Marvel's Mill

[5] In 1742 the mill was acquired by Edward Cave, the publisher of The Gentleman's Magazine, who had become involved in the development of Lewis Paul and John Wyatt's newly invented roller-spinning machinery through the mutual acquaintance of the writer Samuel Johnson, and who had acquired a licence to operate five of Paul's machines with a total of 250 spindles at £3 per spindle.

After demolishing the existing corn mill, he erected a new building to house the spinning machinery, with outbuildings for boiling lye for bleaching, and a smith's workshop for maintaining the spindles.

[11] 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, one of the major merchants of the pre-industrial Lancashire 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.

[14] 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.

[15] 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, whose 1769 patent was based on very similar principles.