Richard Arkwright's Shudehill Mill: The Archaeology of Manchester's First Steampowered Cotton Mill

Abstract

This article describes the archaeological recording of Richard Arkwright's mill on Shudehill in Manchester. This complex marked an important moment in the development of the mechanisation of the cotton industry in Britain. After initial but ultimately unsuccessful experimentation with a direct-acting atmospheric (Newcomen-type) engine, it is known from documentary sources that Arkwright's Shudehill Mill went into production in 1783 using a steam-powered pumping engine in conjunction with a waterwheel. Arkwright chose a site that was remote from a river, reflecting his intention to power the machinery in the mill by steam. This technical shift signalled the birth of the steam-powered textile mill, and the beginning of the rise of Manchester as a factory metropolis. The current article summarises the excavations in 2005 and in 2014 to 2015 to combine the important power system discoveries from the archaeological work with a thorough review from an engineering perspective of pertinent documents in the Boulton & Watt Archive to give a detailed account of the development of Manchester's first steam-powered cotton mill.