A steam-driven mill, its engines were constructed by the Birmingham firm of Boulton and Watt.

Derelict by the mid-20th century, the building was redeveloped in 2001 and now houses a range of creative industries, including the Hope Mill Theatre.

[2] The Prussian court architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, visiting in 1824, wrote, "since the war 400 large new factories for cotton spinning have been built, several of them the size of the Royal Palace in Berlin".

[1] Hope Mill was built in 1824 for Joseph Clarke & Sons, textile spinners and fustian weavers.

In 2001, it was bought and refurbished by a private partnership and now houses a range of creative industries,[5] including the Hope Mill Theatre.