Peter Drinkwater

Peter Drinkwater (1750 – 15 November 1801) was an English cotton manufacturer and merchant.

Born in Whalley, Lancashire, he had a successful career as a fustian manufacturer using the domestic putting-out system, and as a merchant based in Bolton and Manchester, before he turned to large-scale factory production in the 1780s.[1]

In 1782 he opened his first cotton mill on the River Weaver in Northwich, Cheshire and in 1789 he started construction of the Piccadilly Mill in Manchester.[2][1] This was the first mill in Manchester to be directly driven by a steam engine.[3]

References

1. Kidd 2013.
2. Oxford Archaeology North (2005). "PICCADILLY MILL, PICCADILLY, MANCHESTER Post-Excavation Assessment" (PDF).
3. Nevell 2007, p. 198.

Bibliography

• Kidd, Alan J. (2013), "Drinkwater, Peter (1750–1801), cotton manufacturer", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, retrieved 23 December 2013
• Nevell, Michael (2007), "The Social Archaeology of Industrialisation: the example of Manchester during the 17th and 18th centuries", in Casella, Eleanor Conlin; Symonds, James (eds.), Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions, Springer, pp. 177–204, ISBN 978-0-387-22831-0, retrieved 23 December 2013