necessary knowledge and a group of Italians. He designed the mill, and with his half-brother Thomas Lombe (born 1685) instructed George Sorocold to build it and fit it with the new machines. Between 1717 and 1721 George built the mill, beside the River Derwent to the south of Cotchett's Mill to house machines for "doubling" or twisting silk into thread.

John Lombe's idea of mill