse in the Upper Priory, near ...
in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
in the summer of 1741.
History
Marvel's Mill had a long history as a water-powered
gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...
, being identified as Merewyns mill as early as 1253. Originally owned by Northampton's
Priory of St Andrew, its ownership was taken up by the town of Northampton after the
dissolution of the monasteries, and it was leased to a succession of tenants.
In 1742 the mill was acquired by
Edward Cave
Edward Cave (27 February 1691 – 10 January 1754) was an English printer, editor and publisher. He coined the term "magazine" for a periodical, founding ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' in 1731, and was the first publisher to successfully fashi ...
, the publisher of ''
The Gentleman's Magazine
''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1907, ceasing publication altogether in 1922. It was the first to use the term ''m ...
'', who had become involved in the development of
Lewis Paul
Lewis Paul (died 1759) was the original inventor of roller spinning, the basis of the water frame for spinning cotton in a cotton mill.
Life and work
Lewis Paul was of Huguenot descent. His father was physician to Lord Shaftesbury. He may have ...
and
John Wyatt's newly invented roller-spinning machinery through the mutual acquaintance of the writer
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
, and who had acquired a licence to operate five of Paul's machines with a total of 250 spindles at £3 per spindle. Cave purchased Marvell's Mill after being offered other mills in
Romsey
Romsey ( ) is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is situated northwest of Southampton, southwest of Winchester and southeast of Salisbury. It sits on the outskirts of the New Forest, just over northeast of ...
and
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...
. After demolishing the existing corn mill, he erected a new building to house the spinning machinery, with outbuildings for boiling
lye
Lye is the common name of various alkaline solutions, including soda lye (a solution of sodium hydroxide) and potash lye (a solution of potassium hydroxide). Lyes are used as cleaning products, as ingredients in soapmaking, and in various other c ...
for bleaching, and a smith's workshop for maintaining the spindles.
Little is known of the operation of the mill, though surviving records indicate the appointment of a millwright
Thomas Yeoman
Thomas Yeoman (1709 or 1710 – 23 January 1781) was a millwright, surveyor and civil engineer who played a significant part in the early industrial revolution and became the first president of the first engineering society in the world, the So ...
as the factory's "operator", in overall charge of the operation, as well as a manager Mr Harrison in charge of its day-to-day functioning, and a foreman Mr Newton, who had been involved in the earlier Birmingham mill. The operation was far from smooth however: records from April 1743 indicate projected annual profits of up to £599 with plans for twelve machines; by October of the same year only 50 of the planned 100 hands were working and the projected annual profit had declined to £113. Wyatt commented at the time that "The Cards and Carding, extremely ill maniged", "The Dirt and Cotton spread ab' the Rooms and the Pathways near the Mill is surprising" and "The Superintendant seems a very indifferent Maniger".
Despite these shortcomings the business survived and an engraving of 1746 shows it functioning and employing a full complement of 100 staff. On the death of Cave in 1754 the mill passed to his brother and nephew, and at this stage had the involvement of
Samuel Touchet
Samuel Touchet (ca. 1705 – 28 May 1773) was an English cotton merchant, manufacturer and politician.
Born in Manchester, he was himself the son of a cotton trader and manufacturer and he started his career representing his father's business in ...
, one of the major merchants of the pre-industrial
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
cotton industry, who had also held licences to operate Paul's machinery since 1742 and had set up a second Birmingham mill, possibly in Fazeley Street, in 1744. Touchet made no profit, however, and in 1756 the mill and its machinery was advertised for sale. Eventually re-let to Lewis Paul, who resumed direct control, it was seized by the Caves for non-payment of rent in 1761 after Paul's death in 1759, and there is no evidence of cotton-spinning on the site beyond this date. By 1768 the mill was in the possession of "William Faulkner and Thomas Harris, millers" and by 1774 the yard was occupied by a shoemaker. The fate of the mill's spinning machinery is not known, but there are indications that it was acquired or at least seen by
Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...
, whose 1769 patent was based on very similar principles.
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References
Bibliography
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{{coord, 52.234, -0.903, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Cotton mills in England
Watermills in England
Buildings and structures in Northampton
Former textile mills in the United Kingdom
History of Northampton
Industrial Revolution in England
Spinning
Textile mills completed in the 18th century