Haarlem Mill, Wirksworth
in Wirksworth, Derbyshire
The site was leased by Richard Arkwright in 1777, and he had built his spinning mill by 1780. A steam engine was installed, said to have been made locally by Joseph Thompson. This is likely to have been used to raise water to power a waterwheel, and was probably there from the outset,as the mill's chimney is part of the original design. This may well be the earliest application of steam power to textile mill machinery. The mill was sold in 1792 and the Thompson engine was replaced in 1814. Converted for tape weaving in 1815, probably by Maddley, Hackett and Riley of Derby, who gave the mill its present name. The mill was owned by the Wheatcroft family from 1858, and in 1906 they installed a gas engine by Crossley Brothers.[1]